Data Analytics Skills Every Marketer Should Master

No, you’re not imagining things. Everyone is talking about data. Data analytics skills are indispensable in pretty much every role these days.

According to Forbes, 95% of businesses face some kind of need to manage their unstructured data and according to LinkedIn, analytical reasoning is the third most in-demand hard skill in the world.

Data analytics skills aren’t exclusive to tech jobs either. Up to 2.72 million jobs in fields as diverse as marketing, HR and logistics required data skills in 2020. 

But from all the jobs out there, marketing has probably changed the most due to the widespread adoption of data tools and data-driven marketing. That’s because of the many benefits and opportunities for marketers provided by data.

What are the benefits of learning data analytics skills for marketers?

Improve decision making

Historically marketers used their experience and hunches to decide what product to launch. Things changed when data-driven marketing arrived on the scene. Now, marketers can (and should) leverage data insights to improve their decision making and increase their confidence. It’s no longer enough to say “I feel this will work”, you need to back it up with data.

Save time

There are two ways marketers can save time with data analytics skills. Firstly, the ability to work with data helps marketers to make better decisions quicker. It also makes them more independent from data teams. Many marketers don’t need to know Python or SQL, but knowing statistics and mastering Excel can cut decision making time in half.

Communicate with technical teams and break down silos 

In the majority of industries, marketers have to work closely with product and tech teams, who usually speak the language of data. Being able to communicate with tech departments using data enables marketers to build better relationships and improve understanding. A good understanding of data analytics also gives marketers the tools they need to understand decisions made by product teams, such as the features they choose to prioritise.

Which data analytics skills do I need to learn?

Here at Growth Tribe, we’ve taught thousands of students how to use data analytics skills to get better at their jobs. One of the most common questions that we get is: which data analytics skills do I need to learn? Here are the top seven skills that will be crucial for marketers in the coming years. 

Microsoft Excel

Most people know how to do basic calculations in Excel, but it is much more powerful than many think. From organising data in easy-to-navigate ways to turning vast amounts of data into projections and graphs, Excel is one of the most powerful data analytics tools for marketers.

SQL

Five years ago marketers didn’t need to know how to code, now, things have changed. SQL is becoming a must-have language for marketers in big companies, like Amazon and Google. SQL is a language for working with databases and it is much easier to learn than you might think. Learning SQL can make you truly independent from analytics and tech teams as you can easily pull and analyse the data yourself directly from the database.

Critical Thinking

If you want to structure your thoughts better and communicate your ideas to your colleagues, critical thinking is a data analytics skill you need to master. Unlike SQL or Microsoft Excel, critical thinking can’t be learnt with a course. It requires practising active listening and always asking questions before making decisions. 

Data Visualisation

This is one of the skills that people often miss, but it’s crucial to learn. Once you start working with large amounts of data you need to have a clear idea of what the information means. Data visualisation enables you to turn data into easily understood graphs to help you tell a more powerful story.  This also helps you to see patterns better and create projections.

Presentation Skills

We’ve all had to sit through boring presentations where we could understand only half of it. Presentation skills are not exclusive to working with data, but they're super important for marketers. Getting the right data is only part of the job. Being able to communicate it to your team and the rest of the company is just as important. 

Statistics

Without statistics, there would be no data analytics. Statistics is how we, marketers, make data-driven decisions. It is one of the most fundamental skills that you need to learn as a marketer. For example, confusing correlation with causation has caused many failed marketing forecasts!

Python

It’s a popular coding language that’s loved by data scientists. If you ever considered exploring Marketing Data, Data Analytics or Data Science paths in your career, we highly recommend that you give Python a try.

What are the most common challenges marketers face and how can data help them out?

Being a marketing professional is harder than ever. Previously you could specialise in a very niche segment, whereas today, you are expected to know everything from brand management to performance marketing and from content writing to CRO. But there is some good news! If you can build data analytics skills you can tackle many common marketing challenges. 

Providing ROI for your marketing activities

Measuring ROI is crucial for marketers and you need to have solid data analytics skills to do this. When using a variety of channels and data sources, being able to get a clear attribution and reporting is essential, both to optimise your campaigns and to request future marketing budgets.

Mapping the customer journey

Building customer journeys is essential to CRO (conversion rate optimisation) and you can’t do it without data. Mastering data visualisation and some of the most popular tools like Tableau enables you to visualise customer journeys and optimize them.

Identifying new potential customers

As a marketer, you always need to think about how to grow your customer base. The best way to do this is to look into your existing customers and find patterns. This way, you can identify exciting new segments or types of users. 

Tracking performance metrics accurately

If you want to be KPI-driven you need to know how to set the right KPIs and how to track them. Data analytics skills are essential for this.

What are the job prospects for marketers with data analytics skills?

According to LinkedIn, 39% of all high-paying jobs need data skills. Businesses of all shapes and sizes globally are constantly collecting huge amounts of data, but only an estimated 0.5% of all data collected is ever used in a meaningful way. Learning Data Analytics can make you the driver of change in your organisation, translating data into impact.

With strong data analytics skills, you can explore different career opportunities outside of marketing too. It enables you to move between marketing, product, operations and UX.

If you enjoy working with data you could also explore opportunities in the Data Analytics and Data Science fields. There is a lot of demand to fill these positions and the salaries can be very competitive.

Become Certified in Data Fundamentals!

‍

Help drive business strategy as a key decision-maker through data-driven insights that define real action. 

Our comprehensive Data Fundamentals course will equip you with the skills and strategies needed to improve your performance and future-proof your career.

7 modules | 75 lessons | 7 tests | 7 exercises

• Module 1: Data literacy 
• Module 2 - Analytics
• Module 3 - Experimentation
• Module 4 - Advanced analytics
• Module 5 - Data visualisation

• Module 6 - The skills of data teams

• Module 7  - Data Projects

👉 Check out our course here!

Learning with Growth Tribe couldn’t be easier. All of our courses are designed to be flexible for the learner with self-paced content so you can manage your time and learning to suit your lifestyle best. 
‍

Join a community of over 35,000 certified alumni who share a passion for growing their skills and positively impacting their careers.