Marketing professionals are not tasked solely with gaining consumer attention and influencing customer spending. Being good stewards of marketing funds and budgets is among their responsibilities too. To gain insight into campaign effectiveness, they use analytics to measure and analyze past marketing performance. Marketing analytics allows businesses a way to maximize return on investment, while minimizing wasted dollars. It can also help businesses spot consumer trends.
How Does Marketing Analytics Help a Business Grow?
Many businesses, especially startups, rely on online marketing to build brand recognition and drive sales. Marketing analytics allows companies to understand if their ads and marketing campaigns are reaching the intended audience. No company can afford to waste advertising dollars.
With the help of marketing analytics, companies can:
- Learn what consumers want
- Save money by focusing on marketing funds
- Improve brand recognition
- Boost sales
- Optimize the allocation of marketing funds for greater ROI
- Save companies money
What Skills Do You Need to Be a Marketing Analytics Pro?
Effective marketing analytics professionals are internet-savvy. They use online tools to report on the past, analyze the present and predict future outcomes.
Common skills and mindsets required by marketing analytics professionals include:
- An understanding of business analytics: Analytics is not unique to marketing departments. Many businesses employ analytics techniques to understand consumer behavior and to improve internal efficiency. Business analytics is commonly taught through online Master of Business Administration courses.
- Familiarity with Google ads: There are several programs that aid in marketing analytics, including Wordstream’s AdWords Performance Grader. These programs can tell a business how well their ad ranks in Google. A high score means that a company’s website is more likely to appear near the top of a potential consumer’s online query.
- Creativity: Skilled marketing professionals stay open to new possibilities, as marketing campaigns are experimental in nature. Consumer behavior can also be difficult to predict. Effective marketing uses analytics for insight and a test-and-learn approach.
- Communication skills: It’s not enough for marketing analytics professionals to understand the data they analyze. They also need to be able to communicate those findings to colleagues. Not every business professional understands analytics jargon, for example, so the ability to distill and communicate analytics insights is crucial to the use of those insights in making decisions.
The value of insights gained from marketing research comes from their application to present and future marketing efforts. Reviewing marketing campaign analytics provides a look-back that enables reallocation of funds for future campaigns.
Learn About Analytics With an MBA From NKU
The 100% online MBA program from Northern Kentucky University prepares students for career advancement while allowing them to customize their degree to meet personal and professional goals. The AACSB-accredited program teaches analytics techniques along with related skills, such as financial analysis, accounting and marketing.
Graduates of NKU’s online MBA program are equipped with the skills to analyze data sets to find actionable business insights and important consumer trends.
Learn more about the NKU online MBA program.
Sources:
Wordstream: Understanding Marketing Analytics
