You’ve just had a stellar idea for a product. If you can get your creation seen using social media marketing, it will take off. A sound marketing strategy assists in selling products as well as contributing to a positive customer journey. However, how do you begin to market something? That’s where marketing analytics and data science come into play.
Data drives everything. Every product and service has once been under scrutiny by marketing teams, data scientists, and real-world testers. Everything, from your favorite pair of Adidas to the newest Instagram update, has their success tied to models, marketing information, and data science.
Learning Instagram marketing or Google Analytics can mean the difference between a resounding success or a dismal failure for your product. Marketing analytics is all about finding the perfect market for your product.
What Is Marketing Analytics?
Marketing analytics is the practice of examining a particular market in detail. This means that you and your team of marketing professionals explore the viability of undertaking certain marketing strategies to attract specific customers.
Whether you are utilizing Facebook marketing for your small business, or you are part of a larger team undertaking huge campaigns, marketing analytics plays a huge role.
You’ll be set up for success if you choose to utilize various analytics tools, marketing strategies, and programming languages. With these tools, you can better examine a market for viability and hopefully receive a significant return on investment.
What Is Marketing Analytics Used For?
Let’s get a bit more detailed on how marketing analytics works.
- Marketing products and services. This is the overall goal of any successful marketing campaign: market to specific demographics and audiences for optimal engagement. But it takes a keen eye and business acumen to partake in effective digital marketing.
- Parsing through data. Many marketing experts use data models and analysis to more efficiently paint a picture of their customer base. To learn marketing analytics you should also learn statistics, data science, and different customer trends.
- Finding the perfect market for your product and service. Even if you have a seemingly perfect product, you still need to find your audience. It could be that your newest Instagram feature doesn’t find success in the 65+ age market. Instead, you should focus on ages 18-29, which make up nearly 60 percent of Instagram users. Finding the perfect audience requires common sense, data models, and business analytics.
Types of Marketing Analytics
Many essential marketing strategies go into successful marketing analytics. Here are some principal pillars of marketing products and services.
Predictive Analytics
As you may have guessed, this is all about predicting specific outcomes in marketing campaigns. Learning predictive analytics allows you to better forecast how a product or service will perform.
Mastering predictive analytics can be a long, difficult road. It requires data models, business analytics, and an all-star marketing team to pin down what will work in a campaign.
Overall, successful predictive analytics can take a lot of guesswork out of digital marketing. As a basic example, we can reliably predict winter coat sales will increase during the winter season in colder climates.
Keep in mind, this is an overly simplified version of predictive analysis. But hopefully, it gives you an idea of this tool’s usefulness.
If you can reliably predict a product or service’s performance over the next business quarter, then you can shift resources and manpower more efficiently to other areas.
Social Media Marketing
This is a big one. Learning social media marketing allows you to understand what makes Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram users keep clicking refresh.
Since social media is one of the best ways to market products and services, you must learn about it. Learning social media algorithms and the browsing habits of consumers is the lifeblood of a successful marketing campaign.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV)
This is also a crucial aspect of marketing analytics. The customer lifetime value is the overall value a customer brings by purchasing your product over time.
How much should you invest in specific demographics? The customer lifetime value concept helps you better understand how valuable your marketing is to a particular group. Should you spend time creating marketing strategies for customers who won’t necessarily purchase your product? Probably not.
A sound marketing strategy should always consider customer lifetime value a critical factor in any marketing campaign. It all hinges on repetition, retention, and revenue.
Learning Marketing Analytics
If this all sounds helpful for selling your product or service, then where do you begin? There are a few crucial tidbits to know before starting a successful digital marketing journey. Let’s examine best practices, where to access resources, and more below.
How Long Does It Take to Learn Marketing Analytics?
It can take anywhere from six months to a few years to learn marketing analytics. It depends entirely on your adaptability, expertise, and natural talent for digital marketing.
Learning marketing analytics isn’t like learning the piano or guitar. Platforms like social media and online marketplaces are always changing.
This means you need to stay current or you risk getting left behind. No matter the robustness of your marketing campaign, if you don’t market efficiently you’ll be left in the dust.
How to Learn Marketing Analytics: Step-by-Step
There are a few ways to streamline this learning process. These include degrees, marketing analytics courses, and more.
- Outline different marketing strategies. What works? What doesn’t? These questions are at the heart of marketing. You can gain insight by studying different marketing strategies and using Google Analytics or other data science tools.
- Educate yourself. Whether it is through online resources or even earning a marketing degree or certificate, you should make a point to study. While some individuals may be naturals at marketing, having good sense alone doesn’t get you a job. You will need credentials.
- Find your market. Finding your market is very important. What customers do you hope to attract? Which group will provide you with a reliable customer lifetime value?
- Learn different programs. Software is your friend. You can use pen and paper, but when you are calculating complex risks and rewards, inputting information into software makes everything easier. If you hope to present sound marketing strategies, you need to know about data models and even programming languages.
The Best Marketing Analytics Courses and Trainings
Here are some of the best ways to start your marketing analytics journey.
Best Online Marketing Analytics Courses
Online marketing analytics courses are perfect to familiarize yourself with the field. Let’s look at some of the most notable courses below.
MIT Sloan’s Digital Marketing Analytics
- Provider: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Time: Six weeks
- Prerequisites: None
Offered through the iconic Massachusetts Institute of Technology, this online course tackles the basics of marketing analytics. Participants will learn how to implement, optimize, and partake in successful marketing strategies.
Through six modules, students will walk away with a broader, more in-depth knowledge of marketing data. The Sloan School of Management is an excellent resource for all things business.
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Students learn the basics as well as how to optimize return on investments and the future of marketing analytics. This is also an impressive class to add to the resume.
Advanced Google Analytics course + 77 practical questions
- Provider: Udemy
- Time: 4 hours
- Prerequisites: none
- Price: $130
This course focuses on Google Analytics and will prepare you for the real world of digital marketing. Instructor Pavel Brecik teaches students key Google Analytics concepts like assisted conversations and calculated metrics. Although this is a more advanced course in marketing analytics, you don’t need to be an expert to take away many benefits.
Students learn all about Google ads, Facebook ads, and common pitfalls in digital markets.
The only thing potential learners need is a basic understanding of Google Analytics and the will to learn.
Best Free Marketing Analytics Courses
Learning on a budget is very possible with these free marketing analytics courses.
Knowledge Exchange: Data Analytics in a Nutshell
- Provider: Udemy
- Time: 36 minutes
- Prerequisites: none
- Price: Free
This free marketing analytics course is a great way to learn the basics. Plus, it’s only 36 minutes long. This is a no-frills crash course in topics like data models, customer lifetime value, return on investments, and more.
Digital Marketing Specialization
- Provider: Coursera
- Time: Eight months
- Prerequisites: none
- Price: Free
Offered through the fantastic University of Illinois, this specialization is jam-packed with excellent and timely digital marketing information. This free marketing analytics course earned various accolades, like having the most enrolled in 2016 and being the best online marketing analytics course in 2015.
Students will learn valuable skills to help them analyze data models, partake in digital marketing campaigns, and more. Near the end of the eight months, students participate in an applied learning project for hands-on experience. It’s an outstanding balance of learning and application.
Best Marketing Analytics Books
There’s nothing like a good book. If you want to forgo taking classes or are looking for more supplemental material, you can’t go wrong with these books.
Marketing Analytics: Data-Driven Techniques with Microsoft Excel, Wayne L. Winston
Wayne L. Winston’s expert approach to effective data analytics is taught through the trustworthy Microsoft Excel program. Winston shows readers and marketers of every stripe how to harness the untapped potential of Microsoft Excel to perform compelling functions.
Effectively using Excel can be the difference between mediocre success and knocking it out of the park in a marketing campaign. Winston also covers social media, viral marketing, and more in detail.
Learning Microsoft Excel is a proven and valuable time investment. Winston’s tome only reinforces this.
Marketing Analytics: A Practical Guide to Improving Consumer Insights Using Data Techniques, Mike Grigsby
Just shy of 250 pages, this definitive text by Mike Grigsby contains everything needed to build a solid foundation in marketing analytics. Grigsby is a 30-year veteran of the ever-evolving world of marketing analytics.
The author puts a crucial emphasis on predictive analytics, one of the most useful marketing strategies available to digital marketers. This particular edition also includes valuable sections on learning about big data, extrapolating data models, and calculating customer lifetime values.
For beginners and accomplished marketers alike, this is not a book to miss.
Marketing Analytics Certifications
Certifications can enhance your resume. They signal an intimate knowledge of a particular subject. Here are some outstanding certificates you can earn in marketing analytics.
BerkeleyX’s Marketing Analytics MicroMasters® Program
Offered through the University of California, Berkeley, this program is all about imbuing the participants with successful business acumen.
It covers quantitative marketing techniques. This means that the course deals with data models, numbers, and statistics. Extrapolating data and analysis is essential for successful marketing.
This program is perfect for those who want real-world examples and hands-on experience. Participants will engage in analyzing data models, using programming languages, and more to master the world of business.
Columbia University’s Marketing Analytics Certification
Another fantastic university program, this marketing analytics course nets you a certificate in marketing strategy. This is a no-frills, comprehensive look at data models, data science, and more to make optimal business decisions.
Columbia’s certificate program focuses on optimal pricing and finding the perfect market for products and services.
Best Online Marketing Analytics Resources
If you want to simply peruse some of the best tools outside of online courses and books, your best bet is to check out these unique marketing analytics resources.
Reddit’s r/marketing
Along with being a forum for funny images, Reddit has a surprisingly robust and reliable community for numerous professional fields.
Case in point: the subreddit r/marketing is a fantastic starting point for business analytics. While it’s always great to get crucial tips from industry professionals, sometimes you need simple advice from fellow digital marketers.
On r/marketing, you can find a wealth of information for both beginners and veterans of detailed marketing campaigns. They have a fantastic pinned thread guiding users towards job opportunities as well. It’s a great resource that offers you a look into the daily trials and tribulations of marketing teams.
While the 305,000+ members offer great advice, it’s also a place to share humorous observations, jokes, and more.
Some notable threads to explore are the 2021 Marketing Worksheet and Job Openings.
Google Analytics Solutions & Marketing Platform
Google always has you covered. Regarding marketing analytics, it’s no different. While there are many Google Analytics resources out there, this blog is one of the best. Here you can find a ton of news stories, insights, and more to help you on your journey.
There is also a user forum, YouTube channel, and a helpful Google Analytics FAQ section for confused digital marketers.
Moz Blog – Analytics
Moz Blog is an overall great place to learn anything about technology. In the analytics tab, you can find some of the best topics, posts, and resources regarding marketing. Along with Google Analytics, you can learn a ton about SEO marketing and more.
Although much of the content concerns SEO marketing, there are valuable insights into digital marketing campaigns, pricing optimization, and return on investment.
Should You Study Marketing Analytics?
Trying to predict which way the wind blows in business can be challenging. However, you and others can harness crucial and beneficial information.
Through marketing analytics, marketing teams can find the perfect audience for products and services and get a significant return on investment.
Learning marketing analytics can be a challenging yet rewarding endeavor. But if you want to nail marketing campaigns and undertake ingenious marketing strategies, it may be the perfect field for you.
What works? What doesn’t? Using this information and these resources, you can find out.
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