Senior VP and Global Head of Research at Gartner, Peter Sondergaard, said, “Information is the oil of the 21st Century, and analytics is the combustion engine.” Data, then, is the most valuable resources across nearly all industries—but the person who is able to cull, sort, analyze, and act upon that data really is king!

 

Enter the Digital Marketer, whose gift is asking the right questions about consumer behaviors and analyzing their responses to craft new (and everchanging) strategies to build brand loyalty and welcome new customers into the fold. (Maybe you’re reading this today because a very clever digital marketer designed a strategy just for that purpose. See? It really works!)

 

How they can help

Digital marketers typically have the unique combination of talents, allowing them to collect and analyze data AND to develop unique ways to reach customers based on their analysis. The best digital marketers can strategize based on data from previous campaigns, as well as predicting future behaviors based on how they have engaged in the past or based on how they interact with other, similar products or services.
Because they are agile and intuitive, they make informed, educated guesses but they can also pivot on a dime if there is a change in the market, a new trend emerges, or data collected suggests a shift in what customers need and want.

 

What tools they can use

Digital marketers really are jacks of all trades, bringing together expertise in a number of disciplines, with different technologies supporting each. They will use tools that drive project management (Trello and Slack), SEO (SEMrush and Moz), content creation (Canva, YouTube, and Photoshop), email marketing (MailChimp and HubSpot), and of course social media management (Hootsuite, Buffer, and analytics for each social media outlet).

 

The sheer volume and depth of knowledge required to be a leading digital marketer may be daunting, but the number and quality of helpful tools on the market grows every day!

 

How they got there

The great news is that data-driven marketing can be employed in a variety of fields from communications to advertising, promotions to social media. Most people in this field start with a BA in business, marketing, or communications but other fields that rely heavily on data collection, storage, and analysis will also provide a leg up.

 

Where you can start

As always, interning with a digital marketing firm (or ad, PR, or communications firm) will help, but you can also bolster your credential by taking some courses. You could start with the Digital Marketing Revolution course which will clarify the differences between analog and digital marketing, help you develop critical thinking skills, and learn some real-world applications for digital marketing.