How To Start A Career In Digital Analytics
Gathering useful information on how to start a career in Digital Analytics can be daunting. This article will serve as a guide to make the process a lot smoother for any individual looking to get into the business side of digital analytics.
Before deciding if digital analytics is a great career move, ask yourself the following questions:
Am I analytical? A digital analyst needs to have killer critical thinking and analytical skills. Analytical thinkers enjoy working methodically through problems and rely on data to formulate and prove hypotheses, rather than “gut instinct” or intuition. Analysts need to be able to put disparate puzzle pieces together to form a comprehensive story and prove their points. If you’re a thoughtful problem-solver who prefers to make predictions based on data rather than assumptions, you’ll make an excellent digital marketing analyst. .
Do I like presenting to people? Digital analysts need to present their findings to other people, often through reports and presentations. They need to be able to explain how they acquired their insights and the reasoning behind their suggestions for optimization. You must be prepared to defend your findings, especially if results are not as sunny as the team would like.
Am I a curious person? Excellent digital analysts don’t take results at face value; they want to understand the cause behind campaign successes and failures. It’s essential to possess a drive that compels you to dig for answers because only then will you be able to formulate ways to improve results.
If you answered yes to all the questions above, the requirements below outline the basic needs hiring managers/recruiters have when seeking a candidate to fulfill a digital analyst position. Also outlined is how to acquire the necessary skills through online courses/tutorials, and how to get real world experience that you can display on your resume, Linkedin profile, and speak to during an interview.
Education & Background Requirements
Educational requirements vary greatly by company or hiring manager. A candidate with a graduate degree (for example, a Masters or MBA), or a degree in a discipline such as mathematics, statistics, economics, finance, marketing, or technology will certainly be at an advantage when looking for opportunities. However, while there are certainly preferences, most companies do not have rigid rules, and will hire a candidate with the right blend of experience, skills, and attitude. Some companies have hired candidates without a college degree, or from non-technical backgrounds because they took the initiative to learn the skills necessary to be a great analyst, and had a great attitude.
Skills Requirements
There is a wide range of skills that employers look for in an analyst. The more skills, and experience you acquire within this field, the greater your chances are of getting the job you desire. Below is a list of the basic skills needed to get a digital analyst job, with links to learning resources to acquire those skills. Most of the courses listed below provide a certification upon completion that you can display on your resume and Linkedin profile. Having these certifications will indicate your willingness to learn to hiring managers which is a must have skill in this industry. It will also give you a boost if you don’t have a college degree, have a non-technical college degree, or are switching over from a non-technical career field.
Here are the skills needed to get into the digital analytics industry:
1. Understand the Basics of Digital Analytics
A strong understanding of the basics of Digital Analytics, and how it is used to make decisions that optimize business performance is critical. Hiring managers will expect you to demonstrate this knowledge throughout the interview process.
Here are 2 videos from Simplilearn that will provide information on the Fundamentals of Digital Analytics:
Introduction to Digital Analytics Foundation
Digital Analytics Fundamentals | Web Analytics For Beginners
2. Knowledge of a Web Analytics Tool
There are numerous web analytics tools, the most popular of which are Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics. Some companies use both tools, and some use only one. Adobe Analytics is used by many large corporations, and it would be great for your career if you could add this tool to your skill set. Unfortunately, Adobe Analytics is quite pricey, so you’ll only get an opportunity to practice when you are hired by a large corporation. The alternative is to learn Google Analytics which is free to learn and implement through Google Tag Manager. Once hiring managers see that you took the initiative to master Google Analytics (And Google Tag Manager), and you can demonstrate knowledge of the tool, they know you’ll be able to learn any other web analytics tool and will be more likely to call you in for an interview.
Here are a few courses offered by Google Analytics Academy that will provide training on Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager:
Google Analytics For Beginners
Taking these courses will also prepare you for the Google Analytics Individual Qualification (GAIQ). I recommend getting the certification, and adding the badge to your Linkedin profile. Every opportunity to showcase your determination to learn is crucial. Here is a great study guide by OptimizeSmart that will help you prepare for the GAIQ exam.
3. Extraction & Transformation of Data
There are many data extraction/transformation tools (such as Python & R), but SQL is a programming language that is used at most corporations.
If you’re new to data science, I recommend the following SQL courses by Data Camp:
SQL For Business Analysts Track
4. Data Visualization
Analysts have a large number of data visualization tools to choose from, such as Tableau, Adobe Analytics Workspace, Adobe Analytics Report Builder, Google Analytics, Power BI, etc. You already have the opportunity to learn data visualization using Google Analytics in the “real world experience” guide below. However, Tableau is a tool sought after by a lot of hiring managers.
If you would like to add one more data visualization tool to your resume, I recommend the following Tableau course by Data Camp:
Tableau Fundamentals Skill Track
4. A/B Testing
There are quite a number of A/B testing tools out there such as Optimizely, Adobe Target, Google Optimize, and Crazy Egg. Google Optimize is free to implement, use and is quite easy to learn.
Learn the basics of A/B testing using Google Optimize with this learning resource:
You’ll have an opportunity to put your new A/B test skills to work in the “Real World Experience” section below.
Real World Experience
Now that you have the basic digital analytics skills, it’s time to get some real world experience.
1. Knowledge of a web analytics tool + Tagging + Data visualization + A/B Testing
A great way to showcase your new digital skills is to create a personal website, collect data on your site via tagging, and create meaningful dashboards showing traffic trends.
To really get the attention of a hiring manager, I recommend reaching out to a local small business with a website and offer to implement tags + create dashboards pro bono. This will increase your knowledge, boost your experience, and help out a small business that may not have the funding to complete this project!
The following provides an outline with learning resources to complete these tasks.
a. Set up a personal website (You can create an online resume) using a website builder like Squarespace
b. Learn how to implement Google Tags on your website with this tutorial so you can track user behavior
c. Learn everything you need to know about building meaning dashboards for your website in Google Analytics with this tutorial
d. Set up a A/B test on your website using this Google Optimize Tutorial
Share snippets of the dashboards you create on your LinkedIn profile and your website so recruiters can see how awesome you are. Maybe even write a Linkedin post or two about how you created your dashboards, implemented tags on your website, or set up your A/B test.
2. Extraction & Transformation of Data
Get real world data extraction/transformation experience with this challenge from DataCamp - Applying SQL to Real-World Problems.
And once again, don’t forget to put the certificate of completion on your Linkedin profile!
If you struggle with any of the steps listed above, contact me with questions.
Good luck on your digital analytics career journey!
