Skills to look for when hiring a Digital Analyst
The demand for Digital Analysts is constantly on the rise, as outlined by a recent study by EMSI. When surveying job postings across all industries, the study shows that 60% of postings for business operations occupations are calling for a skill related to data analytics.
This means that, if your company hasn’t yet resorted to hiring a Digital Analyst, it’s only a matter of time until it will.
At PayPerTalent, we have helped dozens of companies look for the best Digital Analytics talent available on the market. Based on our expertise, we have put together the following article about the main skills you should pay attention to before hiring a Digital Analyst for your business.
Difference between a Data Analyst and a Digital Analyst
This is one of the main errors among HR staff when looking for a Digital Analyst. It’s quite common for HR executives to go out and look for Data Analysts instead of focusing on talent belonging to the world of Digital Marketing.
Simply put, while it’s true that Digital Analysts fall into the category of Data Analysis, Data Analysts on the contrary don’t necessarily belong to the Digital world. A Data Analyst is someone, who, well, analyses data, but not necessarily Digital Marketing data.
A Data Analyst may be very good at analyzing large sets of data for, say, financial operations carried out by a bank. However, he or she may not have the slightest idea about Internet campaigns over Google Ads, Facebook Business Manager or email marketing.
On the contrary, a Digital Analyst is someone who can draw insight based on data in order to maximize a company’s marketing revenue. This is achieved through a series of soft skills that highlight a Digital Analyst’s business acumen, as well as a solid command of specific tools and hard skills such as Google Analytics, Data Studio, Power BI, Tableau and more.
Soft skills a Digital Analyst should have
Have Business & Marketing acumen
What web analysts do is understand the objectives of a business and seek to measure the performance of the company’s online operation in meeting those objectives. Understanding both business in a general sense and the company’s marketing in particular appear to be intrinsic to the web analyst’s skill sets. In fact, without these the analysis is likely to lack any meaning.
You could be the greatest data analyst on earth, but if you don’t understand basic marketing principles, you’ll be lacking as a digital marketing analyst. Having foundational knowledge about essential marketing concepts—like market segmentation, customer acquisition, customer journey, etc.—is vital for this role. This knowledge will allow you to determine better strategies to achieve your business goals (informed by the data you analyze).
Be great communicators
Making sense of Data mostly requires hard skills. You need to be good at maths, statistics, Excel and other tools, but you don’t need to be much of a communicator. However sharing insights with C-level executives who don’t necessarily have a strong analytics or technical mind requires a great deal of communication skills, both in writing and speaking.
Make sure the person you hire knows how to create clear reports that rely on well designed graphs and as little raw data as possible. Also, make sure he or she is outspoken enough in order to convey messages clearly to an audience when presenting data.
Be flexible and patient
The ability to persist when the technology, the people and the hierarchy all conspire against you is a key quality. Part of this determination is the skilled web analyst’s belief in what they do. The web analyst is the absolute core of a company, at the very heart, since they can guide people to make great decisions. This belief, this passion drives the web analyst and allows him/her to persevere when others might have given up.
Hard skills a Digital Analyst should have
Martech
A Digital Analyst should be familiar with the best-known marketing technology platforms, also known as Martech. To name a few, he/she should have a solid understanding of the following technologies:
- Performance Marketing (Google Ads, Facebook Business Manager, RTB platforms)
- CRM/Marketing Automation (HubSpot CRM, SalesForce, etc.)
- A/B testing (Google Optimize, Crazy Egg, Optimizely)
Web Analytics tools
A Web Analyst must master the best-known Analytics tools in the industry, starting from the Google Suite but also Adobe Analytics which is becoming an increasingly bigger player at an enterprise level.
- Google Analytics 360
- Google Tag Manager
- SEMrush
- Adobe Analytics
Data Visualisation tools
Data is of little use if our Analyst doesn’t have the right tool to present it in a clear and meaningful way. Here are some of the main Data Visualisation tools that Digital Analysts should master.
- Power BI
- Tableau
- Google Data Studio
- Datawrapper
- Excel
Programming languages
Although there are a variety of programming languages, some are better suited for data analysis than others. The most popular programming languages for data analysts are Python and SQL. Some analysts may use R for numerical analysis, statistical computing, and statistical analysis.
- Python
- SQL
- R
- Java Scala
To wrap it all up, a Digital Analyst is someone with a passion for Digital Marketing coupled with strong Data Analysis soft and hard skills. Finding the rare gem out there can be quite a challenge, which is why we highly recommend resorting to a thourough testing methodology such as the one we offer at PayPerTalent in order to find the best Digital Analyst out there.