Back on October 18, the 2nd Annual DAA Philadelphia Symposium was held, and so far the responses have been great. The theme of this year’s symposium was “The Next Generation of Analytics Optimization.” We had a number of great speakers, panel discussions, sponsors, etc. We discussed common themes within the digital analytics environment such as Tag Management, leveraging Statistics, utilizing Predictive modeling, and of course Big Data.
The one thing that we didn’t do was provide the next generation of Digital Analysts with tips to break into the industry or progress toward the next level of analytics optimization.
With that being said, below are my Top Ten Tips for individuals aspiring to become analysts:
- Always Ask the Questions:
Why is this happening?
What does this mean for the business (impact)?
- Master Your Tools
Web Analytics
Testing
Business Intelligence Tools
- Get Involved & Stay Involved!
The Digital Analytics Association
Conferences
Seminars
Web Analytics Wednesdays
- Read & Apply
Blogs
Books (Web Analytics 2.0, Web Analytics an Hour a Day, etc.)
Case Studies
White Papers
- Learn or take a Statistics Refresher Course
- Refresh or Improve your Microsoft Excel skills
- Learn or take a refresher on MySQL
- Learn or take a refresher on basic HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
- Get familiar with marketing tactics and their technologies:
Pay per Click Advertising
Outbound Calling
Search Engine Optimization
Email Marketing
CRM
Social Media
Mobile
Get a Mentor
This list of ten tips should help to put an aspiring analyst on the path towards the next generation of analytics.
Here’s what you can do next week to get started:
- Join the Digital Analytics Association
- Find or set up a feed to a Web/Digital Analytics Blog, and Start reading!
- Spend a Hour Learning your Analytics Tool & Trying New Things
- Get familiar with marketing tactics by scheduling time with a company subject matter expert, using a free trial, or volunteering to help a small business
- Identify a Business Challenge and Ask the questions (Why & So what?)