Are you someone who enjoys working with numbers and patterns? Do you like analysing large data sets and making conclusions from them?
Then a career in business intelligence might be for you.
The marketing departments of companies use business intelligence professionals to make sense of data to create better digital marketing strategies, attract more customers, and sell more products.
This article will discuss what business intelligence is, how it plays a role in digital marketing, and how you can build a successful career within business intelligence and marketing.
What is business intelligence?
Business intelligence (BI) is the process of analysing data and delivering feedback so executives and managers can make better business decisions.
It makes it possible for business leaders to examine data and understand the industry’s current state, trends, and possible outcomes.
Business intelligence aims to identify and analyse the data and present it understandably. It considers the following data:
- Historical and current data
- Third-party data
- In-house data
- Semi-structured and unstructured data from social media
In addition to making better business decisions, the data provided can also be used to identify potential future risks, current problems, new revenue sources, and more.
Career paths of business intelligence
There are several career paths in business intelligence. These include financial, computer systems, operations research, and market research analysis.
While data analysis is essential in a wide range of business departments, it plays a vital role in digital marketing. Without adequate data, marketing professionals cannot create targeted marketing material based on their target customers.
Data allows marketers to know:
- Who their ideal customers are, including things like their age, gender, income level, occupation, and more.
- How their ideal customers behave online. For example, they can see what their customers are searching for, where they are searching for it, etc.
- How much they can spend on marketing campaigns.
- And much more.
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing involves marketing a company’s products and services through digital platforms. It encompasses all marketing activities that require electronic devices or the Internet.
Whereas traditional marketing focuses on minimal analytics, digital marketing needs detailed analytics to inform decision-making. It also allows businesses to reach a wider audience — often even globally.
As a result, the marketing department requires market research analysts to find and implement data that can result in better targeting and more sales for the company.
How does business intelligence benefit marketing?
As mentioned above, business intelligence and data analysis can significantly impact marketing and how much the company manages to sell. Here are some of the most significant advantages of accessing data for effective marketing campaigns.
Improved customer insights
The marketing department can determine who is interested in the company’s products and services with data.
As a result, these professionals can create better marketing material, including attractive imagery and more enticing copy to attract their ideal customers.
Having customer insights means the marketing material can target the audience’s most significant pain points and desires, ultimately resulting in more interest.
For example, if a business realises with data that its primary target market is small business owners, its marketing material can include the most significant stresses of running a business so that it speaks directly to these individuals.
Give a competitive advantage
If a market research analyst manages to determine trends and possible future opportunities, the company can be the first to jump at the chance and create a competitive advantage.
For example, suppose data indicates that a specific social media platform is increasing in popularity. In that case, the marketing team can build a presence on that social platform early on to reach more of their audience.
Indicate the best times to post
Data can show marketers when audiences spend their time on social media and other online platforms. As a result, companies can choose strategic times to post their content so more people see and react to it.
This will help the company create more brand awareness and will also help them retain its social media following.
How to build a successful career in business intelligence
If you enjoy working with data, then a career as a market research analyst may be ideal for you.
You have several options to build a successful business intelligence and marketing career.
If you do not have any experience yet, you can start your career by pursuing a marketing certificate that will teach you the basics of marketing and data analysis.
But, if you already have a data research background and want to apply it to the marketing industry, you could pursue a postgraduate marketing diploma or degree to build your skills.
With these qualifications, you will learn all the skills and knowledge about digital marketing and how you can apply your data research skills to help companies reach higher levels of profitability.
The option you choose will depend on your current level of education, experience, and skills.
Interested in a different career in digital marketing? Discover the eight best digital marketing jobs and how to pick the right role for you.
Study digital marketing courses with REGENT
Now that you know what careers are available in business intelligence and how it applies to marketing, are you ready to pursue a career in this lucrative field?
If you do not have any experience in business intelligence or marketing and you would like to dip your toes in the water to see if this industry is right for you, REGENT Business School offers a Higher Certificate in Marketing Management.
Alternatively, if you already have a business intelligence qualification and would like to expand into the marketing field, you can look at the Postgraduate Diploma in Digital Marketing.
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