In the world of business, the role of a Digital Business Analyst is crucial. In an increasingly hyper-connected and ultra-technological world, the web is now the new frontier for the marketing of goods and services. According to recent research carried out by Cisco, as many as 68% of companies believe it is essential to increase Digital Marketing and Web Marketing activities for the growth of their business. But what to do with the thousands of data and information that companies produce every day?
This is where the Digital Business Analyst comes into play. Creating a site with captivating graphics, and having top-quality services and materials available is not enough to generate revenue if there isn’t someone at the base who takes care of tracking and analyzing data traffic on the site.
Basically, the Digital Business Analyst provides for the analysis and projections of sales data, the results of marketing campaigns, consumer habits, and market trends. To better understand the role and the necessary skills, given his experience as a Digital Business Analyst at Ogilvy, we asked Matteo Loro, currently Digital & Data Strategist of The Big Now, to explain the secrets of one of the most requested professions on the market Work.
What is the role of a Digital Business Analyst within a company?
The Digital Business Analyst is the one who carries out the analysis of business processes a posteriori, trying to understand what has been optimized and what needs to be optimized based on the results obtained. The role of a Digital Analyst can be declined on many turnovers, for example, I am specialized in Digital and Social and I am responsible for monitoring how social strategies can improve the brand identity of a partner or help identify the right target. As I said before, the analysis phase itself corresponds to a previous phase of identification of the insights. This means research, reading the buyer personas, analyze the target, all supported by the presence of qualitative numerical data.
Start the test and find out what your affinity level is for this position
Digital Business Analyst: tell us about your relationship with Digital Transformation.
First of all, we need to understand what Digital Transformation is, and therefore Digital Business. In my point of view, Digital Transformation alternates in two moments: externally and internally. One could take any object to sell and expose it to the digital world, but first of all, employees must be ready, and therefore trained to face the digital revolution. I believe that in many cases the term itself is overused and not everyone understands the difference between the real internal and external work that should be done. For example, on the Digital Business front, I collaborated on the Social@Ogilvy project for Ogilvy & Mather to improve a bank’s positioning and market performance.
We have opted for the organization of training, workshops, and practical sessions to help the customer in question and the employees themselves understand how to move in unison toward digital transformation.
What are the tools and programs you use the most? What are the skills?
The main program is Excel. It is important to know how to use this tool both from a practical point of view (formulas to be clear) and for the reasoning behind the numbers to be analyzed. It’s easy to create a histogram and see if a month has been more or less profitable in the case of a social, the real challenge is to understand why one content has “performed” more than another, and so on. Along with Excel, there are also more technical business intelligence software such as Tableau for statistical analysis and data strategy, or social listening and web listening programs.
A Digital Business Analyst must know how to work with numbers but also be able to give a qualitative meaning to the work, otherwise, we will be mere executors. The skill lies in understanding the subtlety of certain data, which in social listening we call “mentions”, and thus identifying the insights. Charts, and infographics in Excel are just the basis from which to start.
Curiosity is a bit the basis of those who want to do this job, for example, if Google Analytics changes the way sessions are calculated, first of all, you need to understand why it has changed and what it means for a brand. Always be up to date first. The Digital Business Analyst is one of many Online Professionals. Take the quiz to figure out which role aligns with your aptitudes and ambitions
The Future of Data Analysis belongs to GA4. Are you ready for change with the new Google Analytics interface? Download the Free Mini-Guide now!
How do you become a Digital Business Analyst?
Not just engineers, mathematicians, or statistics graduates. There are many paths you can take to become a Digital Business Analyst. I started from an accounting base, three years in Public Relations and Business Communication, and a master’s degree in Digital Marketing Management. Paradoxically, the mathematical engineers who do this job are not that many, you can be very strong with numbers but it is essential for me to also have preparation in communication and digital marketing to take that extra shot.
I think it’s important to be able to find the right mix between knowing how to analyze a customer’s behavior and user experience and the qualitative side of the resulting results. In a nutshell, the Digital Analyst is the one who manages to find the right combination of management, statistics, and communication skills.
How much does a Digital Business Analyst earn on average?
It depends on the level: junior or senior. It’s a job that’s in high demand, but the market has yet to stabilize. A junior figure with at least 2/3 years of experience can reach 23-24k, while for a senior figure, we are talking about at least 40k.
Do you also want to work in the world of Digital Marketing? If you are comfortable with numbers and have a particularly analytical personality, these are some of our courses that could be for you:
If you too want to become a digital expert, contact an expert. Together you will define the training path that is right for you