Predictive analytics in marketing technology, (martech) is passé!  And while over the years data analytics has become the baseline skill for marketers across industry verticals, analytics is still driving big change. This change is not just limited to staffing in marketing department, but in in attracting data savvy professionals who can combine financial, marketing and analytical skills. According to a recent Gartner CMO spend report, CMOs now allocate 27% of their budget towards technology. The increased spend highlights the use of leading edge technology in providing top-notch customer experience and fine-tuning marketing performance, not to forget outclassing the competition.

Data analytics has become the standard practice across domains and we believe it is time to look at new analytics functions that will drive forward thinking organizations that want to make it big in digital. As the McKinley Marketing Partners report sums up, digital marketing is on the rise, but the marketing professionals of the future must be both experienced marketers and critical thinkers with the ability to analyze data. With marketing on the path to automation, Analytics India Magazine and UpGrad narrow down a bunch of emergent data analytics job functions in martech.

The martech landscape revolves around these clusters: (a) Advertising (b) Content (c) Social & Behavioural (d) Commerce & Sales, (e) Data Management.

The future of marketing is shaped by new roles in data and analytics. Here are the skills that will be most in-demand in 2017 across these clusters

1) Algorithmic-led marketing: With search becoming predictive, what with Facebook, Twitter and Google giving tailored recommendations, brands need more behavioural data powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) to better understand the customer decision journey, drive engagement and cross-sell products.   Another area where AI and machine learning comes into play is in dynamic pricing. Case in point – cab aggregator apps Ola and Uber’s surge-pricing algorithm (wherein prices peak when the demand is high). Through dynamic pricing, brands can see substantial gains in profit margins.

Data savvy marketing mavens must already be familiar with Programmatic advertising, hailed as the future of advertising wherein cutting-edge machine learning algorithms are used to automate targeted ads for customers. Case in point is, Programmatic advertising for media buying that enables the brand to customize message for the right audience via audience insights from the brand for search, display and social media.  Over the years, programmatic advertising has moved into the mainstream with data driven advertising companies using it for informing TV and radio ad spends as well. The advantages are manifold – optimize KPIs in real time and utilizing data from multiple platforms as users move from screen to screen.

Who’s fit for the job role: Data Scientist, Data Analyst & Machine Learning Engineer

Skills Required: Researching and understanding user behavior patterns such as customer engagement, building machine learning model prototypes in R/Python for in-depth analysis. Broadly speaking, one needs to have a solid foundation in CS and statistics, math, modelling and analytics.

Proficiency in a) Probability and Statistics, b) understanding of how to apply ML algorithms and libraries, c) computer science fundamentals and programming and d) data modelling and evaluation are must have skills.

Average Pay Package: 12- 18 lakhs per annum

Relevant Companies: Amazon India, Google, Flipkart, Adobe, InMobi, Mu Sigma, start-ups such as Crayon Data and Bridgei2i

2) Mining the Social Buzz: Customer listening or social listening as it is popularly known is the number#1 priority in organizations across the board. From monitoring brand engagement across digital touchpoints to customer engagement, the job entails driving personalized real time actions across channels. The demand for social media analytics is emphasized by a research by McKinley Marketing Partners that cites digital marketing expertise as the most desired skill set in 2016. According to McKinley’s research, around 90 percent of marketing roles need analytics or digital marketing experience. Industries, agencies and leading brands have deployed social listening tools to better track and monitor brand health.

Who’s fit for the job role: Social Media Listening and Brand Analyst, Social Listening and Digital Insights Manager

Skills Required: Job entails analyzing online data based on customer/brand sentiment, product experience, customer relations management and preparing comprehensive reports. The job also involves mining data from social channels and turning into reports that inform inventory decisions. Familiarity with text mining techniques and natural language processing is needed. Industry experience across domains such as BFSI, FMCG and telecom and knowledge of data visualization tools is a must.

Proficiency in a) making reports using data analytics tool, b) preparing reports using web analytics, c) knowledge of working with high volume and multi-platform data, d) branding and marketing experience.

Average Pay Package:  INR 570,000 onwards

Relevant Companies: Nestle, GroupM

3) Managing Data Management Platform: DMP is akin to a data warehouse, a platform for storing and analyzing campaign and audience data. It provides one point access to marketers to source and manage data such as cookies and identifiers for data segmentation. The information is used for creating focused campaigns based on segmentation. Some of the big players in the market are Adobe AudienceManager and Oracle DMP.

Who’s fit for the job role: DMP Consultant

Skills Required: It’s a job that spans all industry verticals, hence a deep vertical industry experience is a plus. Knowledge of digital marketing and Google analytics suite is a plus. This is a customer facing role that requires identifying new business opportunities. Knowledge of internet and online advertising, including using data for targeting and measurement is a must have.

Proficiency in a) making reports using data analytics tool, b) conversant in DMP technology, c) background in HTML, Java, SQL, d) strong sales acumen d) background in online technologies.

Average Pay Package: INR 1,24,000 per month

Relevant Companies: Adobe, Oracle, Accenture

4) Market Research Analysis: To succeed in the age of data-led economy, organizations need to understand what their consumers want. This is where market research analysis comes into play where analysts study market conditions, consumer behavior and monitor competitor activity by analyzing vast amount of data through statistics, predictive analytics and data-driven tools. The findings of market analysts have a significant impact on an organization’s products or services. Data driven marketing plays a huge role with skills thoroughly grounded in data analytics, CRM, customer experience modelling and a solid proficiency in data management systems.

Who’s fit for the job role: Marketing Analyst, Market Research Analyst

Skills Required: It’s a job that requires working in collaboration with data scientists, statisticians and converting research findings into graphs via data visualization tools.

Proficiency in a) big intelligence tools such as Tableau, b) fundamental understanding of information science and statistics c) conversant in visual analytics, d) knowledge of web and direct marketing

Average Pay Package: INR 826422 onwards

Relevant Companies: Deloitte, Accenture, E&Y, HP

Want to upskill. Click here