Marketing analytics is a set of tools used by market researchers to measure, analyze, and interpret marketing metrics so that they can make informed decisions about brand development and customer experiences. Especially in this era of big data, marketing analytics has become a powerful tool in the pursuit of important business goals like improving brand equity and increasing customer lifetime value.

In order to derive meaningful insights from customers, market research has always used direct tools like surveys and marketing experiments. Yet, now with e-commerce and social media creating vast customer datasets, data analysis techniques can be used to create more sophisticated models of consumer behavior. For example, linear regression analysis can be used to identify key variables affecting customer purchases, allowing for the creation of predictive analytics that can be used to guide marketing choices.

Analytics skills help organizations navigate the future by enabling them to harness insights from the ever-expanding pools of data being generated each and every moment. Being able to make sense of this data is important for marketing professionals of all kinds, making marketing analytics a valuable skill for brand managers, survey researchers, social media specialists, and chief marketing officers (CMOs) alike.

A background in marketing analytics is particularly important for market research analysts. They gather, analyze, and interpret data on products, customers, and competitors to inform product development, advertising, and sales plans. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, they make a median salary of $63,790 per year, and their job growth is expected to be much faster than the average for all occupations due to the increasing use of data and market research across many industries.

Absolutely! Coursera offers a broad range of online courses and Specializations on marketing analytics, as well as associated topics like digital marketing and business analytics. With Coursera, you can learn about marketing analytics remotely from top-ranked institutions like the University of Virginia, Emory University, and the University of Pennsylvania, so you won’t have to sacrifice the quality of your education to learn online.

You’ll be completing the same coursework and working with the same faculty as on-campus students, yet at a lower tuition. And, with collaborative group projects, you’ll also get to practice the teamwork skills that are so important to marketing teams the world over.