Chances are, your business has been rocked by the pandemic and all of the adjustments that have been necessary in response to it. Especially if you’re in the process of establishing a start-up, it’s a shaky, uncertain time to try and make a name for yourself.
Customers were retreating to the convenience of online spaces long before a pandemic made it necessary to stay inside and avoid others, and the pandemic has only accelerated this process. This means that start-ups that want to establish themselves as a competitive force will need to learn how to market themselves effectively in digital spheres and how to tell if their marketing strategy has been successful.
A skill that is absolutely vital to any digital marketing strategy is data analysis, as data analysis is the only reliable way to track how customers are responding to your attempts to market yourself. Running a start-up, you likely have time to additionally become a data analyst but learning how to read data can provide your start-up with an asset it needs to succeed and save you the trouble of hiring someone else down the line to do it for you.
If this sounds like a good trade-off to you, read on: we’ll go over what resides within the purview of data analytics and how you as an entrepreneur can get the education you need.
Data Analytics: Reading the Bones
First thing’s first: think of a data analyst as an augur. Their job is to take a tremendous amount of disparate data points (or the bones) and pull meaning out of it, usually to answer a question. They must be able to do this across many sources and communicate their findings in a clear, concise way, usually through some kind of graphic depiction.
Data analysts can also look at past trends in data to answer questions about what the future may be like, answer questions about why things happened, and give businesses counsel on what should be done moving forward based on current and past trends.
They are absolutely vital to companies across industries of any size, as without them, businesses are effectively blind: they have no idea if their marketing strategies are working and no way to course-correct if they aren’t.
What are Data Scientists, and What Can I Take From That Field?
You may have heard the terms “data analyst” and “data scientist” used interchangeably to describe the same position. While how individual companies label their open positions is up to them, there is a difference between the two, and it will be important for you to know it. Data analysts use statistics and querying to probe data, searching out the answers for a question, whereas data scientists take data, compile it into a set, and perhaps draw out a predictive model.
They share many responsibilities and use similar methods to reach their separate goals, but similar does not mean the same. Chances are, if you want to gain knowledge of how data science works, you’ll need to take separate courses.
Bootcamps: A Quick, Efficient Way to Learn What You Need
Speaking of courses, it’s time to talk about how you, the ambitious entrepreneur, can learn enough about data analysis (or data science, if you so choose) to read data yourself and pinch a penny or two in the process.
Data analyst bootcamps are flexible educational programs that last a matter of months at the most, cost about as much as a semester at college, and give you the training and necessary to read data on your own. You want to find a provider with part-time and full-time programs to meet any schedule, so you can feel free to browse and choose the one that will best fit your lifestyle.
Give Yourself the Competitive Edge
You could always choose to go the collegiate route or to forego any data analysis training entirely. But for the ambitious entrepreneur looking to give themselves an edge over their colleagues, data analysis bootcamps provide education as narrow or as wide in scope as you need it to be at the times you need it, for the price you want. Consider getting yourself that extra edge, and preparing yourself just that much more for a post-pandemic digital landscape.