If you could measure a company’s growth like you do a growing child, Intouch would be in the 90th percentile — at the time of this writing, there are nearly 100 open positions! One of the roles currently open is that of data analyst, so for this edition of our “Day in the Life” series, we talked to Alex Johnson, an analyst in the KC office.
What field did you work in before you joined Intouch, and how long have you been in marketing?
I have always worked in marketing in some regard. Most of my previous work has leaned toward digital media buying and analytics. My first exposure to analytics and data visuals was with Publicis Groupe, where I helped develop automated reporting for Hewlett Packard Enterprise. I have also done some work with the Super Bowl and automotive tech startups.
How would you describe your job to someone who isn’t in the marketing/advertising field?
I explain my job as “the person who takes data from multiple sources, combines given data points and strategically builds stories through data visuals and insight development.”
What are your typical responsibilities and challenges — what’s your average day like?
I am always working in more of a technical regard with business intelligence tools like Tableau, SQL, Alteryx, Adobe Analytics, Google Analytics, and SessionCam. The biggest challenge analysts currently face is storytelling and data cleansing. A typical day can range from developing omnichannel marketing reports to automating reporting, data cleansing, data mining, forecasting, and building data warehouse data marts.
How often do you interact with clients, and in what capacity?
I often engage with clients when it comes to report building and data cleansing. I do less report walkthroughs (typically the account team manages this), but when building new “vizzes” (visualizations) or reporting, I’m normally in the conversation from start to finish. Also, when developing projections or forecasting, clients will bring me into the conversation to forecast digital media and sales performance.
What type of a personality/disposition or skill(s) do you think is best suited for your job?
Malleability is key. In digital advertising, things change constantly and such changes are often out of your control. I also believe a heavy interest in mathematics and design helps make a strong analyst.
What do you find most challenging about your position?
There are a vast amount of extract transform load (ETL) and visualization tools that can be utilized from an analytics perspective. Choosing the right ones to introduce efficiencies is a skill that comes with more exposure. There are also tons of web analytics tools that can be utilized as well. A good analyst knows when to use which tools to tell a great story and how to implement best practices for such tools.
How is working in pharma marketing different than you expected when you started here?
Pharma is very niche, making KPIs a bit harder to visualize given the many restrictions on the industry.
How is doing analytics for pharma different than in other industries?
There are much more restrictions. Rather than working with actual sales numbers, due to data restrictions, analysts in pharma work more with forecasting and projections rather than actuals.
Any advice for people interested in getting into analytics?
Start learning technical skills like Alteryx, SQL, and Tableau. Starting with these ETL/visualization tools is a great base. Once there, you can then evolve into more data science-driven roles or analytics director roles.
Interested in working at Intouch? Check out our open positions today!