Learning SQL for marketers is like house help for a working family, it’s not that you can’t survive without them but they make life for you so much simpler.
To build a successful app, it is very important that a proper detailed research is conducted about your prospect market- what they like, what they dislike, what they are attracted towards and so on. If you are one app developer who is trying to come out with an app, this is more so!
So How Does A Marketer Gain Access To All Of This Important Information?
Yes, an option is to completely rely on IT people which will be a major constraint – as you are depending on someone else to analyze your data. This leaves you to the obvious alternative, which is to learn SQL. If you rely on someone to do the key part of your job, how will you be a top developer? You need to at least know the basics of SQL even if you are purely a marketer.
SQL will give you access to all the data you need, for example, in the case of a website- how many people came to the website? How many people logged on? What products did they order? This of course gives you a clear picture of what people are buying. So you now have access to all the information you need about the market you are dealing with and also when your app is in the market you know all you need to about your user and their preferences. You will also understand the problem areas in your apps and can immediately correct them rather than relying on someone else. This ensures a fast solution to problems. In fact, companies such as Oracle have ensured all their marketers know SQL extremely well.
SQL will provide you access to a lot of data and get your work done at triple the speed! Sounds good! But now the major question arises, how does a marketer learn SQL?
Though the sound of learning SQL may sound scary but it is actually pretty simple – a lot of text is easily available. There are specific books for people involved in marketing and business, also new software keeps being developed and the tools are being made more user friendly.
So How Does SQL Basically Work For A Marketer?
As a marketer all you need is read only capabilities. Building tables and housing data is not of much use to a marketer. Microsoft Access is a great way to get started; it pulls out all your required data from Microsoft excel easily. Access allows you to build queries visually and allows you to see the SQL behind the queries.
Knowing SQL has a lot of additional benefits beyond just analytics. For instance, providing exports to key customers or partners or to set up complex, tailored email marketing programs.
SQL is very popular these days! So while SQL can be a little intimidating at first, it is a tool that every Internet marketing professional and developer needs to have in their tool-belt if they are to be successful.
