Marketing in the current digital age is data-driven, making it necessary for marketing teams to analyze customer data to serve customers better. A report by Marketing Week states that marketing is becoming increasingly analytical in nature, dependent on large data and insights, and marketers should understand how websites function to optimize it better for their customer data.
Fortunately, coding goes beyond building websites and browser apps. Various programming languages make it easy to analyze large amounts of data, eliminating the previous tedious use of spreadsheets. There is also a growing number of marketing jobs that require technical backgrounds. Therefore, even if you don’t write codes every day, having rudimentary programming skills is beneficial.
Best Programming Languages for Marketing Teams
Finding the best coding language to learn is a heavily contested debate. Regardless, remember that you need more than one language to make an impact. Below are some coding languages that can benefit marketing teams.
- SQL
Lengthily known as “Structured Query Language,” SQL can be described as “excel on steroids.” Learning this language improves various marketing skills, such as data analysis, data queries, and working on data tables. Marketers with SQL coding skills can handle millions of data sets within a few minutes, compared to excel, which handles a few hundred thousand rows.
SQL is a great entry language for marketers, thanks to its simplicity and straightforward usage. SQL enables marketers to create accurate and detailed reports. You can also run advanced queries on Google Analytics data.
- JavaScript
JavaScript is a popular web development programming language alongside CSS and HTML. However, digital marketers and CRO experts should also learn how to track codes written in JavaScript to improve the accuracy and granularity of data tracking in a business. This ensures that marketing teams access better data quality.
Learning JavaScript is comparably difficult compared to SQL and might take more than 2 hours of daily learning to grasp the basic concepts. However, learning the basics is more than enough for marketers to understand and modify your business tracking scripts, automate, and improve communication with program developers.
With advanced knowledge of JavaScript, marketing teams can connect inventories with ad campaigns and run robust A/B testing.
- bash
Though not a famous programming language, Bash is a built-in language in computers that run on Ubuntu/Linux operating systems. It is the language used by most data servers as well. While marketers should prioritize this language, it doesn’t have a steep learning curve and comes in handy in automating reporting.
Marketing teams can use Bash in the following real-problem marketing tasks;
- Copying, moving, cleaning, and restructuring data files on remote data servers
- Script automation
- Connecting SQL and Python scripts to run together
Learning Bash takes one or two days. However, you won’ exploit it fully until you learn some SQL and Python basics.
Where Can Marketers Learn Programming Languages?
The internet is probably the best place to begin your coding classes. You can shop around for various online coding courses that teach your preferred coding language. The Coder school offers accessible and approachable courses on nearly every programming language you are interested in.
YouTube videos also provide great tutorials for beginners who prefer learning on their own. There are tons of programming books that guide beginners on every language for those who prefer old-school learning. Regardless of your chosen method of study, regular practice is the most important part of learning. Find some projects and apply the few coding skills that you’ve learned.
The Bottom Line
Evidently, marketing teams should learn to code. Apart from enabling them to achieve their marketing goals, coding imparts various beneficial skills, such as interpersonal and problem-solving skills, which improve their marketing personalities.