Microsoft Excel functions are highly versatile, making this program a great choice for managing marketing data. Having Excel skills allows you to track and analyze data to make essential business decisions.
Excel skills are beneficial for digital marketing as it is an excellent research tool and data reporting tool. If you are new in the marketing field or want to improve your marketing skills, this is a must-read article that discusses what Excel skills do you need for marketing.
Excel Skills Levels
You must assess yourself to determine your Excel skills level. If you have basic skills, it would be best to learn more advanced skills; it would be highly beneficial for you.
Here are the three Excel skills level:
1. Basic Excel Skills
You have basic Excel skills if you are familiar with the three ribbon tabs and their corresponding tools. You must be familiar with the Home tab, Page Layout tab, and View tab.
Basic Excel skills include familiarizing basic functions such as:
- Basic spreadsheet formatting
- Navigating the spreadsheet interface
- Data presentation and data entry
- Saving and printing work in Excel
- Doing basic mathematical computations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division)
- Using basic formulas such as SUM and AVERAGE
2. Intermediate Excel Skills
Intermediate Excel users understand the difference between an Excel function and an Excel formula. They can also understand what happens to data cells when they are manipulated or moved around the spreadsheet.
Intermediate Excel skills include familiarity with functions such as:
- Use of formula tab and functions
- Can use the following formula or function: VLOOKUP, MID, and CHOOSE
- Can create charts and graphical representation
- Can manipulate text and dates by using formulas
3. Advanced Excel Skills
You have advanced Excel skills if you are familiar with and use almost all Excel functions and formulas. Advanced users can work on several spreadsheets and manipulate multiple cells.
They can encode and process large datasets. They can easily manipulate spreadsheets, graphs, charts, and tabular data, as well as perform calculations, and automate multiple cells.
Advanced Excel users can effortlessly use the program and confidently teach others how to use it.
Advanced Excel skills include the following:
- Can build a pivot table
- Can install add-ins
- Can use advanced formulas such as SUMPRODUCT, INDIRECT, OFFSET function, and INDEX MATCH
- Can use AutoFilter
- Record, edit, and modify macros
Whether you have basic or advanced Excel skills, using pre-made and professional spreadsheet templates can make your Excel experience less stressful. Spreadsheet templates from Simplesheets.co are highly customizable, allowing you to format them according to your marketing needs.
9 Excel Skills Needed for Marketing
Excel is used for marketing in several aspects, especially digital marketing. Knowledge of Excel helps you analyze data points, web statistics, and audience metrics.
It also aids in the analysis of campaign and advertisement ROI. Having Excel skills helps you manage product, budget, profit, and client data.
Here are some of the Excel skills you need for marketing:
1. Using the VLookup function
VLOOKUP function or Vertical Look Up function is a built-in function in an Excel spreadsheets that allows you to look vertically in a column of data sets. With the VLOOKUP function, you can accurately and effortlessly search your tables for values or data and relate this to other values in the spreadsheet.
2. Summarizing Tabular data
Pivot tables are an excellent way to categorize tabular data. This spreadsheet functionality can summarize and organize data using pivot tables.
The use of pivot tables is very helpful in Excel because you can arrange tabular data, and easily review and predict trends.
3. Table Formatting
Skills in table formatting are very handy for organizing and formatting data cells. This skill makes use of data ranges to create an interactive database.
4. Charting Data Points
Charting data points is best done using a graphical representation called a histogram. A histogram allows you to organize data into groups. A histogram can show how many data points in the spreadsheet belong to a specific range.
5. Using IF Function
The use of the IF function allows you to effectively determine which data fall under specified conditions. In marketing, the IF function is helpful when you want to make comparisons, such as ratings between poor or good and true or false.
6. Concatenate Function
The concatenate function is helpful when you want the data from two columns to come together. This function will save you a lot of time retyping information. In marketing, the concatenate function helps organize the data gathered from different sources, such as an e-Commerce store.
7. Conditional formatting
Conditional formatting helps you spot trends in a data set. One way to conditionally format cells is by changing colors to represent performance. You may use conditional formatting in determining ROI for marketing campaigns and advertisements.
8. Analyzing data and Regression Analysis
Data analysis becomes easier when done on a spreadsheet with the application of regression analysis. Regression analysis compares different variables in the spreadsheet.
This is a statistical process that uses the concepts of correlation and causation. This type of analysis helps determine the impact of variable A on variable B or whether they are related to each other.
Regression analysis is helpful for marketers because they are able to compare relationships between variables.
9. Keyboard Shortcuts
The best thing about using an MS Excel spreadsheet is the fact that you can access the tabs and functionalities using keyboard shortcuts. Using keyboard shortcuts, common Excel functions can be simplified and carried out quickly.
Here are some helpful keyboard shortcuts:
- CTRL + K (Insert hyperlink)
- ALT+= (Get the sum of a column of data)
- SHIFT+SPACE (Highlight an entire row)
- CTRL+Home (To reach the top cell in the spreadsheet)
- CTRL+End (To reach the last cell in the spreadsheet)
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why is Excel important in marketing?
Excel is essential in marketing because the program can easily manage data. It can track, analyze, and predict data trends which are important for creating marketing strategies and business decisions.
2. Does marketing require the use of Excel?
In general, marketers will be using spreadsheets most of the time. Therefore, you are expected to have basic knowledge of Excel functionality. You can be an effective marketer if you have advanced Excel skills.
Conclusion
Improving your Excel skills can help you reach your goals of getting a job promotion or receiving higher pay. Advanced Excel skills will make you stand out from the rest and improve your overall efficiency.
You can formulate better marketing strategies and plans if you can maximize the use of Excel. You can make data analysis easier by making use of professionally-made templates specially made for sales and marketing.
