This is an article “How To Get Easier Data Management With SQL” by Marc Primo
In every digital marketing campaign centered on eCommerce, analyzing data would not be complete without using SQL or Structured Query Language tools. Not to mistake the abbreviation for the advertising term 'sales qualified lead,' though both are a bit similar in terms of end goals—to move customers forward and deeper into the pipeline.
However, SQL in modern marketing is more data-driven and requires a more advanced approach to reap its actual benefits. If you've ever wondered how online markets such as Facebook, Amazon, or Shopify manage and make massive loads of data work to their advantage, then you’ve stumbled upon the right article.
Say you run a company that already works with a customer database; using the correct SQL tools will allow you to access and organize the nitty-gritty part of customer data management. With an efficient database management platform or application, you can easily understand how its hierarchy functions work, analyze metrics, and generate your needed data and insights for your lead generation strategies.
Before we get into all the benefits you can reap from using SQL tools, let's first discuss what it is and why it's essential for your digital marketing campaigns:
How does SQL work?
SQL (pronounced as 'sequel') is very much your digital librarian that sorts out all your massive data into one platform similar to how an actual librarian would use the Dewey Decimal system. The main objective is to efficiently manage volumes of data that you need, when you need them, and gain more intelligent insights about your customers in the process.
Since SQL became the gold standard for both the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), among many others, marketers have found simple solutions to update their databases quickly and in a fully compliant manner while weeding out useless information for their campaigns.
SQL works well for different business goals, such as developing your online selling website for the first time. Say you already possess a database that stores a record of previous customer purchases and other relevant information. With SQL, you can easily gain insights into a set of customers who frequently make purchases on your online store, gather their touchpoints and contact information, and assign the appropriate content to encourage them to take the succeeding steps within your marketing funnel or inbound marketing campaign.
In other words, SQL tools like MySQL Workbench or Sequel Pro for Mac systems can simplify how your typical and old-school Microsoft Excel works when managing volumes of information. It lets you analyze data according to a category, need, or frequency, much like how Google Analytics tells you about page visits, views, and engagement. By connecting your database management applications to your stored data, you can boost your eCommerce strategies with data-driven insights via user-friendly dashboards directly from your customer database.
This type of helpful technology that allows you to manipulate and utilize data in an automated and faster way spares you all the complex processes you'd have to deal with than if you decide to manage your customer database manually. And in today's digital marketing standards, achieving faster turnarounds means more positive results.
The importance of SQL hierarchy in your marketing campaigns
Learning how to use your SQL tool's hierarchy systems is similar to dropping pins for vacation hotspots on your travel map and figuring out which places to visit first. You'll have to zero in on specific locations on your hard drive or the cloud, especially when dealing with multiple data sources.
For example, let's say you want to gather data on your eCommerce customers from Seattle, so you enter the proper SQL queries on your database management system. Your SQL tool will display various databases for different locations. From there, you can easily use more queries that will show information on specific locations or sub-locations that are all within Seattle.
Aside from these, your dashboard can also display various fields and values in the tables, including addresses, purchasing habits, and other relevant information for your marketing campaigns.
Your hierarchical data sets can be linked according to their relevance and relationship to other parent data sets within your platform. Once you learn how to code the proper SQL queries and commands, you can select potential leads for your marketing campaigns with data-driven insights derived from your SQL tools. You must understand how the commands you encode work and apply to your tables and data sets.
Among the most common SQL commands that elite marketers use for their campaigns include the following:
Data Query Language (DQL) for search and view commands;
Data Manipulation Language (DML) for data modification, addition, or removal;
Data Definition Language (DDL) for table modification, addition, or removal;
Data Control Language (DCL) for administrative commands; and
Transact Control Language (TCL) which deals with more complex transactional data such as changes in DML statements that need to be categorized into logical transactions.
Overall, SQL offers marketers a more accessible, flexible, and integratable way to use coded language for efficient data management than the more sophisticated Python or Java methods.
However, you have to note that when updating or manipulating data via SQL, the changes you make will be permanent as the tool directly manages the database you are working on via the interface. So, be meticulous in modifying your tables and information to avoid unwanted data deletions.
Master your SQL tools and data sets
One thing for sure when managing multiple data sets in SQL is that you'll encounter plenty of unfamiliar terrain or data that doesn't seem to belong anywhere. The good thing is that SQL can help you analyze the data accordingly by teaching you how specific functions work.
The more you master how your SQL tools work, the easier it will be to assign lost data to their parent data sets. Of course, this will also require you to practice how your database management systems work; otherwise, you might find yourself deleting some information you'll need in future campaigns when it’s all too late.
When first dealing with a new SQL tool, it’s best to illustrate your goals before writing the codes, as any changes will stay permanent. Think of it as if you're building a skeleton before putting on clay to form the structure. You won't want any protruding bones after sculpting the final mold.
Keep in mind that your queries will depend on whether you're trying to modify data, sort out columns, or organize tables in your SQL platform. This strategy will work better for you throughout your campaigns and save you time and effort than creating data sets from scratch and doing a trial-and-error approach as you go through your campaigns.