Data Janitors are the most underappreciated marketing role, in my humble opinion. These are the marketers who are often introverted, shy, detail-oriented, and technology wizzes. They make it look easy and you might not even realize the value of what they do. Data Janitors make sure your prospect and customer data flows into and across your technology systems in a useful way. This is the dirty work that makes it possible to glean marketing insights and automate marketing tactics.
You might have heard of this role under a different title – Marketing Analyst, Data Analyst, Data Custodian, Data Steward, Data Scientist… I like the term Data Janitor. Here’s why:
- They are always tidying and cleaning. Data Janitors sift through mountains of data to find the broken patterns, normalize it, and then repeat.
- They can navigate through the back hallways and side entrances. Data Janitors know how all the systems connect across marketing, operations, and analytics.
- They get little recognition. Data Janitors regularly monitor and maintain data flows, and it’s only in failure that their work gets noticed.
As the marketing industry shifts to more restrictive privacy regulations, managing your first party data becomes a much higher priority. Technology teams have been managing big data sets for a while, and they offer some great guidance on roles and data governance. This Data Janitor is one such role. But before you post a job, take a good look at who might be doing that work already. You might be surprised.
Do you have a Data Janitor in disguise?
For more information on Marketing Data and Data Janitors, check out these resources and stories:
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