Programming 101 for Marketers

6 min readApr 6, 2023

Let’s face it: digital literacy will become more important as a foundational skill set, barring some Cormac McCarthyian nightmare. Learning the fundamentals of programming may benefit marketers in a number of ways, from beefing up their resumes to increasing the ROI of the marketing department in the spirit of letting go of our commitment to conventional marketing strategies.

No longer only a tool for product, engineering, or support, programming is a talent for everyone. A rising number of marketers are taking advantage of all that being a digital marketer entails and teaching themselves how to code.

Why should marketers learn to code?

Data-driven marketing is unquestionably the norm in the Age of the Customer. This implies that the better we can serve our customers, the more directly we can examine the data sent to us from all the technologies in our MarTech stack. According to Marketing Week, “Marketers need to understand how their websites perform in order to optimize the consumer journey better as marketing becomes intrinsically more analytical, founded in rich data and insight.

Building fantastic browser apps and websites is simply the beginning of coding, as is the case with digital marketing. There are programming languages available that are ideal for evaluating massive volumes of data without forcing you to manually enter each piece of data into a spreadsheet (shock!). Python is used for data research, machine learning, and content creation (more on that below).

With a foundation in programming, you’ll be able to handle problems as they arise without contacting customer support. There are more and more marketing positions that demand technological expertise. As a result, all resumes will soon need to list at least a few languages in the “Other Skills” area.

Even if you don’t write a lot of code daily, a basic understanding of programming will help you determine the return on investment (ROI) of specific requests if you know the level of work needed to do the tasks you frequently ask your development team to complete.

No-Code is changing the way marketers see coding.

No-code adoption has grown over time as a result of digital transformation. The area of marketing has had the most significant influence. The low-code/no-code movement has simplified corporate marketing by eliminating the need for software developers and coding specialists. Instead, this no-code, low-code tools were developed to let non-programmers produce ready marketing software solutions more quickly.

No-code solutions enable marketers to create business apps without technical understanding and are more straightforward software. With these no-code tools, software development is not necessary.

Marketing professionals without coding experience can design mobile applications and solutions for their companies using no-code software development tools. No-code solutions have leveled the “playing field” in the digital world and made it simpler for companies to respond rapidly to change. As a result, digital marketing teams now possess the skill set needed to design agile business technology solutions rather than software developers.

The emergence of the “citizen developer” has been made possible by a more streamlined development procedure for marketing applications. Thanks to a simple platform, no-code marketing will allow businesses to build applications and mobile technology solutions with little to no technical expertise. To develop software applications, digital marketers (citizen developers) are not required to write code. As a result, marketing procedures within an organization are quicker, cheaper, and more adaptable. Additionally, businesses can gain valuable data-driven insights from no-code digital marketing about how customers use their most recent digital products and services.

How can marketers leverage programming?

A marketer’s job often entails comparing many landing page iterations or advertising assets to see which one performs the best. You may produce those web pages and other materials on your own by learning to code. You need to be skilled at data analysis when testing them, which is what we’ll cover next.

Analyzing Data

By picking up some programming skills, you can execute effective analysis. For instance, you can utilize Python’s built-in tools, such as Scrapy, to collect data from the Internet. In order to do different mathematical operations for data analysis, you can then use a library like NumPy. SQL can be used to query databases and modify the data contained in them.

Data visualization

When you know how to program, the presentations you must develop as a marketer get a boost. Some of it will occur due to your improved data processing and data-sourcing skills.

Python also makes it possible to visualize the data better. With only a few lines of code, attractive charts and plots may be made using visualization libraries like Matplotlib and Seaborn. Depart from the same old Powerpoint templates, then.

Automation and Scripting

The most fulfilling skill a marketer can gain while learning to code is probably scripting for automation. By understanding Javascript and Python, you can automate many of your duties, streamlining your workflow and boosting productivity.

Where to Start as a Marketer

When you know how to program, the presentations you must develop as a marketer get a boost. A portion of it will occur due to your improved data processing and data-sourcing skills.

Before you start writing code, a little reflection is in order. What you want to accomplish by learning programming needs to be clear from the start. Do you want to create your landing pages? Would it be wonderful if your reporting procedure were automated? The remainder of the process will take shape based on the response to this query.

Of course, your objectives may alter over time. However, you should focus on one of them and follow that study path until you get an appropriate level of proficiency.

Choose a programming language.

Having a specific objective simplifies choosing the programming language you’ll concentrate on. If you want to learn programming besides using no-code platforms, start with HTML and CSS. If you want to learn frontend development and perhaps move on to backend development, move on to Javascript. If you want to work on things like automation and data visualization, you can start using Python.

Python has gained popularity over the past year primarily due to its expanding use in academia, while corporations have also noticed an increase. So many businesses adore it since it is the preferred language for data analysis. It’s perfect for beginning software engineers, marketers, business analysts, bankers, and anyone else who wants to do more with data, claims Codecademy.

Python is perfectly suited to processing a large amount of data based on a few simple commands. There are many other outlets for it, such as web development, data science, and DevOps.

Python has a large community behind it, in addition to having an intuitive syntax. Since it is open source, which means that it is free and the only expense is time, many people have already invested their time in developing libraries like Numpy and Pandas. A more extended collection of Python libraries is available here. Additionally, there are discussion websites like Stack Overflow where you can find the assistance you require to complete that fantastic project that you simply cannot debug.

Seek mentorship

To their disadvantage, many professionals undervalue mentorship. A mentor can assess your particular circumstance and provide the appropriate guidance regarding the type of introspection you ought to conduct and potential next steps.

Should you find a mentor who is a marketer or a programmer, given that you are a marketer learning to code?

There isn’t just one proper response to that. An expert marketer can advise you on the business’s direction and point out the coding abilities that will serve you well. When you have questions about grammar or developing programs, a programmer can provide more detailed advice.

Take up open-source projects.

The first part of the battle is learning how to code. You must use what you've learned in tiny ways to determine whether you’ve acquired the abilities you want.

New programmers wishing to contribute to projects may find open-source projects a fantastic place to start. To begin browsing through source code and learning how to contribute to it, ensure you learn how to utilize Github in addition to your primary programming language.

The first part of the battle is learning how to code. To determine whether you’ve acquired the abilities you want, you must begin using what you’ve learned in small ways.