Data Science Today: How to Become a Data Mining Analyst
What is data mining?
- Minimize risks and detect fraud
- Better understand customer behaviors and needs
- Make more informed decisions faster
- Tap into new markets
- Improve branding and marketing initiatives
- Increase revenue
What do data mining analysts do?
- Performing strategic data analysis and research
- Identifying opportunities to improve productivity via sophisticated statistical modeling
- Looking at user behaviors to find common patterns or trends that may be used to improve a product’s performance
- Interpreting results and identifying opportunities for improvements
- Communicating recommendations to stakeholders and/or clients
Where do data mining analysts work?
- In banking, data mining is frequently used to model and predict credit card fraud and analyze risk.
- In financial markets, data mining is employed in areas that include stock price forecasting, portfolio management, bond rating and more.
- In retail, data mining is used to analyze shopping patterns, evaluate advertising and direct mail campaigns, co-locate products in display areas and better understand customer preferences and behaviors.
- In health care, data mining can help identify best practices and inefficiencies, evaluate new treatments, and detect fraud or abuse.
- In telecommunications, data mining is used to handle “churn management” of customers and determine which promotions will resonate with which target audiences.