Data Engineering for Marketers: A Crash Course

Usage vs. Storage

Most marketers live in the 'Usage' layer—dashboards like Google Analytics or HubSpot. But the real power is in the 'Storage' and 'Transformation' layers.

### The Modern Data Stack (MDS)

1. **Extract & Load (EL):** Tools like Fivetran pull data from your ads, CRM, and payment processors. 2. **Warehouse:** Snowflake or BigQuery stores it all in raw tables. 3. **Transform (T):** dbt (Data Build Tool) cleans it up. This is where you calculate LTV, churn risk, and attribution models using SQL. 4. **Reverse ETL:** Census or Hightouch pushes those clean scores *back* into HubSpot so your sales team can see them.

Why Marketers Need to Know SQL

You don't need to be a DBA, but knowing basic SQL allows you to answer your own questions without waiting 2 weeks for the data team. `SELECT email FROM users WHERE signup_date > '2025-01-01'` is a superpower.

Building a Customer 360

The holy grail is a single profile for every user. This requires stitching identities across devices and sessions. It's hard engineering work, but it pays off in hyper-personalized campaigns.

Conclusion

Marketing is becoming a technical discipline. Embrace the code, or get left behind.