Ana Soplón works as Head of Web Analytics at Sanitas, a company that is firmly committed to new technologies applied to health insurance. After being part of several departments of Línea Directa Aseguradora, he has spent most of his professional career in Marketing, and especially in online carrying affiliate networks and web analytics. In addition, she is a professor in the KSchool Web Analytics Master and founder of the Madridgirlsgeekdinners.

Ana, how would you define the figure of a Web Analyst?

The web analyst is a person who must know the structure and the objective of the company in general and the Internet channel in particular. The web analyst must be able to interpret data putting them in context of the reality of the internet and the rest of the departments that make up the company. In addition, the web analyst must have the soul of a teacher and communicator. In short, the web analyst is the “link” between the numbers and the rest of the company’s ecosystem.

In a company like Sanitas, what challenges do you pose in your day to day?

My main challenge is that the different areas of the company become aware of the importance of measuring and that the actions that are carried out must be based on conclusions obtained from the data. In the day to day, my challenges are less ambitious but just as difficult to achieve: ensure the hygiene of the data, detect incidents or points of improvement, prepare reports that add value to the people who receive them …

How did you become Web analyst?

I think that most of the analysts who have been working in this field for several years, arrived by chance. From that stroke of chance, the road to becoming a web analyst has not been exactly easy. In the beginning I had to read a lot and investigate, especially in American books and blogs since that moment the material in was really scarce. Also, I tried to attend all the web analytics and online marketing events I could. It helped me a lot that I am a curious person and maybe the key to overcome the challenge was the knowledge of the business and the web that I had to analyze in that first stage.

What training do you have if you want to dedicate yourself to this?

In my opinion, the ideal training to devote to web analytics should be technical: IT, engineering, statistics or similar. Although I do not think that not having a training of these characteristics is an insurmountable barrier. I know web analysts who are excellent professionals and who have very diverse training: graduates in advertising, market research or even law. And although it is not exactly training, the affinity with numbers and the desire to learn if I consider them essential.

Is Web Analytics a profession with a future? Where is this world going?

Web analytics is a profession with a present. We can not speak only of the future, which obviously has it, but we must speak of the present profession. We are living in an economic moment in which companies are forced to be more profitable. On the internet, it is essential to optimize and measure is the first step of optimization.

We are building the way towards a future in which companies will have in their organizational chart the web analyst. This need will encourage the increase of professionals in the sector and a greater specialization in the different tasks that are now carried out by a single analyst.

It seems that companies are taking more and more seriously this measuring results to optimize investment How do you see the evolution of Web Analytics in our country?

In my opinion, web analytics is moving slowly but steadily. It’s not a fad, it’s a relatively new professional discipline but it’s here to stay.

When do you think a company needs a web analyst?

At the time when the company has a web page or plans to mount it, or what is the same, the analyst is needed since the first step on the internet

You participate in the KSchool Web Analytics Master , which begins its fourth edition in October, what are you trying to transmit to the new generations of web analysts?

My intention is to tell how I live my profession without being catastrophic or to lead students to believe that their future work is rosy. I hope that knowing firsthand the day to day of an analyst will help them understand what they will face when they access their job.

Finally, what would you say to those who want to dive into the data? Where do you have to start?

Even if it sounds like a hoax, I would tell them that they are fortunate enough to be able to access a specific web analytics training like the one Kschool offers. Web analytics is a living discipline, they have to be aware that they can not stop training.

I would also say that you should not be scared with the huge amount of data obtained from the internet and that the numbers tell you everything, they are very sneaky, but you have to know how to interpret them. And above all, I would say that if you choose web analytics as a profession, you will be starting your career in an exciting world.