Excel is one of the most popular software programs for businesses, and it’s used every day by employees and bosses in a variety of industries. But if you work in the marketing department of a company, you should know certain Excel tricks that will make your job easier and make you shine as a valuable staff member.
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Check out the four Excel tricks that every marketer should be aware of below.
Use a Program to Convert PDF Files Into Excel Files Quickly
If you work with databases a lot but you tend to get them in the form of a PDF, there isn’t much that you can do with them. However, with the right software application, you can easily convert a file from PDF to Excel so you can easily manipulate, organize, and display valuable data that your marketing department has gathered about your target audience, ad campaign, and more. These programs will also save you a lot of time because they’ll convert multiple PDF pages to Excel sheets in seconds.
Use a Pivot Table to Summarize Data
A pivot table in Excel is basically a spreadsheet functionality that lets you categorize and arrange tabular data. And a pivot table is important because your data will really only be useful if you’re able to extrapolate meanings from it. For example, pivot tables will assist you with summarizing your data and recognizing trends within it that will help you do business more effectively.
If you don’t know how to create a pivot table in Excel, you can look up helpful videos online. These tutorials will allow you to add this valuable skill to your resume and impress your bosses.
Program a Macro
As an Excel user, you should also be familiar with macros, which are programs that record and execute a series of commands automatically with just a single instruction, such as the click of a mouse.
Macros are important to use because they can make any long and tedious manual process super simple with the help of automation. So why spend time working hard when you can let the program do the hard work for you?
Use VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP
Excel is full of helpful functions, but you may not be familiar with the majority of them. However, as a marketer, you should know how to use the VLOOKUP HLOOKUP functions, which will let you search throughout any table for a specific value. You can then automatically output the associated value.
VLOOKUP, which is short for “vertical look-up,” will search columns vertically for the information that you need. If you incorporate HLOOKUP, you can also search horizontally for important data. Ultimately, you’ll be able to search large databases quickly because you won’t have to do so manually, which would otherwise take up a lot of your time and result in errors.
With these Excel tips and tricks, you can automate a lot of long manual processes, save a lot of time, and get the data that you need to effectively market your brand to the masses.
