Market Research Analyst and Marketing Specialist Career Assessment
Finding out what customers want, and telling the story
Welcome
Market research analysts study what people buy and why. Marketing specialists use that information to plan ads, websites, social media, and campaigns.
These two jobs are counted together because many people do both. You will explore what the work is really like and whether it fits you.
This takes about 15 minutes.
What is a Market Research Analyst and Marketing Specialist?
A market research analyst gathers information about customers — through surveys, sales records, and website data — and figures out what it means. A marketing specialist takes that information and builds the message: the ad, the email, the post, the campaign. Both jobs run on computers. Both need you to explain numbers in plain words to people who do not like numbers.
The Reality: Two honest points. First, most postings ask for a bachelor's degree, usually in marketing, business, or communications, and they want to see work you have actually made. A portfolio — real campaigns, real posts, real reports — often matters more than your grades. Second, North Dakota pay for this job is well below the national pay, and the gap is large. The middle here is about $61,580 a year against about $78,760 nationally. That is partly because the big corporate marketing departments are elsewhere. Remote work can close some of that gap, but remote marketing jobs are competitive.
Your Responsibilities:
- Write and send surveys to customers
- Pull sales and website numbers into a spreadsheet
- Look for patterns in what customers do
- Study what competitors are doing
- Turn findings into charts and short reports
- Plan and write ads, emails, and social media posts
- Measure whether a campaign worked
- Explain the numbers to managers in plain words
You find out what people want, then help your employer give it to them.
A Day in the Life
8:00 AM — Check how yesterday's email campaign did. Note the open rate.
8:45 AM — Build a chart showing which ads brought in the most orders.
10:00 AM — Write survey questions for a new product idea.
11:00 AM — Team meeting. Present last month's numbers in five minutes.
12:00 PM — Lunch.
12:45 PM — Draft social media posts for next week.
2:30 PM — Dig into why one region's sales dropped.
4:30 PM — Write a short summary for your manager and shut down.
Desk work that mixes numbers and writing. Deadlines come often, but they are usually small ones.
Training in North Dakota
Most jobs want a bachelor's degree plus a portfolio of real work. A marketing, business, or communications degree is the usual door. But employers also want proof. Free online courses in analytics and ads, plus real projects you did for a small business or a nonprofit, can matter as much as the diploma.
Training Pathways:
- Two-year degree first (2 years): A business or marketing associate degree. Take a sales, social media, or marketing assistant job, then transfer your credits into a bachelor's degree while you work.
- Bachelor's degree (4 years): A marketing or business administration major. Most ND programs include a marketing research course, which is exactly the skill this job is named for.
- Degree plus portfolio (during school): Do real work while you study — run social media for a local business, build a survey for a nonprofit, finish a free analytics course. Show the results at the interview.
Where to Train in North Dakota:
- North Dakota State University (Fargo) — Marketing major, BS, minimum 120 credits. The catalog requires MRKT 450 Marketing Research as a core course — catalog.ndsu.edu
- University of North Dakota (Grand Forks) — Marketing, BBA, 120 credits, offered fully on campus or 100% online. UND describes coursework in marketing analytics and in designing studies, collecting data, and turning findings into decisions, and names market researcher and marketing analyst among the jobs it leads to — und.edu
- Minot State University (Minot) — Marketing, BS, 120 credits, on campus or online. Minot State names market research analyst, marketing specialist, public relations specialist, and survey researcher as career outcomes — minotstateu.edu
- University of Mary (Bismarck) — Marketing, BA or BS, offered in person or fully online, with a year-round option that finishes faster. The program covers market research and consumer demand — umary.edu
- Valley City State University (Valley City) — Business Administration, BS, with a Marketing concentration, on campus or online — vcsu.edu
- North Dakota State College of Science (Wahpeton and Fargo) — Business Management, AAS (Marketing, Sales and Hospitality Services), 61 credits, face-to-face in Wahpeton or Fargo with some classes online — catalog.ndscs.edu
- Bismarck State College (Bismarck) — Business Administration, Associate in Arts, on campus or online, built to transfer into a four-year business degree — bismarckstate.edu
Before You Start: High school diploma or GED. You should be comfortable with spreadsheets and percentages. You do not need advanced math. Strong writing matters as much as the numbers.
Tip: Start with financial aid, scholarships, and any help an employer offers — that is where the money starts. After that, ask a career counselor or Job Service North Dakota whether WIOA or other programs can help with what is left over, like training, tools, work boots, or exam fees. What can be paid for depends on the program and on your own situation, so ask before you sign up rather than after. Registered apprenticeships let you earn a paycheck while you learn — see jobsnd.com/job-seeker/apprenticeships for ND programs.
Certification & Licensing
No license is required. Free and low-cost certificates can help you get the first job. Nobody licenses market research analysts or marketing specialists. What helps instead is proof you can do the tools: web analytics, ad platforms, spreadsheets, and survey software. Many of these certificates are free and done online at your own pace.
What Employers Actually Look For:
- No license needed — this is an unlicensed field. Nothing legally stops you from applying today
- A portfolio — three to five real pieces of work with results attached. This is the single strongest thing you can bring
- Analytics tool certificates — the big advertising and analytics companies give free online training and a certificate. Ask what tools the job ad names, then learn that one
- Spreadsheet skill — pivot tables and charts. Employers test for this more often than you would expect
- A bachelor's degree — the most common real gate in job postings, even though it is not a license
The Exams: There is no state or national exam for this career. Tool certificates have their own short online tests.
Cost: Many tool certificates are free. Your degree is the real cost.
Keeping It Current: Nothing to renew. But the tools change fast, so plan on relearning them every couple of years.
Salary & Job Outlook
North Dakota Market Research Analyst and Marketing Specialist Pay (May 2025):
- Starting out (bottom 10–25%): $18.98–$23.50/hour ($39,480–$48,880/year)
- Middle (median — half earn more, half earn less): $29.61/hour ($61,580/year)
- Experienced (top 25–10%): $38.41–$49.49/hour ($79,880–$102,950/year)
What that means: The middle North Dakota worker in this group earns about $29.61 an hour, or about $61,580 a year. That is far below the national middle of $37.87. The gap is even wider at the top: North Dakota's top tenth is about $49.49 an hour, while the national top tenth is about $74.75. Two reasons. The biggest, best-paid marketing jobs sit at large corporate headquarters, and North Dakota has few of them. And this number mixes two jobs — a marketing assistant posting social media and a senior research analyst — into one figure. The bottom tenth, near $18.98 an hour, is where entry marketing assistant work starts. This is usually salaried work, so overtime pay is not part of it.
Jobs in North Dakota: About 1,590 people do this work in ND today. By 2034, that should be about 1,740 (about 10% growth). Expect about 150 job openings every year in ND from growth and people retiring or changing jobs. Across the U.S., the change is about 7% growth — much faster than average.
Outlook: Good and growing. North Dakota is projected to go from about 1,590 to about 1,740 of these jobs, with about 150 openings a year. That is one of the faster-growing office careers in the state, and O*NET flags it as a Bright Outlook occupation.
Who Hires in ND: Advertising and marketing agencies, banks and credit unions, hospitals and health systems, colleges and universities, farm and energy companies, retailers and online sellers, tourism offices, nonprofits, tribal enterprises, and state government.
Work Setting: An office or a home office. This is one of the more common office careers to be offered partly or fully remote, though remote postings draw many applicants.
Physical Demands: Low. The hard part is sitting and looking at a screen. Eye strain, back strain, and wrist strain are real. A good chair, a sit-stand desk, and screen-reading or magnification software are common and reasonable requests.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, North Dakota, May 2025 (SOC 13-1161); North Dakota and U.S. long-term employment projections 2024–2034, via O*NET OnLine. Numbers are rounded.
Where This Leads
Path 1: Marketing Assistant — The usual first job. You post, write, and help.
Path 2: Marketing Specialist — You own a channel, like email or social media.
Path 3: Market Research Analyst — You run surveys and read the data.
Path 4: Digital or Content Marketing Lead — You plan the whole campaign.
Path 5: Marketing Manager — You run the team and the budget.
Path 6: Freelance or Agency Owner — You serve small businesses on your own.
The Real Talk
What's Great:
- Growing job in North Dakota
- Work in almost any industry
- Mix of numbers and creative work
- Remote work is common
- Your portfolio can beat your resume
- You can freelance on the side
What's Hard:
- North Dakota pay is well below national pay
- Most jobs want a bachelor's degree
- You need a portfolio, not just a diploma
- Tools change constantly
- Your work is judged on results
- Entry pay is low
Be Honest: Are you willing to build a portfolio of real work before anyone pays you for it? Can you write clearly and also read a spreadsheet? Can you accept that North Dakota pay here runs below the national number?