People are visual creatures by nature. Shape, color, and form are visual clues that we respond to faster, but numbers and words are abstract concepts that we must learn. That’s why, when it comes to data, using charts and dashboards rather than reading tables of data makes it much easier to identify patterns and trends.
Remember that hard work and truth are in the analysis before creating a marketing data visualization. Many tools make it simple to create appealing visualizations, but these are useless if they hide the flaws in the underlying research. Not only will a well-chosen visualization communicate the information, but it should also inspire further inquiries.
There isn’t a single graphic that can effectively express insights, facts, or analysis. If you use the wrong approach, your audience may become confused or misinformed. All of your efforts in collecting and assessing data could be for nothing if you don’t use the appropriate presentation.
We deal with data everyday as marketers, and data visualization benefits us communicate that data more effectively. It makes information more engaging and accessible by using visual components to tell a story inside it. Marketers can utilize data visualization to:
- Recognize patterns, trends, and outliers
- Support a point of view of an argument
- Make educated choices
Using The Right Method Of Data visualization
Now that you’ve decided what kind of tale you want to tell, you need to choose a data visualization that will help you express that information as effectively as possible.
There are various types of data visualizations, each with its purpose:
- Infographics: are used to give a quick summary of a subject.
- Charts: are used to compare, demonstrate change, and highlight relationships.
- Diagrams: are used to visualize processes, link concepts, and pinpoint root causes.
- Maps: are used to display data that is geographically located.
The reader gets misled, confused, and misinformed when the wrong visualization is used. For example, you can present the same data using a Sankey chart, bubble chart and a pie chart, but they may represent two completely different messages.
What Role Does data visualization Play In Marketing
Within any firm, the marketing and sales teams are intimately connected. These groups regularly share information, which could also be demonstrated. Data visualization practice improves the level of communication between the activities of marketing and sales teams in the following ways.
Enhanced data integration
As sales and marketing teams use different tools for collecting data and carrying out other routine operations, data visualization tools allow synthesis. The tools applied in the marketing department of organizations typically differ from those involved across sales teams. As a result, data visualization is required to give a common platform for comprehending the cumulative influence of the various factors. An organization’s performance is measured by its sales and marketing initiatives. If the data is not put on a single platform, you may not get the critical insight from sales and marketing activities.
When data is visualized, the real impact of data on sales and marketing operations may be quickly obtained as needed developing patterns based on sales and marketing activities can be immediately observed. With data visualization, data from various sizes may be combined on a single platform to create a larger picture.
Identifying trends
The forms of data visualization and how data is displayed enable for quick identification of emerging trends. Waterfall data visualizations are tailored for highlighting changes over specific periods: changes that would otherwise go unnoticed if the data wasn’t shown.
Because a complete summary is provided, data visualization also assists in the detection of growing trends. Spikes and trends would be reflected in this thorough summary as they developed over shorter periods. Data visualization can instantly spot these occurrences rather than waiting for a systematic investigation to uncover developing trends and spikes.
Effective Communication
In general, data visualization makes data easier to understand and, as a result, increases communication between teams within an organization. When data from several sources are combined on a single platform, every team member has access to the same information and may work toward the organization’s goals.
When everyone understands what’s at stake, they’ll be more motivated to strive toward the goal than if the information is based on speculation rather than reality. Data visualization reflects changes and motivates team members to work toward the strategy by allowing them to see the outcomes of their efforts. Because preparing individual reports across departments is time-consuming, data visualization is critical for eliminating miscommunications. These reports may also lack the necessary illustrations and be challenging to comprehend.
Employee engagement
Likert scale responses can be a valuable tool for checking in with employees. Companies can keep track of employee engagement and sentiment by using the same 5-point Likert scale to employee issues. Companies can see how knowledgeable their employees are about resources, how familiar they are with IT policies, and how frequently they use or take advantage of new tools, for example. Likert scale replies help companies identify a central tendency or assess the average employee’s level of agreement on a specific problem.
Improved Goal management
The visualization of data is tailored to the tracking of goals. Gauge charts, which regularly indicate performance against a predetermined target, are one data visualization style that is particularly well suited for goal monitoring.
With data visualization’s improved goal monitoring, strategies for achieving goals and getting results are more successfully implemented.
With data visualization, both the marketing and sales teams can see how well they are working together to reach a specific goal. Without data visualization, data monitoring would be a more time-consuming process involving each team developing reports and extrapolating progress.
As a result, data visualization provides the necessary knowledge to clearly show the direction to coordinate sales and marketing operations inside an organization.
Professional event feedback
Marketers can use a 5-point Likert scale to gain valuable feedback on the success of their events. A post-event survey might employ a range of Likert scale responses to assess the overall event knowledge or look further into particular features of the program, such as the member’s chances of returning or the relevance of location.
Extrapolation of data
Apart from the regular summaries and indications provided on the dashboard, data can be extrapolated and presented regularly. Data visualization’s data extrapolation capabilities give enterprises more in-depth data from everyday data. For example, if a company wants to track progress with email marketing, it can extract information from routine data.
Apart from the actual email performance rate, other statistics such as the send-to-click ratio, the open-to-click and send-to-open ratio, and the send-to-open percentage can be extrapolated and presented on the dashboard at predetermined intervals. The marketing team may closely monitor individual marketing initiatives against sales activity using data visualization. Split testing, for example, can be used to track marketing activities and find the most effective marketing strategy, particularly for a specific product or service.
Conclusion
Using data visualizations in your marketing gives you the best of all worlds- you can tell a story in an easy-to-understand way while also enhancing your message with data’s credibility. The objective is to extract value from the data, weave an engaging story around it, and select the most appropriate graphic to convey the message.
So, the next time you’re creating content, consider how you may improve it by incorporating compelling data visualizations. It’s probably more straightforward than you think.