Whether you're doing direct-to-customer retail or converting B2B leads for your cloud-hosted PBX, data visualization can help your marketing team understand your customers better and share insights with the rest of the company.
What is Data Visualization
Data Visualization is any method used to present data and information in a graphic format. Charts, maps, and other visual elements allow a greater understanding and interpretation of complex datasets. This enables decisions to be made quickly and effectively by stakeholders, whether or not they're in a team that has a lot of familiarity with the business function being discussed.
Advantages of Data Visualization in Marketing
Marketing is an art as much as a science, but using data visualization in marketing has several advantages.
Analyzing patterns
Data visualization is essential for revealing patterns in large datasets. Suppose a fulfillment team has thousands of SKUs in a warehouse, tracked on one huge database. In that case, it's hard to do inventory management without graphs showing how stock levels fluctuate seasonally. If marketers work with thousands of customers, why shouldn't they use the same techniques?
With data visualization, marketers can quickly spot relationships and trends they otherwise couldn't, allowing them to identify areas of opportunity. They can gain better insights into customer behavior, market trends, and other valuable data points they can easily show to other teams in presentations, regular reports, or real-time dashboards.
With data visualization, marketers can quickly spot relationships and trends they otherwise couldn't, allowing them to identify areas of opportunity. They can gain better insights into customer behavior, market trends, and other valuable data points they can easily show to other teams in presentations, regular reports, or real-time dashboards.
Boost in Sales
Data visualization helps marketers boost sales by providing valuable insights into customer behavior. With data visualization, marketers can easily identify key patterns and trends in customer data and use the insights to adjust their strategies in real time.
For example, marketers can quite easily plot shipping addresses on a map and see where their most valuable customers are, showing them where to allocate resources for more targeted advertising. Marketers could also use data visualization to identify customer buying trends over time. They can use these insights to optimize promotional and pricing strategies based on factors like seasonal trends or customer lifetime value.
For example, marketers can quite easily plot shipping addresses on a map and see where their most valuable customers are, showing them where to allocate resources for more targeted advertising. Marketers could also use data visualization to identify customer buying trends over time. They can use these insights to optimize promotional and pricing strategies based on factors like seasonal trends or customer lifetime value.
Creative decisions
Data visualization helps marketers inform creative decisions by giving them a better view of who their customers are and what they want. By letting customer data lead the content strategy, marketers can have better ideas that are more relevant to their target market.
By visualizing data, marketers can quickly and easily identify which channels are performing better than others and which ones are being underutilized. They can use this to justify investments in specific channels, such as spending the time and money to make more Instagram Reels, edit videos, or trim videos to optimize their content's impact on the platform.
By visualizing data, marketers can quickly and easily identify which channels are performing better than others and which ones are being underutilized. They can use this to justify investments in specific channels, such as spending the time and money to make more Instagram Reels, edit videos, or trim videos to optimize their content's impact on the platform.
Better reports
Data visualization tools, like Power BI, can transform marketing data into an understandable format by creating unique reports with intuitive data representation.
They enable marketers to craft clear and concise reports that go beyond traditional charts and graphs. With data visualization, marketers can use a wide range of interactive features and intuitive layouts that help the reader focus on key metrics and trends.
These reports can include dynamic filtering, drill-down capability, and interactive maps, all of which provide a deeper understanding of the data. Furthermore, marketers can easily customize reports to fit specific needs helping them make informed decision-making.
Here is an example of how marketing teams using Jira for work management can create better reports with rich data visualization in Power BI.
They enable marketers to craft clear and concise reports that go beyond traditional charts and graphs. With data visualization, marketers can use a wide range of interactive features and intuitive layouts that help the reader focus on key metrics and trends.
These reports can include dynamic filtering, drill-down capability, and interactive maps, all of which provide a deeper understanding of the data. Furthermore, marketers can easily customize reports to fit specific needs helping them make informed decision-making.
Here is an example of how marketing teams using Jira for work management can create better reports with rich data visualization in Power BI.
Breaking down complex data
Data visualization helps break down complex data into something everyone can reason about clearly.
For example, it's challenging to figure out how to forecast inventory if you have several dozen variables to consider at once. Those could include current stock levels, seasonal trends, and changing consumer behavior. Data visualization can help quickly sift through that information to find the most meaningful relationships and trends.
By displaying data in visual form, marketers can quickly identify trends and relationships that might otherwise be hard to spot by looking at numbers on a spreadsheet.
For example, it's challenging to figure out how to forecast inventory if you have several dozen variables to consider at once. Those could include current stock levels, seasonal trends, and changing consumer behavior. Data visualization can help quickly sift through that information to find the most meaningful relationships and trends.
By displaying data in visual form, marketers can quickly identify trends and relationships that might otherwise be hard to spot by looking at numbers on a spreadsheet.
Ways to Use Data Visualization in Marketing
There are many ways marketers can use data visualization to improve sales, understand their audience better, and communicate more effectively with other teams. Here are just five to consider.
1. Find new patterns
Marketers can use real-time data visualization to quickly identify trends as they appear, understand correlations, and monitor changes over time. With data visualizations, they can take a large real-time dataset like sales to different customer segments and see patterns emerging.
Suppose a team adjusts its LinkedIn audience targeting and sees a simultaneous drop in clickthroughs but a slight increase in average spending. In that case, they might have discovered a more valuable customer persona than they usually target. This might not have been what they were looking for, but it's valuable information.
Suppose a team adjusts its LinkedIn audience targeting and sees a simultaneous drop in clickthroughs but a slight increase in average spending. In that case, they might have discovered a more valuable customer persona than they usually target. This might not have been what they were looking for, but it's valuable information.
2. See clear relationships
Data visualization allows marketers to see relationships between different data points clearly. By visually displaying data in charts, graphs, or maps, marketers can spot related trends and interesting outliers in the data they couldn't see on a spreadsheet.
For example, marketers might discover that visitors who come in from an Instagram ad are more likely to make an impulse purchase. Or by mapping their data to countries, they might find that users from English-speaking countries are more likely to convert than anyone else. That might mean it's worth doing some localization work to speak to international customers in their native language.
For example, marketers might discover that visitors who come in from an Instagram ad are more likely to make an impulse purchase. Or by mapping their data to countries, they might find that users from English-speaking countries are more likely to convert than anyone else. That might mean it's worth doing some localization work to speak to international customers in their native language.
3. Storytelling with data
Marketers can use data visualization to create better reports and do it automatically. When they have the tools to do reporting in the CRM, they can have real-time customer data rendered into glanceable graphs that go out to weekly presentations or company-wide newsletters.
Data visualization is a powerful tool for marketers to use in both internal reports and customer-facing marketing materials. Marketers can use data visualization to provide an engaging way to tell stories with data that support their claims, demonstrate their successes, and show how customers are responding to messaging at scale.
In customer-facing marketing materials, they can use data visualizations to showcase trends and insights at a glance. This makes their marketing messages seem more credible and makes their social posts more glanceable.
Data visualization is a powerful tool for marketers to use in both internal reports and customer-facing marketing materials. Marketers can use data visualization to provide an engaging way to tell stories with data that support their claims, demonstrate their successes, and show how customers are responding to messaging at scale.
In customer-facing marketing materials, they can use data visualizations to showcase trends and insights at a glance. This makes their marketing messages seem more credible and makes their social posts more glanceable.
4. Enhance designs and ads
Data visualization has become a powerful tool for marketers to do bespoke designs of marketing data.
This is nice for internal reporting because it makes reports more attractive. But it's even more useful in customer-facing marketing like industry reports and social ads. Data visualization tools let you present infographics in your own brand colors, which helps establish you as an authority in your sector.
If your infographics get spread around, that's free brand awareness marketing for your company. And when you can create your own infographics, rather than screenshotting them from other sources, you can present the information that matters to your audience in exactly the way you want.
This is nice for internal reporting because it makes reports more attractive. But it's even more useful in customer-facing marketing like industry reports and social ads. Data visualization tools let you present infographics in your own brand colors, which helps establish you as an authority in your sector.
If your infographics get spread around, that's free brand awareness marketing for your company. And when you can create your own infographics, rather than screenshotting them from other sources, you can present the information that matters to your audience in exactly the way you want.
Best Tools for Data Visualization
There are all kinds of data visualization tools out there, but here are some of the most popular ones that marketers can set up.
Power BI
With over a million members, Power BI platform gives users a global community where they can share learnings and techniques. Power BI allows to perform deep analytics, combine data from multiple sources, thus helping teams to identify real-time trends quicker, and predict outcomes.
Qlikview
Qlikview provides interactive visualizations and AI capabilities, such as suggestions for data formatting. The AI lets marketers explore all their data directly within user-friendly dashboards. Qlikview uses machine learning to get increasingly sophisticated over time, offering up ideas for marketers to explore further.
The AI even includes a "natural language" interface so that marketers can just ask a question and get an answer. They don't have to figure out complex spreadsheet formulas to get the information they need.
The AI even includes a "natural language" interface so that marketers can just ask a question and get an answer. They don't have to figure out complex spreadsheet formulas to get the information they need.
Google Chart
The Google Chart API makes creating visuals from data easy. Just insert the data and formatting into an HTTP request, and Google will return a PNG image of the chart. It supports many chart types, and you can integrate that image into your site like you would any other.
As it can all be configured with some JSON sent from your app, developers can have charts made up programmatically. If you have an automated workflow set up, it's easy to have information from a spreadsheet sent to Google Chart and populated on a site page or Slack channel in real time.
As it can all be configured with some JSON sent from your app, developers can have charts made up programmatically. If you have an automated workflow set up, it's easy to have information from a spreadsheet sent to Google Chart and populated on a site page or Slack channel in real time.
The Potential of Data Visualization in Marketing
Marketers have a tremendous opportunity to use data visualization to their advantage. With the right tools, they can gain deeper insights into their data, communicate more effectively with their target audiences, and drive better business decisions. Through creative data visualization, marketers can increase their storytelling power, create compelling visuals, and ensure their messages are heard by their colleagues and their customers.