The Importance of Data Visualization in Digital Marketing
Understanding the “what next” instead of the “what happened”
In any successful digital marketing program, you should focus on the outcomes first and foremost. What do you want to have happen? How often? And from who? Once you answer those types of questions, a key step is to figure out once the program is in-flight or completed, how will you know it’s successful? Very often this occurs through calls, meetings, reports or dashboards. The last one, dashboards, is where data visualization and data communication come in to play and are two critically important skills for the modern digital marketer.
Data visualization is taking multiple categories of raw data values and converting them into tables, graphs, or maps, that the audience can use to easily interpret information to empower their decision-making process. We have identified several steps you can take to effectively communicate and cultivate your marketing programs when faced with the challenges of data visualization.
The first step is to perform audience research to identify your target audience. Not everyone interprets data in the same way, and it is best practice to design specialized visualizations for specific groups rather than generalized ones. Are we presenting the program to junior level subject matter experts or senior level leadership? Based on that, the data presentation will be significantly different.
The data you are presenting should empower your audience and inspire action. After identifying who the visualization is designed for, you can then decide what decisions you want to drive from them. Your visualizations are an extension of your marketing strategy, so be sure the messages they convey align with your goals.
Providing the right context will allow your audience to easily interpret the data in your visualization and be inspired to take action. You want to ensure the information is accurate, the appropriate visual is displaying the data, and the format is simple. Start by categorizing your data as quantitative, ordinal, or categorical. Then you can determine the correct visual to arrange the data, such as a table, line chart, bar chart, pie chart, or scatter plot.
Clean visualizations keep your audience engaged. Implementing metric-focused notifications will also regularly engage users with consistent interaction and calls to action.
ixperimint can assist with data visualization and complex marketing strategies to move your business into the future. Contact us now to learn how!