As a novel start-up in a poorly-researched space, we needed to validate the problems Whirli is solving. Sapio Research were fantastic partners from start to finish – creative in brainstorming angles, careful in designing the questions, and rigorous in analysing the results. The research brought a wealth of insights, backed by hard figures, for our business decision making and for us to talk about publicly in the press.
Success story
COVID-19 UK B2B Barometer
Tracking business confidence and helping give UK businesses clarity during this turbulent time.
Today’s data visualisation tools stretch far beyond the traditional spreadsheets or the charts and graphs created in Excel. In an ever-growing business landscape with more and more data at our fingertips, it’s important that the ways in which we display that information is able to keep up. Because of this, data visualisation has become standard practice for business marketing strategies and are vital to a company’s success.
A recent Experian report noted that 95 percent of US organisations say they use data to power important business decisions and 84 percent believe data is an important component of creating a successful business strategy. Large amounts of data can be overwhelming, and therefore difficult to process. However, the use of data visualisation eases the task of data analysis and provides great benefit the businesses which employ it.
Making sense of your data
When processing information, it can be very hard to understand the meaning of it all when there is so much data to go through. At its core, data visualisation takes the piles of numbers, figures, and analyses and puts them all into one organised, easy to read visual aid.
Visualising the data organises everything and makes sense of it so that by the time it reaches readers, they can easily understand what they are looking at. Whether it’s in the form of a chart, graph, live data configuration, or a 3D model, visualisation tools make it easy to convey everything in a way that is easy to read and digestible.
Identifying trends
Marketers are always on the lookout for patterns and trends in data to pinpoint new opportunities. Insight to your most visited web pages lead to conversion ratios, and high volume traffic hours is certainly useful in its raw form. However, when you plot that data, actionable insights can be established.
Data visualisation takes all of those tiny puzzle pieces and puts them together to show the big picture. From there it is much easier to identify trends, relationships, and correlations between different sets of data. The visual cortex and data processing centres of the brain can actually see these things before even fully processing them when they are laid out visually. Marketers, in particular, can benefit from this to make informed decisions regarding the components of a campaign.
Grabbing and holding attention
Although spreadsheets and Excel charts can be a great place for storing massive amounts of data, they can be very boring and displeasing to the eye, immediately lowering the level of interest from anyone viewing the information. Additionally, the use of colours, pictures, and interactive visuals allows the brain to tell a story through the information, rather than providing a flat, boring dataset.
Staring at long strings of numbers, words, and figures can be exhausting to the eyes, inhibiting one’s ability to process what they are seeing. However, when there is a story being told, the data becomes more interesting and fun to follow. Once interest is established, readers are more engaged with the data and are better able to use it.
Strategizing and building campaigns
Once the data has been organized, visualized, and put into an easily digestible place, we can take the necessary steps to allow that data to drive our decision making. Although processing the data is important and cannot be overlooked, it is only the first part of the larger plan – making better decisions based on data collected.
With the trends, relationships, and information identified within the collected information, businesses can then tailor their advertisements, marketing strategies, and business plans to create the best possible result. Companies can take that data and put it to use in reaching their goals whether that means increasing ROI, increasing website traffic, or goals more specifically tailored to your business.
Content marketing
The age old saying holds true in marketing, content is king. While today’s consumers are being swarmed with information from every direction, its important marketers create content that stands out and presents the right message. Data visualisation can help. Utilising the appeal of visual content, data in the form of infographics, video, and other storytelling techniques are easily digestible for audiences and highly shareable. Determining how different topics and content formats perform can be tracked through interactive charts, providing insight as to how to improve marketing content going forward.
In using data visualisation, businesses can reach their goals easier, faster, and more pleasantly every step of the way.
Sara Carter is the Co-Founder and Editor of Enlightened-Digital. An avid programmer and content creator, she’s fascinated with the potential of technology to improve our lives.
