When we asked marketers and those in related fields what they believe about data visualization we were encouraged by their responses.
First, it is clear that 75% of marketers believe data visualization is essential to effective communications. In today’s highly visual culture and crowded marketplace, visualizing data clearly can make for more rapid engagement. And while it is not the only approach to communications, certainly it is an approach that leans towards “truthiness” and believablity, both highly valued by today’s customers.
Second, our respondents overwhelmingly agree that data visualization make it easier to understand complex information. Big data, large networks, abstract processes, conceptual ideas and quantifiable comparisons all benefit from data visualization. As we saw in a recent post, marketers are using visualization to communicate these kinds of concepts with many tactics in many channels. We see this as a growing area of opportunity communicating to both B2B customers and end consumers.
Given marketers’ belief in the effectiveness of data visualization, it’s not surprising that they also overwhelmingly believe their company would benefit from using data visualization more. A recent client told me that the visualizations we created for him helped him get buy-in from his board in one meeting, for something he’d been advocating for six months.
One of the obstacles to using more data visualization is the inherent difficulty in creating good data visualization. Because data visualization requires are broad range of data, design and coding skills, it can be challenging to create good data vis. Interestingly, marketers aren’t overly concerned about finding someone who can bring those skills to a marketing or communications problems. Our final chart shows that almost half of them do not see this as difficult.
Conclusion
Our data visualization research provided us with a window into marketer’s views on this emerging approach. Because data visualization leverages data in visual ways to tell new stories or engage in new ways, we believe marketers will be incorporating it into their mix more and more. We hope you will find this information helpful. Let us know if you have comments or feedback about what marketers believe about data visualization.
Thanks to our research partner on this project, SQMRC.
