Brand marketers often ponder over two major things — one, how to capture the attention of their audience and two, how to make them remember key brand messages. With investment within the neuromarketing space projected to rise at a 10.20% CAGR from 2017 to 2025 (source: Global Neuromarketing Solutions Market, new research report by Transparency Market Research), it’s clear that emotions are a key driver in order to persuade audiences.
Until the day comes when neuromarketing is fully realised, how do we get into a consumer’s mind? Especially within the digital space? The answer sounds relatively simple; you follow their “clicks” and use that data to tell them a story they want to hear. But while it is easy to buy in to the power of data, many feel that the data world is not accessible and approachable enough to be used freely, confidently, and quickly. What are the roadblocks some brands face, and how do we use data insights to unlock more revenue?
While data is one of the most important tools a marketer has in their toolkit, many are still struggling to make sense of it, let alone gain insights they can leverage from it. Despite the large number who agree that data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), automation and the Internet of Things (IoT) are set to be the biggest disruptors of business for a long time to come, new research from the CMO Council and RedPoint Global has shown that brands will need to do more to harness the power of analytics.
The research, as reported by CMS Newswire, revealed that only 7% of marketers surveyed in early 2017, say they make real-time, data-driven decisions across both their physical and digital touchpoints. The biggest factor quoted for this is because only 5% are able to see the bottom-line impact of engagements in real-time, because their current processes require too much manual work in connecting their data from various disconnected systems. When data is disjointed and does not offer a clear flow, it:
- Prevents marketers from being able to provide compelling data storytelling
- Disables insightful decision-making that can be backed by data
In turn, brands are then unable to connect with audiences on a deeper level or drive more conversions.
The Case for Data Storytelling
Storytelling in the digital space is essentially turning raw data into visuals with stories and meaning. The ability to transform data into visual stories that anyone can act upon — from individuals to teams and even external audiences — is a vital tool for sharing and decision making, not just within organisations, but with audiences as well. This is because people don’t make decisions based on numbers, they make decisions based on a story.
In a recent study by Prysm Inc. a leading digital workplace platform provider, it was found that:
- 80% of organizations report more accurate decision making when using data visualisation tools
- 86% of companies report faster decision making through data visualisation
- 81% noted that the tools improved customer behaviour insights
- 65% of information gets retained by people when paired with an image, as opposed to 10% without visuals
Given the above, why wouldn’t you be storytelling? It’s clear that while the velocity and volume of data has changed, how the human mind processes data has not changed — we’re still very visual, which makes good design very important in analytics.
If you’d like to find out more about the art of data storytelling and learn how to tell a strong narrative that compels audiences, check out The Science Behind Data Storytelling and learn how to be a master storyteller yourself.
