“When data and stories are used together, they resonate with audiences on both an intellectual and emotional level,” explains Jennifer Aaker. This quote aptly encompasses the power of data storytelling.
We are surrounded by data but it’s the story that adds meaning to it, helping us get insights and understand why that data matters.
Effective data storytelling lets you put your message across while engaging your audience and influencing decision-making. This is why data literacy and storytelling are essential skills to have today.
Now, the question is: where do you get the data from?
While you can obtain publicly available data from external sources such as government entities, industry reports and researchers, it’s the internal data that does the magic. Why? Because it’s original, unique, and authentic.
Here’s a look at four internal data sources for effective data storytelling.
1. Behavioral Data
According to a Gallup report, companies that use behavioral insights outperform their peers by 85% in sales growth and more than 25% in gross margin.
Many brands are already using behavioral insights to personalize customer experiences and improve acquisition.
Why not extract insights from that data to create compelling data stories too?
You have access to unique customer behavioral data which reveals how people interact with your business. You can obtain this information from:
- Your website
- Mobile application
- CRM system
- Google Analytics
- Social media analytics
A brand that does this well is Spotify with its popular year-end review, Wrapped. At the end of every year, the music platform rounds up listeners’ data and presents it to them in an engaging package. Users have fun learning about their own listening behavior, and will often share screenshots on social media. In a similar way, the healthcare industry is also making use of the data analytics and data granularity at the highest level.
2. Sales Data
Sales data is another internal data source that exclusively belongs to your brand. This reveals buying trends and patterns that can be analyzed to weave an interesting narrative.
Here are a few data points you can consider while analyzing your sales data:
- Product sales
- Sales channels
- Trending products
- Buying patterns across markets
- Competitive share
- Seasonal trends
In December 2015, Airbnb used its sales data to create an animated video. It revealed that over 1 million people will be celebrating New Year’s Eve in Airbnb homes. The brand also shared interesting statistics about the top destinations for couples, families, and senior, among others.
Source: YouTube Airbnb
3. Survey Data
Sometimes you might find it difficult to uncover interesting insights from your existing data. In such cases, it’s a good idea to conduct a survey and collect data about a specific topic.
Start with establishing the goal of your survey — do you want to obtain feedback, do market research, or understand your audience better? This will determine your survey type and questions.
You should use a mix of close-ended and open-ended questions to gather quantitative and qualitative data. While quantitative data helps you compare and measure metrics, qualitative data lets you dig deeper and adds more context to the responses.
Zapier suggests using four types of question (and answer) styles:
- Categorial
- Ordinal
- Interval
- Ratio
Here’s a snippet from a data infographic Venngage created on visual content marketing after surveying over 200 marketers.
Source: Venngage
4. Company and Employee Data
Internal data sources don’t necessarily have to be related to your customers. You can also look inward and create data stories about your company history, milestones, culture, or employees.
When you share compelling company stories that your audience can emotionally connect with, it increases brand awareness, builds loyalty, and sales as well.
Not only does it build your brand reputation externally, but it also improves internal branding and positively impacts employee morale.
For instance, HubSpot has been releasing a diversity report for the last five years. The report throws light on their global employee data and is a way to honor their commitment to diversity, inclusion, and belonging.
Source: Hubspot
The Takeaway: Use Internal Data Sources to Improve Storytelling
The good part about internal data sources is that you don’t have to look too far. You’re already sitting on a goldmine of valuable data that can be used to inspire your data storytelling efforts. Apart from these sources, sometimes in certain cases, using a synthetic data generator is also an effective tool.
By gathering insights from internal data sources such as behavioral data, sales data, and survey data, companies can gain a better understanding of their target audience, allowing them to create more effective stories, as this article explains. Data mapping is a crucial process for companies to unlock the competitive advantage of strategic brand marketing and make data-driven decisions. Through data mapping, companies can gain valuable insights from their data and improve their marketing performance.
That being said, it’s crucial to clean the data and pick the right data points that would resonate with your audience and add value to the story.
Disclaimer: This is a guest post by Simki Dutta is a content marketer at Venngage, a free infographic maker and design platform. She writes about all things marketing and communications.
Jamil Ali Ahmed
Jamil is an Organic Search Manager at Cloudways - A SEO friendly hosting Platform. He has 14 years experience in SEO, and is passionate about Digital Marketing and Growth Optimization. Jamil is a Minimalist, Observer, Loves Nature, Animals, Food, Cricket & Mimicking :)
