Introduction
When working with a client, understanding the best way to communicate with them is crucial. You’ll often hear, “I’m more of a visual person,”—a key phrase that signals how they prefer to interpret information. As marketers, communication is one of our most valuable skills, and mastering different forms of it is essential. Effective communication engages the senses, whether through text, visuals, sound, or dynamic formats, and knowing how to leverage these elements can make or break your message.
The Role of Visualization in Marketing
Before communicating data, we first need to understand our audience. In the article, Visualizations That Really Work by Scott Berinato, he explores the nature and purpose of data visualization and introduces the four types of visualization—Idea illustration, idea generation, visual discovery, and everyday dataviz—and how they can be used for various types of communication. In a world where data visualization has evolved from a bonus skill to a necessity. Visual communication clarifies, reinforces, and helps audiences make informed decisions.
Consider these common marketing questions:
- How much traffic did our website generate last month?
- Did it increase or decrease?
- Which pages performed best?
- Where should we focus our efforts?
Simplicity is Key: Everyday Dataviz
The answers to these questions require effective data visualization. As Berinato emphasizes, “simple is the key.” Line charts, bar charts, pie charts, and scatter plots effectively present campaign results, whether monthly, quarterly, or annually. Our goal is always to showcase strong performance and selecting the right visualizations ensures clients grasp the insights quickly.
Berinato explains:
“Visualization is merely a process. What we actually do when we make a good chart is get at some truth and move people to feel it—to see what couldn’t be seen before. To change minds. To cause action.”
Crafting Clear and Effective Visuals
This is precisely what everyday dataviz accomplishes. As marketers, we spend most of our time interpreting data, identifying areas for improvement, and adjusting strategies. Collaborating with creative teams and analysts ensures that we construct the most effective visualizations. By refining the data, eliminating clutter, and focusing on key takeaways, we make insights clear—not just for ourselves but also for our clients. Ideally, those insights reveal exponential growth.