There is no such thing as B2B (business to business). Everything is B2C (Business to consumer).
It is obvious if you stop to think about it. And I believe in doing what’s obvious.
Imagine you run Business A. You supply widgets to Business B, who in turn supplies them to its customers, DIY enthusiasts.
How can you convince Business B to buy more of your widgets? You could say they are cheaper than your competitors or you can deliver them faster. That would work until your competitor caught up with you.
A better option would be to convince Business B that its customers prefer your widgets.
In all your communication, you can go beyond Business B and reach out to its customers. You can talk to them in a way that is emotive, empathetic, exciting etc. If you limit yourself to just talking to Business B you will be forced to be rational. And as we have seen elsewhere, emotions drive behaviour.
A good analogy is politics. If you are a pressure group that wants politicians to make a change, your best option is to garner support among voters, who are politicians’ real customers. They are the folks that politicians listen to.
While B2B marketing seems the obvious thing to do, in fact, it makes it very hard for you to stand out. By communicating “through” the middleman to their customers, you can move the dial.
In the world of marketing, B2B does not exist. Everything begins and ends with the customer.
My name is Andy Pemberton. I am an expert in data visualization. I guide global clients such as Lombard Odier, the European Commission and Cisco on the best way to use data visualization and then produce it for them: reports, infographics and motion graphics. If you need your data visualized contact me at andy@furthr.co.uk or call 07963 020 103
This week Apple hit a $3trn dollar market capitalization.
That means that Apple is now worth more than Walmart, Disney, Netflix, Nike, Exxonmobil, Coca-cola, McDonald’s, AT&T, Goldman Sachs, Boeing, IBM, and Ford put together.
It’s a monster. And at the heart of its success lies the true metaverse. We could call it the Appleverse.
A metaverse, you will recall, is a series of Internet services connected by one operating system that does not recognize geographic boundaries.
Every metaverse needs a way in, a portal. For Apple, it is the App Store, which has been described as one of the most accretive business models in history. Another portal into the Appleverse is AirPods. Apple’s AirPods business alone generates around $12billion a year. That is more than Shopify, Snap, and Twitter combined.
Apple’s rival in the Metaverse is Facebook. Sorry, Meta. One reason Facebook has made a play for the Metaverse is that, unlike Apple, Meta has no hardware they control. They rely on other firms – including Apple – to carry their social media sites Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. This puts them in a weaker position.
Zuckerberg hopes that his Occulus headset can be the portal into the one true Metaverse, his metaverse. Setting aside the deeply troubling notion of spending time in any environment controlled by Zuckerberg, there are other reasons to be doubtful Zuck’s Metaverse will be a success.
His Oculus headset is selling somewhere between three and 5 million units. As one pundit has pointed out, that sounds like a lot until you realize crocs – a rubber slipper with holes in – shifts 60 million units a year. Last year, there were 130 million air pods sold. I am not sure AirPods look cool, but they look a lot better than wearing anyone wearing the Occulus headset.
My name is Andy Pemberton. I am an expert in data visualization. I guide global clients such as Lombard Odier, the European Commission and Cisco on the best way to use data visualization and then produce it for them: reports, infographics and motion graphics. If you need your data visualized contact me at andy@furthr.co.uk or call 07963 020 103
A Tableau dashboard is a powerful marketing and sales tool. It can help you to visualize data in an interesting and engaging way.
Despite this, there are many pitfalls that marketers fall into when building dashboards.
In this post, I will share five tips on how to make your Tableau dashboard look good.
What is a Tableau dashboard?
A dashboard is a combination of several views of data. You can arrange them for a presentation or to keep an eye on data as it changes.
A Tableau Story is different. It is a sequence of views or dashboards that work together to convey information.
Building dashboards with Tableau allows beginners to create engaging, interactive visualizations in minutes.
In a few clicks, you can combine data sources and dd filters. You can drill down into specific information.
Tips for Tableau beginners
If you are new to Tableau consider these tips:
You do not need to wait for your source data to be perfect. Tableau can help you identify so-called “dirty data. “
When connecting to data, there is a method that allows you to use a connection from another workbook. On the Connect panel, choose the “other files” option. Then select the workbook with the data source you’d like to use in the new workbook.
You can copy whole dashboards between workbooks too. Right-click on the tab of the worksheet and /or dashboard you want to copy. Next, select “copy sheet” from the menu. Then right-click over the tab area of your destination workbook. Then you can select “paste sheet.”
Remember, data visualizations are generally produced for others to read. So it is a good idea to ask yourself, “Would this view make sense to anyone else?”
That’s where visual best practices come in. It can help you make dashboards that actually make sense to other people.
Don’t forget to test for performance!
What is Tableau dashboard size best practices?
The golden rule is to author at your final display size.
Tableau dashboards are set to use a fixed size. If you keep this setting, be sure to build your visualization at the size your audience will view it at.
You can set Size to Automatic. This makes Tableau adapt the dimensions of a visualization based on screen size.
If you design a dashboard at 1300 x 700 pixels, Tableau will resize it for smaller displays. Sometimes this results in scrunched views or scrollbars. The Range sizing feature is helpful for avoiding this.
When it comes to Tableau dashboards, there are many things that you can do to make them look good.
In this post, I will share 5 more tips on how to make your Tableau dashboard look great.
1. Organize your data
One of the best ways to make your Tableau dashboard look good is to organize your data.
You have spent time and effort collecting, organizing, and cleaning your data,. Now it makes sense to spend more time making sure you display this information how you want it to be.
Using the Tableau easy filter option is a great way of making your data look good. It will keep things organized at the same time.
2. Use dashboard actions for quick insights
The best way to make your Tableau dashboard look great is by adding interactive elements. One example is dashboard actions.
Dashboard actions mean users can get instant insights into their data. All they have to do is click on the visualizations.
Imagine you have a visualization of how sales vary by region and how sales relate to the size of the company. Adding a dashboard action that shows how many clients there are per region would add context. It would allow your users to see how this data impacts your business.
3. Take advantage of filters
Another way to make your Tableau dashboard look great is by taking full advantage of filters.
Filters help achieve valuable insights. They show how different parts of your data vary from each other. You can use colour coding conditional formatting with thresholds. These .make sure users see patterns in your data.
But remember: too much colour can be a bad thing. This is because colour is powerful. Each different colour has an emotional meaning. Red can raise the alarm, blue is calm. Drenching your charts in colour is a typical beginner’s mistake.
For a premium touch, instead, use different shades of the same colour. Google uses this method for its data analytics. By using different shades of blue, their charts cool calm, and in control.
4. Make sense from all angles
Sometimes it’s tempting to cram as much information as possible into your dashboard. But it is important to make sure that all the data is easy to understand from all angles.
Once again, try not to use too many fonts and colours and make sure that you align everything.
A sans font such as Ariel is easier to read small.
5. Use storytelling to engage users
The best way how to make your Tableau dashboard look great is by using storytelling.
Storytelling helps you to communicate complex information in a clear and concise way. It helps keep users engaged with your data.
To tell a story with your data, pay special attention to the title of your chart. The title should be the conclusion of the data beneath it.
Eye-tracking surveys reveal readers look at the headline first. Then they look at the chart to see if the visualization supports the conclusion in the headline.
If you put the conclusion of the data in the chart headline you will be able to develop a story over a series of charts. And your readers will be able to follow it.
If you do not put the conclusion in the headline, your readers will not be able to follow and they will get lost.
It is shocking how fast readers abandon charts they do not understand.
Use these techniques. You will make your Tableau dashboards more engaging and visual.
The golden rule is that it is important that your data is correct. But it is also important that your data visualizations are interesting. Make sure you do not overwhelm your charts with colour. Ensure that you have a story to tell. Tell that story by putting the conclusion of the data in the headline. Then make sure the chart supports that headline. If you do these things, your Tableau dashboards will look good.
My name is Andy Pemberton. I am an expert in data visualization. I guide global clients such as Lombard Odier, the European Commission and Cisco on the best way to use data visualization and then produce it for them: reports, infographics and motion graphics. If you need your data visualized contact me at andy@furthr.co.uk or call 07963 020 103
This is a tricky question and takes some skill to figure out. But not much skill. Perhaps you could start by asking yourself, who actually pays the bills? Who is the customer, without whom this entire business or political party will crumble into dust?
Sometimes this is not as obvious as it seems. I work with many B2B businesses who get confused. They think the person physically paying the bills is the customer. But this may not be the case. Just because a CEO pays your fees does not mean they are the customer for your corporate social responsibility programme. Despite the flashy title, that CEO is often a middle man. The customer is the employee on the receiving end. on one occasion, this person was described to me by one high up as “Doris on the till.” If Doris does not get it, he implied, you will be out on your ear. Doris is the customer.
A politician’s customer is not her political boss, or the press or civil servants. Voters are her boss. (The question for her is, which voters matter most?)
As you can see, once you know who your single most important customer is, you are up and running, Now you can deep dive into their brain and see how they feel about your product, service, organisation or party. You can ask them directly. I regularly interview client’s customers on their behalf. It is always illuminating.
With a clear view on the customer, content becomes easy. Do the things she likes. Avoid the things she doesn’t like.
Who is your single biggest competitor?
Research firm Gartner have made millions explaining the competitive landscape to brands. Of course, rather than explaining it, they make it seem fiendishly complicated. If it’s complicated, you need Gartner.
It is true that the competitive landscape can be complex. It can be hard to wrap your mind around it.
It’s far easier to think about your single biggest competitor. Who is the brand or rival who keeps you up at night? You should not have to think about this too hard. Their name should trip off your tongue as they are the ones making your professional life a misery.
Once you have your fiercest rival in view you are ready for point three.
What does your brand actually do?
This is a deceptively complex question, but whatever the reality, you need a simple answer.
The answer must be simple because you need your single most valuable customer to easily understand it.
Amazon is the world’s biggest store. The RNLI saves lives at sea. Google organises the world’s information.
If you do not know what your firm does, type their name into Google. When their name comes up on the search engine results page, the line under the company name should explain what your firm does.
If that line sounds a lot like your fiercest rival, you have a problem. Your customer will not be able to tell the difference. You will have to change that line.
Otherwize you are in good shape. Now you should have a clear view on your single most important customer (name her!). You should know your biggest rival. (Make sure you are distinct from them). And finally a simple and clear explanation of what it is your company does.
Headlines, headlines, headlines
Now start making content. How often should you make content? What kind of content should you make? How long or short should it be? Should I make video? Infographics? What about White Papers? Should I be on Tik Tok?
The answer to all these questions and more is always the same: ask your single most significant customer. If they like it, do it. If they don’t, don’t. Twelve year olds aren’t on LinkedIn. CEO’s don’t go on Tik Tok. You get the idea.
So that was the easy bit. Now comes the hard part. The place where your strategy comes alive, where it gets real, is the headlines to your stories.
Anyone who is ever going to engage with anything you do ever, will read the headline first. Whatever picture you use, what video you make, where that content lives is all led by the headline. So, when you come to make content there are three things to focus on: Headlines, headlines and headlines.
So here is my advice: put all your efforts into crafting headlines that engage your core customer. If you can do that, the content world is yours.
Thanks to Andy Cowles for brilliant design work here.
My name is Andy Pemberton. I am an expert in data visualization. I guide global clients such as Lombard Odier, the European Commission and Cisco on the best way to use data visualization and then produce it for them: reports, infographics and motion graphics. If you need your data visualized contact me at andy@furthr.co.uk or call 07963 020 103
All you have to do is use one simple strategy used by experts.
It’s this: get your audience down to one person. Once you have done that you are all set.
Get your audience down to one person
It feels counter intuitive. That is until you actually stop and think hard about it. And then you realize doing anything else is impossible.
We know that emotions drive behaviour. This is not an opinion. It is a recorded scientific fact. Therefore if we want to engage anyone and get them to take any kind of action, we must appeal to their emotions before we do anything else.
But what if we want ten million people to vote for us? What can we say or write that will win over the hearts of ten million people?
Sit at your computer and try to imagine ten million people. You can’t, can you? What about one million? Forty thousand? Do you even know what 300 people look like?
Crafting messages to trigger the emotions of lots of people isn’t just hard, it is impossible. How can we make it more manageable?
Marketers will try to create “personas” of six potential customers to simplify their messaging strategy. What is so special about six? Nothing. There is no logic to this at all. Why not 66? It makes no earthly sense.
So what do you do? You get your entire audience down to one person. Let’s try it.
Workington Man
You are Boris Johnson. It is the 2019 UK general election. A large part of the electorate has already decided they will vote Labour. Another segment will vote conservative. There is absolutely no point creating a comms strategy aimed at either group. They have already decided who they will vote for.
Better to target the undecided. The floating voters. It makes sense to aim all your emotive messages at them. If they vote for you, after all, you will be prime minister.
In the 2019 election, these floaters were ex Labour voters who backed Brexit. Research suggested they’d be willing to vote for the Conservatives under Brexit-winning Johnson. But as a group they still seem is a bit too abstract. If we want to start crafting emotionally resonant messages for this group we need to make them feel real.
Conservative strategists settled on one person: Workington Man. He was male, 57, loved rugby league, drank beer and wanted to “Get Brexit Done.” If Boris Johnson’s messages did not resonate with this one man, then he would not win the election. But if Workington Man liked what he heard, Johnson was going to win.
The reason this strategy works is complex. Successful messaging must be strong and clear. If it is targeted at the most valuable member of your audience or customer base only, it will be clear. And they will love it.
Then, something strange happens. Others around this group start to like what they hear too. We do not need them to love it, just to like it. They vote too.
It sounds counter-intuitive, but the way to win over a crowd is to appeal to the most valuable member first. Your messaging will be tight, focussed and effective, and those around that individual will be drawn in.
Now think about the reverse case. If you write for thousands, you will freeze at the keyboard. Who can possibly guess what motivates such a large crowd? Your messaging will be bland, distant and dull. You will lose.
This is the way content works. Next time you have to write an article, think about who it is for. Get that down to one person. Now write as if you are writing to them.
The effectiveness of your comms will go through the roof, I guarantee it. But you do not need my guarantee. If you think about it hard enough, you will see there is simply no other way to do it.
Now you hold the secret of content in your hands. Use it wisely.
My name is Andy Pemberton. I am an expert in data visualization. I guide global clients such as Lombard Odier, the European Commission and Cisco on the best way to use data visualization and then produce it for them: reports, infographics and motion graphics. If you need your data visualized contact me at andy@furthr.co.uk or call 07963 020 103
Motion graphics are a great way to make your online presence memorable. Whether you’re hiring new employees or selling products, they make a big impact.
People are hard-wired to pay attention to things that move. So if your message is dynamic, engagement will go up. This is not an opinion. Studies have shown this to be true time and again. And we have found it to be true at Furthr too.
What’s more, video continues to dominate the internet. The numbers can be staggering.
500 million people watch Facebook videos every single day. Youtube users upload 300 hours of video to the platform every single minute. An incredible 93% of businesses get new customers as a result of video content.
People spend an average of 6 hours and 48 minutes watching online videos every week. No wonder advertisers use motion graphics for campaigns. Designers use motion graphics to make content. for the same reason. It was what people love to watch.
What are the benefits of using motion graphics?
Motion graphics are great for highlighting key messages and breaking down complex arguments.
Visual cues and colours engage the viewer to take in what they’re hearing. When used right, motion graphics bring out the key points of an article or sales pitch in a memorable way .
By creating many videos, you can also enhance your brand and create a unified look. This is useful if you have many people pitching ideas on different projects. Having one unified look makes them more cohesive as well as engaging.
What are different types of motion graphics?
Draw on a whiteboard with the traditional whiteboard marker pens. Now imagine if your drawing started moving around of its own accord. That is whiteboard animation.
The idea is to help your audience understand what your company does.
Creating an engaging, light-hearted story makes your business stand out. It also makes it easy to understand.
Whiteboard animation is simple, clear and concise. It lends itself to social media advertising campaigns. Whiteboard animation is easy to share.
There is a downside. It can be time-consuming as there are no templates available. Each video must be hand-tooled for your business and its customers.
CBS Evening News used whiteboard animation. The news network were trying to explain how super-delegates operated when they attended the Republican Party conventions. It was a rather “dry” subject. It could easily lose their audience. CBS believed whiteboard animation could make the issue seem more interesting It could make it more digestible too.
By making the super-delegates resemble wizards, CBS News hoped their audience would grasp their role. Some viewers found the animations embarrassingly child-like. They thought CBS were “dumbing it down.” But other viewers found it a useful way to understand the issue.
2D animation is what you would see in what you’d call traditional animation. There’s rich vibrant colours and the characters are what many people consider to be ‘cartoon like’.
2d animation gives what you’re trying to show your audience more depth, colour and movement. It is a richer experience.
Examples of this include graphics parallax scrolling backgrounds. They add extra interest to what your business does.
This type of motion graphic is good for adding interest when you are explaining what you do.
Furthr made this 2D motion graphic animation for Brouns &Co
If you just talk through what you are doing, interest can wane. This is sometimes called chalk and talk.” Motion graphics is make the story more exciting. They are a great way to create impact in advertising. It can look stunning. Awesome Inc are a great agency with a long suit in 2d animation.
3D animation is what people think of when they hear the words ‘computer generated’.
This type of motion graphic is what you would use to create a Hollywood movie or other high budget film.
After Effects is the software package you can use to make 3D motion graphics. They do a great job of helping make what you do look realistic on screen.
Capacity Studios love using 3D modelling when they make animations for computer games.. That is what they have deployed in this 3D video for Lamborghini. The fast cuts between a multitude of camera angles makes your heart race with excitement.
Video production is live-action video. It features people instead of drawings or animated characters. There’s nothing drawn or animated in the background.
Video production can be inexpensive compared with Motion Graphics. It doesn’t need highly paid animators or clever 3D artists. You can shoot everything live. It doesn’t need as much post-production editing either. This can bring down the cost.
In this skateboarding video, director David Holm uses his skills as an animator. But instead of using cartoons, he films live action sequences. Each sequence has many different angles, fast cuts and shows the eye of a graphic artist. It could be motion graphics. But it isn’t.
What are the elements of good motion graphic design?
The number one ingredient for good motion graphic design is feeling.
The best motion graphics convey human emotion. It could be surprise, love, hate, anger or anything else. Without emotion there is no communication.
The vehicle for conveying emotion is stories. Storytelling can be a confusing term but actually it means something very simple. Storytelling follows a structure hard-wired into the human brain. That structure is The Hero’s Journey.
The topic of the Hero’s Journey is a post in itself. You can look it up online. All the stories that mean something to humans follow this rigid structure. The best motion graphics – those that engage our emotions – follow this structure too.
5 ways you can use motion graphic videos to engage an online audience.
1. Social media videos
These can be a great way to drive viewers to engage with your company on social media. People love receiving rewards for engaging with companies. Why not create a quick video in response to their post/question/comment?
2. Product explainers and tutorials
People like learning new things. Tutorials are an ideal way to get people interested in your product or service. You can then use that interest to lead into sales or other uses for the product.
3. Customer testimonials
To build trust in your brand you need to put your customers front-and-centre. Spice up video testimonials by highlighting the key words and messages used.
4. Event and webinar invitations
Draw attention to important events by creating motion graphics to advertise them.
5. Logo animation
Bored of using the same email signature? Make yours stand out by creating an exciting logo animation with motion graphics.
These are 5 different uses of motion graphics to make your business stand out online
You can use motion graphics for marketing to product explainers and tutorials. Using them will engage your audience and establish a cohesive brand. That will make it easy for viewers to remember you in future.
My name is Andy Pemberton. I am an expert in data visualization. I guide global clients such as Lombard Odier, the European Commission and Cisco on the best way to use data visualization and then produce it for them: reports, infographics and motion graphics. If you need your data visualized contact me at andy@furthr.co.uk or call 07963 020 103
The ability to use data and information to make good decisions is invaluable. That’s why it’s so important for businesses to choose the right tools. That is the only way to get the insight they need.
This blog post will explore the main benefits of business intelligence tools. It will show you how they will help your business grow in 2022.
But business intelligence is not just about using tools to collect data about your business. It is also about using that data as the basis for decisions. If we ground our decisions in good data we will make good decisions. And the secret to running a successful business is to make more good decisions than bad decisions.
What is business intelligence?
Business intelligence describes strategies and technologies used by firms to analyze business data. BI technologies provide a view of the past, the present and even the future. It can sometimes predict business operations
What is an example of a business intelligence tool?
The market for data visualization software and Business Intelligence tools is busy. No players are popping up everywhere. Microsoft Power BI and Tableau are the biggest players.
Power BI is one of the most powerful tools that you can have in your marketing toolkit.
Power BI is Microsoft’s data visualization tool. It creates interactive visualizations and business intelligence. Its’ interface is simple enough for end users to create their own reports and dashboards. It is part of the Microsoft Power Platform
Power BI includes data preparation and visual-based data discovery. It features interactive dashboards and augmented analytics. It is software that runs on Azure. If you prefer you can run it as an on-premises option in Power BI Report Server.
Power Bi is big. Very big. 1.2 billion people worldwide use Microsoft Office product or service. There are 60 million monthly active Office 365 commercial customers. 50,000 small business customers get Office 365 each month. Power BI is included in Office 365 E5. This means that Power BI sells itself. Millions of other users of other Microsoft office products receive prompts from Power BI. They are nudged to “visualize in Power BI.” That means that everyone who uses Microsoft Office can see Power BI. And that is a lot of people. Microsoft Power BI is not going away anytime soon.
Tableau is Power BI’s main competitor. It is easier to use than PowerBI. And it offers marketers a more powerful insight into customer behaviour than they might have ever seen before..
It means business users can access, prepare, analyze and present their data. Tableau uses visualization to show your data to the world. It gives your data meaning. It also makes it impactful and persuasive. That is why marketeers love Tableau so much.
Tableau is very popular with its users. Customers show a fanlike attitude toward Tableau. An incredible 20,000 users attended its 2019 annual user conference. These users are strong champions for Tableau.
The are more business intelligence tools beyond Tableau and Microsoft’s Power BI. They include XL charts, Datapine, yellowfin BI. The list goes on and on.
Why do you need a business intelligence tool?
Data discovery was once the province of advanced analytics specialists. But now is something almost anyone can do using tools like those listed above.
These tools will give anyone insights you need to achieve business growth. It will collect all your data in one place. It will help you identify and resolve urgent issues. You will be able to forecast future outcomes and track past mistakes. It will identify trends that you would otherwize have no idea about.
How exactly does business intelligence improve efficiency?
Business intelligence improves decision making. It makes it faster and easier. That means you can deploy your workforce or resources without hesitation. You will be able to analyze your business processes and boost efficiency.
The main advantages of using a business intelligence tool in your company:
Accurate data analysis
A business intelligence tool means your employees can up to date use data. With accurate data you make better decisions using the results of analysis. And that does not mean only analyzing past data. Predictive analytics means you can predict future events based on detailed research.
New insights for better business growth
Business Intelligence means you can discover your company’s hidden treasure. You will locate areas with potential for growth. PowerBI will help you anticipated market changes. That means you will come up with effective strategies before it’s too late.
Alerts for real-time data means faster decision making
One of the advantages of an enterprise business intelligence tool is alerts. They let you receive alerts every time your data changes fast. This allows you to make better business. You can react fast or and find out what led to those changes – immediately after they happened.
Improve customer satisfaction
An advantage of an enterprise business intelligence tool is tracking customers. You will be able to see how they are reacting to certain services or products. You will see what customers think about their experiences. That will help you make better decisions . Especially when it comes to designing new product packages or running events.
By watching customer data, you can make sure your product aligns with their needs and wants.
Engage employees by removing data entry
Employees that use spreadsheets waste a lot of time inputting data. A lot of advantages come with enterprise business intelligence tools. They mean employees access information fast. So they can improve their productivity by having more time for other important tasks.
Help cut costs
Good business intelligence software helps you keep an eye on cash flow. That helps you reduce costs. Insight into how your company is performing will help you see where you can make cuts. You will be able to keep a close eye on the money earmarked for future growth.
Consider the advantages a business intelligence tool could bring to your business. If you think it can help – and it can – then get to it.
But remember, collecting data is only half the story. It is also necessary to use it. You need to make data and Business Intelligence a focal point of your team’s strategic thinking. You must ensure that you use it to craft smart business policies.
The advantage of enterprise business intelligence is clear. It helps you make more good decisions. And less bad ones,.
Over the long haul, that will safeguard your company from unnecessary failure.
More than that, you will be able to get an edge on business rivals.
My name is Andy Pemberton. I am an expert in data visualization. I guide global clients such as Lombard Odier, the European Commission and Cisco on the best way to use data visualization and then produce it for them: reports, infographics and motion graphics. If you need your data visualized contact me at andy@furthr.co.uk or call 07963 020 103
When you’re selling your product, each touch-point with your prospect must be engaging.
The last thing you want is for your prospects to not understand what they’re buying and choose a competitor.
Data visualization can help clarify things. It can make your sales materials stand out from the crowd.
Data visualization makes it easier for people to understand the differences between products. It can explain how each option will work for them.
In this blog post, we’ll share 7 simple data visualization techniques. They will transform your sales materials. They will make it easy for your prospects to choose your company.
Why is data visualization important for presentations?
Let’s start with the basics. Data visualization is important because data is important. And data is everywhere.
There is no sector in which data is unimportant.
If data isn’t present in sales materials, you’re missing out on an opportunity. Data helps your prospects make their decision.
Above all data visualization is a reassurance tool. It is best used towards the end of the sales funnel, before conversion. Data visualization provides proof the customer’s decision to buy is the right one.
Customers will take a look at the data just before they decide to buy. If the data is right, they will go ahead with the sale. That is why data visualization is so important in sales.
Data visualization closes the sale.
What data should you visualize?
If data isn’t represented in a way that makes sense, customers won’t care about it. You don’t want your data visualization to be boring or hard to understand.
Data can be used in sales. It can be used in other places.
Data from data visualization can be a starting point for future product iterations. It can keep track of performance over time. Data can predict trends and is useful for internal use to understand what is important to the market.
What data should I visualize in my sales materials?
You should visualize data about your product in your sales materials. You can include data about your company. You can also feature data highlighting trends in your industry. You can include any data that your prospect will care about.
But the most effective data visualizations show the benefit of the product or service.
There are a million ways to visualize data and every situation is different, but here is an example.
Imagine you were considering sending your child to a school. You’d start looking at local schools in your area. You would tour them. The school may allow you to chat to a pupil that takes you and your partner around. You can speak to the head teacher.
Towards the end of this process you will study the schools’ results in detail. What A’ level results did pupils who attend the school get? What about GCSE’s?
This data is shown in graphs. Want to know how how the school has performed over a period of years? A line graph could be helpful.. If you want to know the percentage of students who got top grades at GCSE the school may use a pie chart. If the data is strong, and all other factors are equal, you will choose the school.
That is one way you can use data visualization to reassure customers – or in this case parents . With data visualziation, they are sure they are making the right choice.
Here are 7 data visualization techniques. You can use to upgrade your sales materials today
1) Bar charts
Bar charts are a popular data visualization to use for presentations. They are simple and effective. Everyone understands them. It is wise to never underestimate simplicity. You can compare data from different categories or from the same category with ease.
A bar chart is great for data comparison. Does your company makes several products? Data about each product must be part of the data visualization.
A bar chart is great for showing growth or quantity. This stacked bar chart shows almost every career in the US and how much you can earn doing it. You can understand it without thinking. The reason it is is deliberate. It shows you what inequality – the different earnings between careers – looks like.
2) Line charts
One man made billions from monetizing line charts. He is Michael Bloomberg. He popularized the Bloomberg terminal. Stockbrokers use it. It shows the price of a stock over time, depicted as a line graph. Line charts are great for data that has a natural order.
A line chart is helpful when you want to show the data over time,. You can use it to show how much your company is growing in comparison with its competitors.
We all know pie charts from school. Pie charts are great for showing percentages or how a market divides.
It is always advisable to use charts that everyone understands. A Sankey diagram may look exciting. But it is possible that many of your readers will not understand how to read it.
Pie charts are a data visualization technique that everyone can understand.
4) Treemaps
Treemaps are data visualization charts that use the size of data to tell a story. They help your prospects understand data spread out over many categories fast. Treemaps break everything down into manageable, bite-sized chunks.
5) Wordcloud
Wordcloud data visualizations are great for data that’s not quantitative. The data may be qualitative. They could use text data about your prospects or their opinions on different topics. Or, the data may be words in general, such as data about the products you offer or company data.
6) Heatmaps
Heatmaps use different colours to represent different values. They’re helpful to visualise intensity.
Heatmaps make intuitive sense. It is no surprise data scientists use them much. Governments have used Heatmaps to tell the story of the spread of Covid 19.
7) Correlation Indices
Correlation data visualizations represent data in a coloured grid. Data scientists split the data into different categories. They assign a colour to each category, such as data about your company.
They fill the grid with dots that show the correlation in the data.. The data is from different categories. Or the data is identical across all categories.
Learn these seven data visualization techniques. They will ensure you improve your sales materials . They will help your company stand out from the competition.
My name is Andy Pemberton. I am an expert in data visualization. I guide global clients such as Lombard Odier, the European Commission and Cisco on the best way to use data visualization and then produce it for them: reports, infographics and motion graphics. If you need your data visualized contact me at andy@furthr.co.uk or call 07963 020 103
Marketers are always looking for new ways to engage with customers.
Tableau offers marketers a more intimate insight into customer behaviour than ever before. Tableau is a game changer.
It means business users can access, prepare, analyze and present their data. Tableau uses visualization to show your data to the world. It gives your data meaning. It also makes it impactful and persuasive. That is marketeers love tableau so much. That’s why you should learn Tableau.
You can use Tableau in different ways. It can be a great tool in any marketeers’ armoury. This blog post will explain why tableau is worth learning. It will show you five key benefits you can expect from the software.
Tableau is one of the most exciting pieces of analytics software available today. It is very powerful, easy to use and is big news in the marketing world. Alongside Microsoft’s Power BI, it is the world’s leading data visualization software.
Tableau is very popular with its users. Customers show a fanlike attitude toward Tableau. An incredible 20,000 users attended its 2019 annual user conference. These users are strong champions for Tableau.
The company has been successful. It grew its total revenue to over $900 million through the first quarter of 2019. Tableau achieved 14% growth from the first six months of 2018 to the first six months of 2019. That is why is was bought by Salesforce on August 1, 2019.
Tableau believe there is a particular reason for the platforms’ success. They believe they share traits with many successful cultures from history. Tableau, they say, is like Ancient Rome or Egypt.
Successful cultures all shave three traits. They have a common language. They are adaptable. Finally, they share their knowledge around.
Tableau is similar. The common language is data. Tableau is agile. It can scale up or down. You can have it on premise or have it on Cloud. It will suit your needs. So it is very adaptable.
Tableau has around it a sharing community of super-users. They will help you with best practice tips or explain what type of chart would work best with a particular form of data. Tableau’s developers post their solutions to problems online. They post a lot.
“The array of options is incredible,” said data scientist Marcelo LeCoq, research director at IDC. “So many solutions. It is amazing.”
But the real reason to learn Tableau is clear. It is to get an edge on your business rivals. Here are 5 benefits that you can get from using this software. Add them all up and you will get an unfair advantage over your rival firms.
1. It is easier to learn compared to other platforms so you can crunch data fast
Tableau is simpler than SPSS, Microsoft Access or Power BI. These competitor programs are useful and powerful. But they do have a steep learning curve.
Tableau is easy for beginners. Yet it still has all the functionality needed by an experienced marketer or analyst. You can extract insights from data much faster than you could before.
Tableau has within it an AI engine. It works a bit like the Google search box. All you have to do is type in what you want to know. You might write “I want to see cells by date and region.” Tableau will come back with an answer.
“That is because it can build the visualization on an on-demand basis,” said LeCoq. “It means creating charts is as easy as asking a question. I use this function all the time.”
2. You don’t need a technology background to use it
Despite being a very powerful program, Tableau requires no high-level computing ability. In fact, you don’t even need a marketing background. All you need is good data analysis skills.
With Tableau, you don’t need any programming skills – anyone on your team will be able to make sense of data. This is great news for marketers who have been looking for an easier way to get into analytics.
“Other platforms require you to know more about them before you start, ” said LeCoq.
3. It can help you see your customer’s journey through your website or app
Tableau is useful in helping you identify where customers drop off in your sales funnel. Is it from first impression or the point of sale? It can show and how they interact with your website or app.
Tableau will map a customer journey down your sales channels. So it is perfect for marketers looking to understand their customers’ journeys.
4) It can handle large amounts of data so is perfect for any sized company or team
Data lives in a data base. You can connect Tableau to any data base including SQL, CSV, Python or even XL spreadsheets. Tableau has the largest connection suites of any data visualization software.
You may need to blend data sets before you visualize them. Tableau allows you to do that.
Tableau will also suggest visualizations suitable for your data. This means you will have have a chart framework to start with.
One of the most important things that you need to consider is how much data your company is going to be working with. If you are a large business and want to learn how to use Tableau, it is able to handle large amounts of data very fast.
Tableau is also an amazing tool for benchmarking. Once you have mapped out your data, you can compare your performance with competitors. Or compare other businesses in the same industry.
5) The visualizations that come out of this software are beautiful
This is not the main reason for learning Tableau,. But the software is beautiful.And if the software does not look good, others will not find your visualizations persuasive.
The graphics that come out of it are impressive. You can use them to give presentations or sell your findings to other people in the business.
Tableau is worth learning
Tableau is worth learning in 2021. It is a valuable skill. You do not need to be a software engineer to make it work for you. In fact, of all the data software platforms, it is the one that is best for beginners.
If you learn it you will not be alone. Marketing surveys reveal that Tableau continues to expand within its installed user base.Customers usually upgrade to Tableaus’ latest version. And they express positive views about that migration experience.
If you are a marketer looking to make an investment in your career, consider picking up Tableau.
My name is Andy Pemberton. As well as training how to win pitches, I am an expert in data visualization. I guide global clients such as Lombard Odier, the European Commission and Cisco on the best way to use data visualization and then produce it for them: reports, infographics and motion graphics. If you need your data visualized contact me at andy@furthr.co.uk or call 07963 020 103
