5 Proven Ways to Tell Stories with Data

When it comes to having an impact on the members of your audience, one of the most potent weapons in your arsenal is data.

The proof that you require in order to explain your conduct can be found in the data. For instance, managers and executives could utilize it as a source of information to inform their decisions regarding the company. In a similar vein, marketers may utilize it to construct a compelling argument for people to purchase their products.

However, because you are familiar with your sector and the primary indicators, it is safe to presume that those operating outside of your specialization have a similar level of familiarity with the data as you do.

And this is where the various approaches to presenting stories with data come into play.

You may take numerical information that might otherwise be dull or difficult to grasp and turn it into an engaging narrative by employing graphics in the process of transforming the data into a narrative.

In this post, I will demonstrate how you may increase your interaction with other people by utilizing a variety of narrative techniques to tell stories.

Let’s get started.

What exactly does “data storytelling” entail?

The process of translating data and statistics into concepts that are easily comprehended in order to drive home your point to the consumers you are targeting is referred to as “data storytelling.”

You need to make use of the appropriate data and analytical facts that will pique the interest of your prospective customers and convince them to take action on your services.

Your choice of topics, narratives, graphics, and creative approaches will determine how successful you are with the many methods of data storytelling.

A captivating narrative for your data tale may also be developed by using innovative tools and technologies to the process of analyzing various metrics and deriving insights from those measurements. This will help you come up with a solution to a problem.

And after you have the narrative figured out, you can move on to the next step, which is to convey the tale using data.

What you need to do is define a story, locate evidence to support it, and build a plot that presents the complicated concepts in a manner that is easy to comprehend. Those are the steps that you need to take.

From this definition, it is clear that data storytelling is comprised of three essential elements:

• Data – The cornerstone of effective data storytelling is an accurate examination of the data. For a better understanding of your data, try using both descriptive and predictive approaches of data analysis.

• Narrative: Construct a plot to tell a story that communicates the valuable insights that were generated from the data.

• Visualization – To effectively convey your narrative, make use of illustrative tools for conveying a tale, such as charts, photographs, diagrams, and graphs.

The Significance of Telling Stories with Data

There is more to data storytelling than the fact that it is an engaging method for communicating complicated information to an audience. The following are some of the many benefits that it offers to organizations:

Immediately draws in the focus of the audience

People have a tendency to choose pictures above any other sort of communication because of the simplicity with which they may transmit information. Visuals simplify the understanding of complicated ideas and save the reader from having to wade through large amounts of text.

You may develop aesthetically appealing presentations that provide your audience with practical information by using the best graphic design tools. These presentations can be shared with others. In turn, this will help you drive more conversions for your business.

Quickly Communicates the Intended Message

Because we live in a fast-paced society, your audience will want the information to be sent to them in a way that is simple and straightforward. The many approaches to data storytelling make it possible to convey difficult information to the end user in a format that is simple and straightforward to comprehend. You are able to offer information with your audience through all of these different mediums, from still photographs to videos.

Facilitates People’s Ability to Make Wiser Choices

You may assist people in making more informed decisions by utilizing data visualization and storytelling. This is possible due to the fact that humans are better able to process visuals than any other type of content.

You may better help your audience comprehend the issues that are relevant to them and encourage them to take action by condensing complicated facts into easily understandable concepts.

5 Powerful Methods for Telling Stories with Data

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s take a look at the top ways that you can utilize data storytelling to make sure that the proper people hear your data insights.

Reporting According to Standards

Your consistent reporting gives you the opportunity to use data to illustrate a point about the organization. You might, for instance, make use of charts and graphs to illustrate how successfully the steps that the organization took turned out.

If you recently purchased new software, you can demonstrate how the software has helped you improve productivity and save time by using a graph. When trying to justify the additional spending, it is imperative that you quantify the improvement using concrete statistics.

Dashboards and pre-designed report templates are two time-saving tools that are utilized in regular reporting.

On the other hand, certain individuals in the business could experience report fatigue and end up not conducting the appropriate data inquiries as a result.

Make the information in your report easy to understand by giving priority to including images in it. This will prevent this from happening.

After that, you will have an easier time distributing these reports to the relevant parties.

Take, for instance, a look at the way in which We Are Social tells stories using data in the form of a visual presentation.

Have Conversations with Employees of the Organization

Talking to people is one of the most important aspects of data storytelling, despite the fact that this may sound apparent. Direct contact, whether it be through Slack messaging, email, or a phone call, is an efficient method for ensuring that data insights are listened to and understood by the appropriate parties.

When you have reached the point where you are certain of the revelations you wish to share, you can then reach out to your target audience and have a conversation with them about your findings.

For instance, if you discover through an analysis of your marketing data that the organization receives a greater number of leads from a particular channel, you have the option of posting this information on the company’s Slack channel.

You also have the option of producing a brief video concerning this topic. In addition, if you want to make it short and sweet, you can divide your video up into several different videos and then share those with your audience.

Based on the findings, the corporation has the opportunity to choose whether to increase their investment in one channel or reduce their payments to other channels.

Direct communication has the advantage of not requiring any additional time for the structuring of communications, and it also has the potential to result in prompt actions being taken.

However, it’s possible that not all audiences are best served by this particular method of data storytelling. In addition to that, it’s possible that you won’t be able to provide a lot of information at once through this. It is recommended that you employ this form of storytelling for individual discoveries.

Utilization of Dashboards

One of the most common approaches of conveying stories with data is to use dashboards. Marketers use them for analytics and optimization, and as a result, it is much simpler to share data regarding the customer experience with other parties who have an interest in it.

The use of dashboards to communicate a data story has one major drawback: these dashboards are not appropriate for use with all types of audiences. This is due to the fact that dashboards typically contain a lot of information, which can quickly cause your audience to become overwhelmed. Therefore, select this approach on the basis of the individuals who will be viewing the data.

Info graphics If you want to tell a story about some data in an interesting way, you can also use info graphics. One of the most effective ways of conveying stories with data is by utilizing info graphics in the right way.

The best thing about info graphics is that you can use them to swiftly express all of the important information about your data using both text and charts. This is the best feature of info graphics. Because of this, you will have an easier time communicating with your stakeholders.

However, you need to be aware that in order to produce the best info graphics, it may be necessary for you to put in a significant amount of time and effort. You would typically need the expertise of a graphic designer for something like this.

Newsletter

You are able to tell a story based on the data using your monthly newsletter. You can inform readers about what is going on in the company as well as communicate your successes and new advancements through the newsletter by using data and pictures to do so.

Despite the fact that this is most likely going to be data narrative directed toward the client, it is still crucial. This is due to the fact that supplying your clients and audience with empirical evidence can be all that is required to either convert them or keep them as consumers.

The problem with newsletters is that in order for them to be of any use at all, you need to compile a significant amount of content. However, despite all of the effort that was put into it, it is quite likely that individuals will not read them after they are sent to their inboxes.

Conclusion

For the purpose of engaging potential consumers, executives, or investors, great data storytelling transforms dull statistics into exciting visualizations that are easy to remember, have the ability to influence decisions, and motivate actions. Additionally, it ensures that the insights gained from your data are communicated effectively.

Therefore, without further ado, let’s get started using these strategies to create your data story.