Email teams are the same as everyone else in the digital ecosystem — they often have to “see” data in order to understand and act on it.
But 80%
of marketing leaders struggle to identify and implement important data, according to a new study by Capterra: How Data Visualization Influences Marketing Decision-Makers.
Moreover, 42%
say it is challenging to share marketing data within their company. Yet 92% agree that they would make better decisions with well-designed presentation of marketing data.
For
instance, 63% say that marketing analytics has significant influence on content for marketing or advertising. And that figure rises to 67% among daily data visualization users .
And 72% admit they are unable to communicate marketing analytics effectively without the use of data visualizations. And 89% confess that their managers prefer viewing reports that
use data visualization.
Of the marketers polled, 42% use data visualization software daily, and 47% do so weekly.
Their data visuals may include charts or
graphics, tables, dashboards, geographical maps, heat maps, word clouds and infographics.
What do marketers need the most in their visualization tools? They cite:
- Reporting, analytics, or statistics (trending, sentiment, etc.) — 68%
- Interactive capabilities (filtering, sorting, etc.) —
65%
- Real-time data (e.g., automatically updates) — 64%
- Ability to share across teams or with colleagues — 63%
- Search
API/ability to find what I am looking for — 62%
- Quality images or graphics — 57%
- Integration with other
marketing software or tools — 53%
Data visualization software provides several benefits:
- Helps to identify trends, relationships, or patterns in
data
- Increases speed and efficiency of analysis
- Easy to interpret large amounts of data
- Improves or increases
speed of decision making
But this software also presents several challenges:
- Data accessibility challenges
- Security or privacy
concerns
- Tool or technology problems
- Lack of skills on staff
The bottom line is that 79%
of marketers agree that you need data literacy i to achieve company’s marketing goals.
Capterra surveyed 294 U.S. marketing, advertising, communications, and public
relations professionals who use or produce marketing analytics.