• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, January 11, 2023

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.