Data visualization has been around for a long time, but it was usually something reserved for marketing executives, IT directors, or accountants. It was expensive to create reports that helped put data into a context that each person could understand. As the era of big data continues to grow, the need for more people to access that data increases. This growing need to distribute data has helped to spearhead a data visualization movement that is creating an increasing number of tools that anyone can use.
Data visualization is getting data put into a form that allows anyone to understand its effects. When data users start asking questions pertaining to data, the answers can be represented in the form of a pie chart, infographic, or anything that would make it easier to understand the real effects the data is predicting. It is also easier to compare data side-by-side when using visualization.
There are thousands of computer programs available that allow data collectors, such as IT directors, to present data in a form that marketing associates can understand. Instead of complex data comparison reports, this data is presented in a visual form that makes it easier to understand and utilize.
In digital marketing, large portions of marketing plans are dedicated to solving problems and creating a larger market share. For example, a marketing professional working on a marketing plan might wonder how the sales projections would change if the product were presented in red instead of blue.
Thanks to big data, there is plenty of market research data available that can easily answer that question. The problem is that presenting that data as a comparison that would alter a marketing plan can be complicated. Visualization puts the data comparisons into bar graphs or pie charts that are easy to read and allow the marketing associate to immediately quantify the information.
Visualization is also a very powerful tool when it comes to present milestone data for marketing plans that are in effect. Instead of pouring over spreadsheets of data, a room of marketing professionals can compare visualized data and immediately determine how a program needs to be altered to be effective.
Data visualization also makes it easier to compare historical data to future data projections. Since visualization helps to speed up the analysis portion of a marketing project, it can save a company money and allow changes to be made at a faster pace.
The more that marketing companies rely on big data, the more they will need data visualization. The act of presenting data on spreadsheets with multiple columns to a room full of people with varying levels of statistical abilities can often lead to confusion and frustration. But with data visualization, the ever-expanding amount of data that is available can now be put into formats that everyone will be able to understand.
