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Data Visualization Tools For Marketers

A screen shot of a Shopify dashboard showcasing marketing analytics.

Data visualization tools allow for the creation of graphs, interactive data analysis, and other pictorial representations of information. The tools make it easy for marketers to visualize customer data and better understand customer behavior patterns.

Why Is Data Visualization Important for Marketing?

Marketers use data visualization tools to understand their clients and their product performance in the market. Data visualization tools are also excellent for marketers to plan marketing strategies and promotions to target their clients and increase sales. They also help analyze long-term trends hence improving decision-making.

Types of Data Visualizations for Marketers

Marketers can use many data visualizations to understand and analyze the behavior of customers and clients quickly. Every kind of data visualization has benefits and drawbacks depending on the information marketers wish to visualize. Below are the major types of data visualization tools that marketers use.

Charts

Charts allow marketers to see trends and patterns of data, thus helping them make decisions on product features and marketing strategies. They also allow you to compare different data sets and display the information concisely. 

There are several types of charts that you can use, including line charts, waterfall charts, and Gantt charts. Waterfall charts are handy for determining what caused a metric to change over time.

Infographics

Infographics represent data dragged and dropped to create a picture or story. They use colorful images, large photos, and texts to illustrate the information. 

Infographics give consumers a complete view of the data that help them understand complex data in a simple and easy-to-digest way.

These tools help marketers better understand their clients, create multiple reports, and be highly engaging due to their visuals and illustrations. They include the list, statistical, comparison, and flowchart infographics. 

Maps

Marketers use maps and mapping tools to visualize their client databases, product distribution, and market demographic. They allow marketers to understand real-time data and implement strategies likely to improve profitability. Maps enable marketers to see where their company is doing well. Examples include territory and heat maps.

6 Data Visualization Tools for Marketers

There are many data visualization tools for marketers. It is, however, important that marketers find the right tool that fits their budget and needs. The following are the leading data visualization tools that marketers use.

Qlik Sense

Qlik Sense is an analytics tool that allows users to organize, analyze, and review data. It offers powerful tools for business users interested in exploring their data quickly. In addition to its business intelligence capabilities, Qlik Sense provides discovery, data visualization, and interactive analytics. It also includes mapping and geolocation tools.

Pros

  • Qlik Sense integrates with other Qlik products to allow users to create mobile apps using JavaScript or HTML5, create maps, and generate PDFs. 
  • Its visualizations are highly engaging because they are in bar charts, pie charts, columns, and circles.

Cons

  • The platform lacks ADP import or export capabilities and integration of non-SQL databases.

Microsoft Power BI

Microsoft Power BI allows users to create reports, dashboards, and data visualizations. It offers automated reporting to run reports on different dimensions of their data for better analysis.

Power BI also allows users to customize views of reports using filters to find patterns that are important for business decisions. It is easy to use and has other functionalities such as clustering, forecasting, and predictive analytics.

Pros

  • Microsoft Power BI is free and easy to use. 
  • Learning tools like Power BI
  • It enables market analysts to monitor real-time data, create reports and visualizations, and track historical data.

Cons

  • It cannot integrate data from other sources except for SQL databases. 
  • Microsoft Power BI has limited capabilities when scaling projects up or across. 

Tableau

Tableau offers interactive solutions to complex data visualizations. It allows users to create dynamic and interactive reports and dashboards that you can publish. 

The platform provides advanced analytics by allowing users to read information from the tables and calculate calculations with the help of formulas.

Pros

  • It is easy to use
  • Tableau has extensive features such as multidimensional scaling, aggregation, scorecards, linking, and filtering. 
  • Users can connect multiple data sources using its ability to link databases using SQL connectivity.

Cons

  • Tableau cannot synchronize hosted in a different location.

Zoho Analytics

Zoho Analytics helps users make data-driven decisions through various visualization capabilities for the most significant analysis types and robust dashboard reporting. The platform offers a range of features, including data integration, connections to other databases, advanced analytics, and data reporting.

Pros

  • Zoho Analytics has an intuitive interface. 
  • The software integrates with other Zoho products allowing quick data integration.
  • It allows users to analyze the performance of their teams by creating KPIs.

Cons

  • The tool cannot record click-throughs from emails.

Google Charts

Google Charts simplifies the process of creating charts, graphs, and maps for business purposes. It allows users to add data and change the data format in a spreadsheet or a document.

The features of Google Charts include an option to store charts in the cloud, access to live graphs in customizable dashboards, distribution of graphs online for others to visualize, and sharing graph data.

Pros

  • You can embed Google charts easily into other applications. 
  • The software creates charts quickly from a spreadsheet or document. 
  • A wide selection of templates for creating visual representations of data. 

Cons

  • Google Charts supports only Google Sheets and Docs. Thus, you cannot use it with Microsoft Excel or other spreadsheets. 

Datawrapper

Datawrapper is a data visualization tool to create charts and other visual representations of data. It allows users to create simple, intuitive graphics from unstructured information and communicate the message. 

Datawrapper includes sharing the visualized information with others, publishing it on websites, and accessing the data on a local device. 

Pros

  • Datawrapper creates visualizations quickly from a web browser by importing data from other applications. 
  • It offers online publishing of its chart templates for others to use and customize. 

Cons 

  • You have to configure data through an in-app wizard before creating charts.

Wrap Up

Using visualization tools ensures that all data is processed and analyzed appropriately before making a decision. It allows the comparison of the different data layers and visualizes the results. Data visualization leads to marketers making informed decisions on their clients, products, and markets.

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