Best Practices for Storytelling With Data

Using data storytelling is one of the best ways to communicate a marketing message. This is because data-driven content allows you to convey a message in a way that engages and informs audiences at all levels of an organization, creating buy-in and helping drive strategic change. Source:storytellingwithcharts.com

Storytelling with data is a process that requires constructing a narrative, analyzing and visualizing the data, then presenting it all in a clear and understandable way. While this may seem like an easy task, a well-crafted data story can be difficult to produce – especially if you’re working with large and complex datasets. However, there are a few best practices that can help you successfully tell a compelling data story:

Data Storytelling in the Digital Age: Tools and Techniques

Determine the objective of your data story. This will help you identify what pieces of quantitative and qualitative data are most important in supporting your story. If you have a main objective, it’s helpful to create an outline that outlines the structure of your narrative, including an introduction, major data points, and conclusion.

Use a consistent style to keep your audience engaged. This means maintaining consistency with the data visualizations you choose, as well as with the language and formatting you use to present the information. It’s also important to keep in mind that the type of information you provide will differ between different audiences. For example, a narrative that focuses on big-picture trends will have a different impact with board members than with floor staff.