How to Increase Recognizability Through Content Visualization

There is a saying that “a picture is worth 1000 words, a data point can be worth a million”. People perceive a lot of information visually which makes data visualization a great way for content marketing.

If you deliver your message in a visually attractive way, people will truly support your cause, share your message, or buy your product. Moreover, posts with attractive visual content get 94% more views. We shouldn’t deny this fact, but, vice versa, get the most out of it.

Impactful data visualization is much more than designing perfect graphics. Good graphs and charts are a way to transform complicated ideas into shareable and comprehensible visuals. Here are smart tips to increase recognizability using content visualization.

1. Craft meaningful visual story

Crafting content into a visual story may seem fun and games. That’s not the case. Storytelling gives data meaning and makes it easier for your audience to quickly comprehend and memorize it. Data visualization makes your story complete and highlights the importance of the revealed insights. They may have an impact on the right decisions and push your audience to the action.

The Law Offices of John Rapillo says that using data helps to tell an effective story and gives it a clear and convincing voice. Any insight worth sharing is considered the best way to create an engaging data-driven story. Any data storytelling includes 3 crucial elements: visuals, data, and narrative.

Here are 6 main steps to make a visual story with data:

• Know your target audience. Once you understand your audience, their characteristics, and objectives, you can tell a visual data-driven story.
• Find and comprehend the data you’re going to use. Make sure that this information is authoritative and useful for your customers. Below the questions you should ask yourself:
  1. Who gathered the data?
  2. Why did they gather it?
  3. What kind of audience is this data collected for?
  4. What is the best way to display this data?
• Decide which story you want to tell. Once you understand the narrative structure, you need to structure it effectively. A well-planned visual plot should underline key findings, show trends and provide clarification.
• Your content should encourage and guide users through learning your data and designing their own experiences. Data visualizations should provide the flexibility to explain the data in a meaningful way. Check out a good example from the Law Office of Vikas Bajaj, APC.
• Focus on simplicity. If you want to craft an effective story, keep it simple and compelling. Define which data and facts are the most significant to tell your story and turn them into tangible graphs.
• Understand user behavior. There is no need to create a new visual to attract your audience. You can just analyze and better understand the existing behavior of your consumers and design yours consequently. You can find a lot of different surveys and research on consumer behavior and use these trends to your advantage.
• Use online tools for data visualization like Creately, Google Charts, etc.

Here is a short guide on how to craft a visual data-driven story:

1. Know your target audience.
2. Understand your data. (Who gathered the data? Why did they gather it? What kind of audience is this data collected for? What is the best way to display this data?)
3. Decide which story you want to tell.
4. Create a good structure for your story.
5. Guide the user experience.
6. Make your story simple.
7. Use consumer behavior to your advantage.
8. Use online data visualization tools.

2. Get straight to the point

Many people are susceptible to using traditional graphs and charts from school-days. Unfortunately, users are sick and tired of these visual formats. And no matter how you design it, these cliché graphs and charts are wimpy.

If you want to keep your data from being ignored, you should focus on objects that will be eye-catching and easy to remember by your target audience. Ariana Duenas from LawRank tells that people better comprehend visualizations with attributes like color or including “human recognizable objects”. The most human recognizable objects are people, cartoons, body parts, logos, animals, icons and photographs. You can find a good example from Work Examiner. Try to include some of them in your visualization to appeal to your brand.

Based on your topic, you can add related objects to your content visualization. Let’s say you want to learn about common languages families and view where languages are most spoken in the world. Apparently, the geographical map will be more memorable and more meaningful to create visual storytelling.

3. Use metaphors

Big data often outlines abstract terms. Using metaphors is an impactful way to explain your abstract notions. This creative approach can better deliver your message to your target audience.

To use metaphors, you should understand it and convey this information in a meaningful way at least. Create your metaphor based on the overall topic and the certain conclusions of your data analysis.

For example, if you are talking about cloud computing advantages, you should provide a more recognizable object to help users spell out your message. In this case, clouds in the sky server as a reference point to associate with your message and stick in people’s minds.

  Wrapping up

Visualization is a way of making sense of all your data, information and ideas. Taking a data-loading approach to your content helps you develop a stronger strategy, increase your recognizability and define new opportunities from your audiences’ activities and preferences.

Try to experiment with some of these ideas and see what interests your audience the most. Once you define what is resonating with them, include it in your content.

So, now it is time to see the power of visualization and invest in this data-driven content marketing.

Energy– stock image