As some say, "Nothing is more expensive than a bad decision." 

How consumers make purchasing decisions is studied and researched again and again, and not just in consumer psychology - for marketing and corporate development, this provides valuable insights. Insights that make good decisions possible. Insights that offer the chance for more conversions in content marketing. Insights without which companies lose sales.

Data storytelling for better decisions 

Bad decisions are expensive for companies. This starts in management with long-term decisions for the development of the company, it affects every single employee but ultimately also every (potential) customer. If bad decisions are made, this can result in fewer products being bought or fewer services being used. 

So the linchpin in this paper is the combination of consumer, data, stories, transparency thereby achieved and decision support. 

1. When data is presented in stories, good decisions can be enabled. 

2. Data storytelling increases the chance of more conversions in content marketing.

3. The consequence of 1 and 2: Without data storytelling, companies leave sales behind. 

Why is this so? Let's look at an example.
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Image by Dr. Krusche & Partner PartG (Heatzones in Vienna)

A company, manufacturer for fans, wants more products to be sold in the coming summer. However, fans also have a certain lifespan and the purchase decision also depends on power consumption. So what are the criteria that can be shown to potential customers that can influence a decision? The design, energy efficiency, the service of companies, fast delivery. The competition also covers these criteria - so how can you create differentiation in an oversaturated market? 

With data storytelling. In our picture, you can see a city, in this case Vienna in Austria, and what temperatures can be reached. If areas exceed 30 degrees Celsius, that's a good starting point for a campaign that presents the need for a fan in a completely different way, right? 

This image is a visual representation for data storytelling - telling stories with data, what exactly that is we covered in another article, you can find it here. 

In a nutshell: If you evaluate data that is available to the company - or, as in this case, data from the weather service, visualize it, then you not only have new input for campaign design in marketing, you also create added value in content marketing (through comprehensible, validated information) and the transparency of a decision is increased.

So, as a consumer, you know that the company has looked at the solution that a fan can create at a detailed level and is providing information that makes it easier to make a decision. 

So, if you use data for storytelling in the company and build a story for the consumer around evaluated data, then you can better enable decisions. This in turn is a starting point for increasing conversions, which in turn leads to not leaving sales behind.

More transparency - demanded by 77% of consumers worldwide, because the presentation of products, as is the case almost everywhere today, corresponds less and less to what the consumer wants and is looking for. Transparency is an important resource for customer loyalty. Being obliged by legislation to disclose business figures is on the one hand only mandatory for companies of a certain size and on the other hand probably only of limited help for more transparency.

After all, if I'm not a specialist, what significance do the figures have? Transparency of brands means that companies communicate openly and honestly with regard to products, prices, values, etc.  Communicate their way of working openly and honestly and act accordingly, as they have announced. And transparency is really important: For 90% of consumers, transparency of a company contributes to the purchase decision.

What are the benefits of data storytelling for companies? 

Stories are very important in our lives - they entertain us, they inform us, they make us feel. Thus the view of the human or consumer. What does a company gain from using storytelling that is backed by data? 

1. Against information overload and for decision making 
   ⁠We live in an age where knowledge no longer multiplies in days, it's more like hours. How to navigate this overload is difficult. As a company, countering this by evaluating data, visualizing it and behaving in a more transparent manner can not only provide orientation, consumer decisions can be made easier because there are new - different - points of reference. This in turn increases the chance of more sales.

2. More trust and loyalty
   ⁠Transparency is not only important, it is also demanded by consumers worldwide. So if I act more transparently as a company, disclose sources and back up my content with data, then the company not only appears more authentic, a bond and trust from the consumer to the company can be built more easily - keyword: reliability and traceability.

3. Change of perspective: data becomes digestible
   ⁠Companies have a lot of data, collect new data every day, and process it. If I present it in the form of a graphic or an image without context, processing it is far too complicated. So: a story can be the remedy - it is built around a graphic and thus reduces complexity.
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Limitation 

In the interest of transparency, we would also like to point out the limitations of this content in this article - as is customary in research work. We have not gone into the complexity of analyzing data here, nor what technical skills are needed to do so, nor what expertise companies need to buy in order to use data storytelling in a targeted way. The focus of this article is different: We live in a complex world that is becoming more complex by the day. Companies are facing fierce competition that is getting tougher by the day. Attitudes toward consumption are changing - in part due to the desire for greater sustainability. 

With data storytelling, companies can present themselves differently and thus leave the "pure" role of supplier and producer. They become supporters in decision-making, they create orientation and enlightenment, they take on a new role. They offer added value. Creating added value, the core of content marketing.
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Summary 

Those who dedicate themselves to the topic of data analysis for marketing and business development have the chance - in combination with good stories - to achieve more conversions and enable decisions. Data storytelling is still a fairly new discipline and is certainly not something that can be implemented overnight. But the aspects speak for themselves, because in the world of tomorrow, long-term customer relationships will depend even more on trust and it doesn't hurt to think about tomorrow today. 

If you want to get to know the elements of data storytelling and are looking for even more information, you can certainly take away a thing or two in our article on what data storytelling is. You can find it here.