Data Visualisation For Marketing

Data Visualisation is the representation of data/information in a visual form. This method of data presentation is used to clearly communicate the information in a coherent way that is both enticing and easy to understand. 

There are five main categories of data visualisation which we will explore below. 

1. Temporal - that which is linear and one dimensional. Examples include line graphs and timelines.

2. Hierarchical - usually orders groups within larger groups, typically employed if demonstrating streams of data from one original source, such as tree diagrams. 

3. Network - as its name suggests, this method demonstrates how one data set interlinks with another. Examples include word clouds and matrix charts. This form of data visualisation is excellent to avoid wordy explanations of complex connections.

4. Multidimensional - typically involves two or more variables and is displayed in 3D. This is particularly useful for breaking down a large amount of information into key points. Popular examples include pie charts, venn diagrams and stacked bar charts. Another plus is this data can be creatively presented with colorful elements.

5. Geospatial applies to physical locations. Examples vary and include maps, such as locations of market penetration.  Density and heat maps can show acquisitions over time/location. 

Revolut employs excellent use of data visualisation within their mobile app. Indeed it is one of their major selling points. Within the cryptocurrency section of the app, users can browse the rise and fall in value by viewing histograms.

 

The budget categories are colourfully presented with progress donut charts as seen below:

According to Crooks (2020), “Data visualization allows you to expose patterns, trends, and correlations that may otherwise go undetected”. This is especially true for Revolut, as seen above, their data visualisation tactic enables users to make more informed spending decisions with easy to read charts on their budget progress. 

We’ve compiled a list of best practices to consider when examining how to visualise your data. 

• Context - we can see from the various data types listed above that different methods have different strengths. Therefore a bar chart or pie chart may be popular choices but they are not necessarily suitable in every situation. Explore the broad range of data visualisation options to find the best fit.

• Coherency - Above all the data should be displayed so the relevant stakeholders can understand it. Consider the people who will look at this, will they be completely new to the data presented? If so, consider if the relationship between the data types can be understood and contains the relevant labels and flow to demonstrate this.

• Colour - use this to your advantage. Colour can make the data interesting and easy to understand. Stick to conventional tropes such as red for negative and green for positive. It can also enhance a boring black and white chart so it is interesting to interpret. Colours can be contrasted also to highlight differences. 

• Simplicity - data visualisation is employed to make the information more easy to read. Ensure the visualisation method is suitable and is not overloaded with too many categories. Legends can help with any wordy explanations required on your data chart.

During this case study we have focused on identifying the uses of data within organisations. The presentation of this data back to your stakeholders, whether these are internal or your customer, is just as important. Delivering insights in a coherent way allows for more informed decision making and hence better results. 

By Laura Mulqueen

#datavisualisation #data #bigdata

References:

Berinato, S. Harvard Business Review (June 2016) ‘Visualizations that really work’ Available at: https://hbr.org/2016/06/visualizations-that-really-work Accessed: 28 March 2021

Crooks, R. Hubspot (2020) ‘The Power of Data Visualization Plus Examples of Good and Bad Visuals’ Available at: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/great-data-visualization-examples Accessed: 28 March 2021

Ridley, A.L. and Birchall, C., 2020. 8. Evaluating data visualization: Broadening the measurements of success. Data Visualization in Society, p.127.

The benefits of Local SEO

Last week our blog explored SEO (search engine optimization) and how this helps with customer acquisition. This week we are examining the importance of local SEO and how it can improve the visibility of smaller businesses, brick and mortar businesses or start-ups. 

Local SEO is simply improving the visibility of your business on local google search. Although it seems like a modern practice, it has been around for a long period of time, however until the introduction of mobile devices it was not utilized to its capacity as potential customers were stationary on desktops. Now these potential customers are constantly on the move with their internet connection and businesses have an increased chance of access to them (Gillford, 2019). Local SEO can also benefit larger or ecommerce businesses by improving their position in a community. 

If you do not introduce local SEO to your business, you could be missing out on many potential customers. In the current climate of the COVID-19 pandemic, any possible improvements to the digital marketing strategy of your business should be applied to help you stay relevant and ensure you can continue to trade.  

The most important step in harnessing local SEO is Google My Business.

Google My Business is a free tool provided by Google which lets any business set up a profile and manage how they appear on google maps and google search (Frost, 2018). You need to verify your business using this tool, then you can add all the essential information such as location, opening hours and contact information. With Google My Business you can contact customers directly through their reviews and add images of the business as well as what you provide. Once you are signed up with this tool you can appear as part of the ‘localised pack’. This is when a potential customer searches for a service or product on their mobile device, they get localised listings. The better reviews and ratings you receive on Google, the higher rank (Patel, 2017)

Other important processes for local SEO include 

1. Ensuring you have the contact information and a map available on your website and is consistent everywhere online, i.e. Google My Business and your social media accounts.

2. Inbound marketing such as writing blogs on the topic of what your business is involved in, this will help attract prospective clients to your website when they search keywords relevant to your business, thus, keyword research is important here. 

3. Working with other organisations in the area, providing partnerships and this will develop essential backlinks to your website.

Revolut is an online only business or NEO bank, therefore it is difficult to see how local SEO is relevant. However like all businesses, they need to start somewhere, when first beginning in the United Kingdom, Revolut would also have used local SEO strategies to help grow its visibility on google. It is evident with Revolut’s blog that they are still using this strategy to bring customers to their website. 

We have previously spoken about Revolut’s constant aim of customer experience, this would of course improve their reviews online and help them acquire more customers. 

It can be assumed that Revolut works with businesses that have Google My Business accounts to help push rewards and discounts to customers in the same area with these businesses. This collaboration also improves the backlinks for these businesses and helps them to improve their rank on google. 

References

Frost, A. (2018). ‘The ultimate guide to Google My Business’, Hubspot, 26 April. Available at https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/google-my-business [Accessed 06 March 2021].

Gillford, G. (2019). ‘What is local SEO, and how does it work?’, MailChimp, 22 November. Available at https://mailchimp.com/resources/what-is-local-seo/ [Accessed 09 March 2021].

Patel, N. (2017). 4 local SEO marketing strategies to build your brick and mortar business. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHG4wDlvAMY [Accessed 07 March 2021].

SEO; What is it, and How it Can Improve your Customer Acquisition

SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, is at the centre of any modern business. 

We have discussed previously how digital analytics can help inform and improve better strategies with the example of our case study on Revolut. Now we want to show the different measures they took that can be transferable to any other organisation seeking to improve their competitive footing in search engine results.

According to Moz.com, SEO “is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results”. 

One such way to optimise your position in search results is to ensure your website is keyword optimised. Search Engines include Google, Bing, Firefox and more. In other words, SEO means ensuring that your website reflects the key objective of the business and contains the search terms your prospective customers will likely use. Google sends ‘crawlers’ through each website that creates an index, or a summary of what your website is, and what search queries it mostly aligns to. Your SEO specialist will work the magic of crafting together the search terms your customer uses (“keywords”) and how to provide relevant copy that will match this query, to ensure your website ranks on Search.

Maintaining relevance will ensure visitors brought to your website or digital channels are high quality and will find what they need from you. This results in organic traffic creation which results in more convertible visitors coming to your site and reduced bounce rates. For example with Revolut, they offer information on assets which customers want from their banking app as seen below:

(https://www.revolut.com/en-IE)

Revolut created an easy to use mobile application that made banking easy. Their copy is customer-friendly and offers a solution to the traditional pains of banking with efficiency and automated processes such as their Pockets feature. 

This is surface level SEO. Digging deeper we will see that the process of indexing is more intricate. Search engine providers have become crafty to ensure customers are finding what they search for, thus marketers must evolve to stay abreast of this. Other factors that influence SEO are:

• Social network traffic

• Relevance (for example clear links, coherent title tags)

• Traffic to your website

• Backlinks

• Site architecture - such as loading speeds, mobile optimisation etc.

If you are thinking about how to improve your SEO, consider the content on site. Does it look professional? What content is available? Many businesses use blogging as a way to create inbound traffic or position themselves as experts for customers to refer to. FAQ pages are another great way to answer search queries by your customers. Review your ranking regularly using your top keywords, and examine your positioning against your competitors. Measuring your performance regularly will ensure a competitive footing in the search result race. 

It can be easy to become enveloped in the technical complexities of SEO but it always comes back to the customer, who should be at the centre of your strategy. Ultimately the SEO work is undertaken to understand their needs and tailor to them more accurately than competitors. 

SEO cannot be built overnight. It takes time, strategy and knowledge of your customer to be successful. It is also important to understand SEO is a continuous process that should be monitored and adapted accordingly based on what your customers need - and search for.  Revolut excelled in this regard by showing customers what they needed from a neo bank, and their success speaks volumes.

Interested to learn more about how improved SEO strategies can transform your business, contact us today. 

References:

“What is SEO” Available at: https://moz.com/learn/seo/what-is-seo [Accessed: 02 March 2021]

Chaffey, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2019. Digital marketing. Pearson UK.

Kelsey, T., 2017. Exploring SEO Certification. In Introduction to Search Engine Optimization (pp. 115-123). Apress, Berkeley, CA.

Digital Analytics benefits businesses while improving Customer Experience

This week we are going to explore Digital Analytics, in particular Google Analytics. Google analytics is a web analytics service provided by Google that can be used by any person or business that has built or maintains a website and mobile application. We will also look at how Revolut utilizes digital analytics as an opportunity to improve their business and customer experience. 

Digital Analytics are described as the process of collecting, measuring and analyzing digital data to produce insights, we optimize this data to meet specific needs in our business (Dodson, 2016). Data is collected from the business website and mobile app but needs to be interpreted and generate insights that are beneficial to our business. Google has developed “Google Analytics” to help us with this process, we can add a tracking code to the HTML code of our website or app. Google will then begin collecting the data and producing reports. For more information how to set up google analytics for your business, click here.

After setting up your google analytics account, it is important to decide what it is your business wants to know about their customers and their behaviours, how information will benefit our company. Deciding on the metrics we need from google analytics will help us improve our business. We can set up goals which will measure anything from what pages our customers are using, how long they stay on these pages, how many pages they visit each time they enter our website and if they played our most recent video. 

It is important that businesses take advantage of the data their online platforms collect, once analysed this information can be used for digital marketing strategies for improving their online presence and digital marketing campaigns to increase profit. We can use our metrics from google analytics to discover what changes need to be made to improve the customers experience. 

Revolut has revolutised digital analytics to improve customer experience as not only do they collect data on their customers to improve their business but they also provide customers with spending insights. With this information customers can explore how they spend their money, set up budgets and save in their vault (Moravskyi, 2019) This is extremely beneficial to customers and something established banks are yet to provide on their online banking or mobile applications. 

Revolut utilizes the data on customers spending to provide them with discounts for brands they are interested in under the ‘Revolut Rewards’ section of the mobile app (Chuang, 2020). They have teamed up with many brands across the globe but will only highlight deals favourable to each customer depending on their spending analytics. They also give each customer the option to give a thumbs down if they are not interested, therefore collecting more data and helping to provide customers with the best experience. 

Revolut has been proactive since its launch to provide customers with an exceptional service, as a neobank the data they collect is huge and they would be constantly analyzing this data to improve their business. We are expecting some great developments from it in the future.

References

Dodson, I. (2016) The art of digital marketing: The definitive guide to creating strategic, targeted, and measurable online campaigns. 1st edn. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. 

Chuang, P. (2020). ‘Revolut Rewards: Frequently Asked Questions’, Revolut Blog, 26 July. Available at https://blog.revolut.com/en-sg/revolut-rewards-faqs/ [Accessed  28 February 2021].

Moravskyi, N. (2019). ‘Introducing new and improved analytics’, Revolut Blog, 19 November. Available at https://blog.revolut.com/introducing-new-and-improved-analytics/ [Accessed  28 February 2021].