“Data are just summaries of thousands of stories—tell a few of those stories to help make the data meaningful.” -Dan Heath, bestselling author
Today’s customers are changing more frequently than ever before in history. Thanks to COVID, the world is in limbo, and many customers are too. Brand loyalty is malleable, prices are sky-high, routines are anything but “usual,” and convenience is king. What motivated consumers last year, last month or even last week is out the window, and brands must keep up.
Competition is fierce across all industries, from clothing to snack food. Brands should embrace data like an old friend to retain market share and grow amid a chaotic economic landscape. We’re not talking about taking data a face-value, though; we’re speaking about taking data and making it human. Why? Because it pays to be an insights research-driven business. This article will explain why insights are so powerful, how you can integrate data into your business model, and how data storytelling can help drive everything forward.
How To Become An Insights Research-Driven Business
There aren’t many businesses that make decisions based on gut instinct anymore. The athletic shoes you wear at the gym weren’t designed on a whim. Based on consumer research, everything from the insole to the fabric, the laces, and the logo placement were meticulously crafted for the target audience.
In 2022, the new source of competitive advantage is customer-centricity powered by data. Companies must use data to drive decisions that align with customer needs to outperform competitors. Any brand can sell shoes, but by deeply understanding your customers’ needs and fulfilling them better than anyone else, you can become the Nike of your industry. However, you need data to accomplish this.
According to a report by Forrester, insights-driven firms are 39% more likely to report year-over-year revenue growth of 15% or more. Per the report, “Forecasts show that these insights-driven public companies and startups based on digital insights will continue to grow an average of 27% and 40% annually, respectively — much faster than the projected global 3.5% gross domestic product (GDP) growth. It is projected that the collective revenues of the top 30 insights-driven companies will be $1.8 trillion in 2021, which means they will be taking this business away from their fewer data and insights savvy competitors.”
Becoming an insights research-driven business is more than simply running analytics once a month, week, or even daily. To maintain an accurate view of customer motivations, companies need real-time insights from various customers and platforms to make decisions. A balance of agile quantitative and qualitative data is critical for gathering insights that matter. The best ways to collect data quickly include templated surveys, virtual interviews, and virtual focus groups.
How Data Storytelling Can Help
Even with troves of data and agile insights, many organizations fail to make meaningful changes. Why? Lack of shareholder support. Data is only helpful if it’s used, and using it is easier said than done. Market researchers often find themselves defending their data to executives who don’t always grasp its meaning. Data insights are ineffective if they are not relevant to a specific customer or business needs and/or cannot be linked to business activities. The best way to avoid this disconnect is with data storytelling.
To make insights more relevant, research teams need to switch up their approach. Reports with pages of numbers, charts, and graphs can easily be ignored or skimmed over during a business meeting without making an impact. Because many stakeholders are focused on the bottom line, they need data to give them something actionable to do. Data storytelling is a method for presenting relevant data findings in a storytelling format for non-researches. This data-sharing method gives numbers a human perspective that is powerful and highly effective in this ever-changing digital world.
To make data storytelling work for you, ensure that your report includes a context, problem(s) to be solved, characters, how this problem will be solved, and a story conclusion with actionable takeaways. This framework allows for the infusion of relevant visualizations that support rather than hinder the story’s central message. When customer data is utilized and adequately presented to business leaders, more thoughtful decisions can be made.
The Bottom Line On Agile Insights
Businesses of all sizes in all industries need to understand their customers in real-time to provide the best experiences, products, and services that will keep them coming back. Gone are the days of drawn-out market research campaigns that quickly go stale. Companies that utilize agile market research focus on what is working for their customers right now and what isn’t. One of the main benefits of becoming an insights research-driven business is that you’re always working with current information that powers informed decision-making. You’re essentially meeting customers where they are today, not where they were months ago.
Customers are the heartbeat of every organization. From product performance to market penetration and beyond, the success of your business is determined by the satisfaction of your customers, satisfaction which is nearly impossible to obtain without insights. Being an insights-focused firm isn’t just a nice accolade; it has a proven return on investment. Insights-driven firms are 39% more likely to report revenue growth of 15% or more. Armed with quantitative and qualitative agile research data, market researchers can present data to stakeholders with data storytelling for ultimate impact.
Beyond surveys and interviews, how can your brand drive customer-centricity to deliver optimal results? More and more often, the answer we hear is community. Online communities have become the #1 tool for major brands to put the customer at the center of every business strategy. We invite you to learn more with our downloadable e-book, Driving Customer Centricity with Online Communities.
Conducting continuous and agile research is easier than ever with live access to automated processes for seamless data integration. To learn more about the FC Ignition agile insights platform, check out our website or reach out to one of our experts today.
