Data is only as valuable as the insights it provides. And it’s not always easy to figure out what all those numbers are saying. But dashboards can help by bringing together a range of metrics into a coherent, visually appealing display that can make it easier to interpret and understand various data sets.
 
Dashboards help users spot patterns, make comparisons, or track progress toward KPIs without needing to comb through rows of numbers on a spreadsheet. They are also highly customizable, allowing users to configure different modules and metrics in a way tailored to their specific needs. As a result, dashboards can be a very powerful tool for marketers and other professionals with lots of data at their fingertips.
 
Below are just a few of the ways in which visualizing your data with the help of dashboards can help you bring data-driven decision-making into your workflow and help improve your brand.
 
We’ve been measuring consumer attitudes and preferences for decades. And we’ve learned a thing or two about collecting and delivering high-quality data to help businesses make the right decisions. So, we’ve put together a short list of some of the key metrics we often recommend when clients want a better understanding of what’s going on inside consumers’ hearts and minds.

1. More easily bring data into your process

Today’s increasingly digital marketing landscape has brought with it an explosion of data and metrics. But the volume and complexity of available data can keep some marketers from embracing market research. The amount of effort involved seems too daunting – and time-consuming. Especially if you aren’t a natural “numbers” person.
 
But dashboards can help cut through the chaos and extra effort, making it easier to bring data into your workflow and harness the power of data-driven decision-making. Put simply, dashboards structure and present information to help you quickly transform data into insights.

2. Free up time for strategy rather than presentations

How many hours go into cutting and pasting charts into client or C-suite presentations? Or creating and designing visually appealing graphs so that non-marketers can grasp the findings of your latest market research? As a marketer, wouldn’t your time be better spent workshopping new campaign concepts or crafting a new marketing strategy?
 
Adding dashboards to your marketing toolkit means having all the graphs and charts you need – instantly and completely updated. Those hours previously spent stressing over textbox formatting can instead be spent reflecting on the insights your dashboard conveys and how they can lead to new business opportunities or advice for your clients. Which is exactly the sort of high-value, brand building contributions your clients expect from you.

3. Quickly identify trends and patterns

Keeping up with the day-to-day can often result in losing sight of the big picture. And it’s not uncommon for marketers to feel like they’re drowning in data without really getting a handle on what it’s telling them about their brand’s performance.
 
With a well-constructed, visually appealing dashboard, the big picture is only a click away. What are your main brand drivers? How do demographics impact whether your brand is top of mind? One look at your dashboard and you can easily see trends that can help you make informed decisions about what’s working and what’s not. So, you can take action quickly to optimize your marketing.

4. Simplify performance tracking over time

Periodic marketing surveys provide useful snapshots of your brand’s performance. But it’s only after stringing together a series of such snapshots that you can really track performance over time. Manually collecting the results of individual surveys and then comparing them can be a labour-intensive task that sometimes fails to capture important trends. Sort of like trying to construct a film from a disjointed collection of still images.
 
A continuously updated dashboard is a much easier and more effective tool for tracking a brand’s performance – more akin to a proper motion picture instead of a flipbook. It allows you to better understand how changes in attitudes, behaviours, and opinions influence your brand’s performance over time. And see how you are progressing toward your strategic marketing goals.

5. Easily share insights with others

Sharing is caring. And learning. And improving. And dashboards make sharing useful insights a breeze. Not only do dashboards make it easier to tell a story with your data and help disseminate the insights they contain. Dashboards themselves are also easy to share. With a link and a login, your team, your leadership, your client – anyone – can access your dashboard and its insights.

And the more eyeballs and brains that get a chance to review and reflect on your dashboard, the greater the chances that additional insights and interpretations will emerge, deepening everyone’s understanding of your brand’s performance and helping to rally support for what’s needed to take it to the next level.