Build beautiful data visualizations with Klipfolio’s business intelligence dashboard tool

What is data visualization?

We’ve all dealt with raw numbers, right?

If you have, then you know they’re not fun.

Raw numbers are difficult to understand. Raw numbers are time-consuming. Raw numbers are boring.

Thankfully, though, raw numbers aren’t your only option for presenting your data.

Data visualization is the process of turning raw numbers into graphs, maps and other forms of visualization that reveal trends, provide analysis and predict outcomes.

How data visualization can help you

Data visualization is all about giving you the tools to make better business decisions.

How?

Boosting engagement

Half of the battle with reporting on your organization’s key metrics is getting your audience’s attention.

The other half? Getting them to take action.

Data visualization helps build engagement on both fronts.

A series of coloured graphs, maps and charts is more engaging than black-and-white numbers on a spreadsheet.

It’s the best way to grab the attention of your audience and then draw their attention to the key takeaways.

Improving analysis

Visualization makes it easier to see trends and predict outcomes.

You can easily compare your performance to past years and months. You can show how different platforms – such as Twitter and Facebook – are performing against one another. You can reveal which areas are underperforming.

Save time

Looking at a series of numbers forces you – the “reader” – to do the work.

A proper visualization, though, does the work for you.

It’s easy to get the information you need from your data when it’s presented in visual form. You can see, at a glance, what’s worked and what hasn’t.

Add in some performance metrics and all of a sudden you have a quick portrait of your company’s performance.

Why data visualization is better

Why, exactly, is data visualization better than just looking at a series of numbers?

Data visualization will help you...

Tell a story

Raw numbers don’t help you tell a story.

Visualizing your raw numbers does.

Storytelling is all about showing, not telling. And that’s what data visualization does.

With the right graph you can show a company that’s eclipsing its goals. Or maybe you need a bar chart to show a department why it’s failing to meet its targets.

Either way data visualization should be a key part of your storytelling arsenal – whether it’s to clients, employees or your boss.

Track your performance against key metrics

Keep tracking of your performance metrics can be difficult.

Comparing your actual performance against those metrics is even tougher.

Data visualization tools help ensure both remain top of mind. If you set up your visualizations properly, you should be able to tell immediately what your targets are and how you’re performing against them.

Identify relationships

Looking at your numbers is one thing. Seeing how they compare with one another?

A whole other ballgame entirely.

Data visualization allows you to easily see trends that will help you make better business decisions.

For example: A properly configured bar/line chart that shows the number of blog posts and revenue you brought in. This will help you identify the ideal number of posts you should be putting on your site each month.

Compare performance

Visualization brings out relationships you didn’t know exist.

For example: Let’s say your company has traditionally loved Facebook ads. You’ve found them to be a key driver of revenue and overall offer a good return on investment.

But since you’re a data-driven organization, you nevertheless keep close tabs on how the campaign performs on a weekly basis.

With a visualization, you could quickly show your return on investment for Facebook with other ad platforms your organization uses.

A bar chart might show changes in trends that could demonstrate a better ROI for tools such as AdWords.

If so, an alteration in your budget shouldn’t be too far behind.

Why a dashboard is the ideal tool for data visualization

A business intelligence dashboard is a must-have for businesses today for a lot of reasons:

• It helps you keep tabs on key metrics.
• It provides an at-a-glance view of how your business is performing.
• It puts your team on the same page regarding its performance.

But one of the most overlooked benefits is the power for visualization.

Dashboards are a great tool for displaying your data visually. With the right program you can create graphs, charts and maps that demonstrate your business’s performance against the metrics that matter most to your business.

How Klipfolio’s data visualization tool can help you

Klipfolio offers a huge advantage as a data visualization tool.

Easy customization

Some visualization tools make it difficult to fix the little details.

But often with visualization the details make the difference.

With Klipfolio you can easily change the colour of a bar chart or fix how your date is shown.

These are the small customizations that will take you from a mediocre visualization to something that will draw attention.

Simple to use visualizations

You don’t need to be an art major to build beautiful data visualizations in Klipfolio.

We offer several pre-built visualization templates that get you up and running in no time, including:

• Charts and graphs
• Pictograph
• Bar charts
• Maps
• Line charts
• Scatterplots
• Sparklines
• Pie charts
• Gauges
• Tables

Build visualizations using easily importable data

All the best data visualizations in the world are useless if they don’t accurately reflect your data.

Klipfolio’s tool makes it straightforward to pull in what you need.

We offer integrations with social media tools like Twitter and Facebook, CRMs like Salesforce and analytics tools like Google Analytics.

Quickly grab your data using our Connector Gallery and start building!

Pre-built dashboards

Don’t know anything – at all – about data visualization?

Our pre-built dashboards are the tool for you.

All you need to do is choose the dashboard you want from the Dashboard Gallery and plug in your data.

That’s it! You’re up and running.

Present your data in a variety of formats

Your data visualizations don’t just need to live in an Excel spreadsheet.

Klipfolio allows you to present your information however you’d like.

Send your reports in PDF format or as a hyperlink that users can access online.

Klipfolio also offers integrations with a variety of mobile and tablet devices.

Or, if you really want to demonstrate your commitment to visualization, put your key metrics on a TV dashboard in your office.

All the other benefits of using a dashboard

Dashboards are great tools for more than just data visualization.

They offer users:

• Real-time updates
• An assurance that everyone on your team is looking at the same data
• At-a-glance update on key performance metrics