Data storytelling framework: learn what data storytelling is, why it’s a powerful marketing tactic, and how to storytell with data in eight easy steps.
Data storytelling has been used in business contexts for a long time. It helps visualize and justify business decisions.
⚠️ When it comes to consumer audiences, using data storytelling to justify the need for a product or service can be a powerful strategy.
Businesses are starting to realize this — Forbes even put data storytelling forward as one of the top five most in-demand skills for 2023.
Whether you’re a business owner looking to get one-up on your competitors or a freelance writer who wants to venture into a new, profitable writing niche, this blog post is for you.
Let’s get started!
What Is Data Storytelling?
Data storytelling is the process of creating meaningful stories with data, which can be anything from a spreadsheet to a graph or an infographic.
It’s a way of creating an interesting narrative out of something that might otherwise be very dry and boring.
💡 The goal is to make the information more accessible and relatable by putting it in story format and bringing it to life in a way that’s engaging, memorable, and specific to your audience.
Storytelling with data is often used in business because it’s an effective way to communicate information. It helps you present a topic in a more relatable way and, consequently, stand out from the competition.
Data-Driven Storytelling vs. Data Visualization
Data storytelling is often confused with data visualization.
The latter is just a part of data storytelling. It’s used to help convey the broader message in an even simpler and more engaging way.
“While data visualizations are often a central focus of data stories, the narrative aspects are equally important to the success of a data story.”
— Brent Dykes, Forbes
➡️ Data visualization usually comes in the form of graphs or infographics to help readers visualize the data, as the name implies.
➡️ Data storytelling presents data in narrative form and often includes elements of copywriting to persuade the reader to take a certain action or to change their mind.
The Power of Data Storytelling
“Using data storytelling as part of your content strategy will help get your point across to people who would otherwise not be able to process it using raw numbers.”
— Jimmy Rodriguez, WordStream
Storytelling through data allows you to contextualize the information you’re presenting.
It also helps you present complex and often boring topics in a simple and engaging way that anyone can understand and relate to.
💡 Above, I said that data storytelling should be engaging, memorable, and specific to your audience — that’s where the power of data storytelling lies.
Let’s break it down.
1. Data Storytelling Is Engaging
After readers land on your content, you want them to stay engaged and to keep reading.
The longer they stay, the higher your chances of getting them to take your desired action.
What’s more engaging? Raw numbers on a spreadsheet or an exciting narrative? I think we all know the answer.
In addition, you can — and should — use elements of copywriting to persuade the reader to adopt the data interpretation you’re presenting.
Paring data storytelling with data visualization also allows you to capture and hold readers’ attention more easily.
2. Data Storytelling Is Memorable
“Your goal in every communication is to influence your target audience. Information alone rarely changes any of these. Research confirms that well-designed stories are the most effective vehicle for exerting influence.”
— Kendall Haven, author of Story Proof and Story Smart
Peg Neuhauser, an organizational psychologist, found that what people learn from a well-told story is remembered more accurately and for longer, than what they learn from facts and numbers.
Research by psychologist Jerome Bruner showed that people are 20 times more likely to remember facts that were presented as part of a story.
Should I keep going?
Humans have been telling stories around a campfire for thousands of years.
Before writing was invented, that was our way to convey and remember information, and the way each community used to forge a shared identity that separated “us” from “them”.
Persuasive writing is all about tapping into those primal instincts.
💡 And that’s the real reason why data storytelling is so effective — we’re hard-wired to process stories better. That’s it.
3. Data Storytelling Is Specific to an Audience
So, data storytelling is effective because it’s engaging and memorable. The last reason why it’s so powerful is that it turns generic data into something specific to an audience.
“There’s always more than one side to a story.”
We see politicians nit-picking stats and numbers and manipulating them to fit whatever narrative they want us to believe in.
That’s an example of unethical data storytelling.
As a writer, you shouldn’t use it to manipulate. You should use it to persuade.
💡 Customize the way you convey data to match your audience in a way that’s relatable and impactful.
Let’s say you came up with a new product.
If you want to market it to old customers, tell a story that highlights how this product is better than your previous one and the advantages they’ll get from upgrading it.
If you want to market it to new customers, tell a story that focuses on the pain points they’re experiencing and how your product will solve them.
You’re presenting the same data in both cases; what changed is the story around it.
Data Storytelling Framework: How to Storytell With Data in 8 Steps
💡 Data storytelling has the power to influence your audience by building trust, persuading people quickly and decisively, and being engaging and memorable.
It’s also the perfect intersection between creative writing and data, as the diagram below shows.
The narrative explains and contextualizes data, visuals teach and engage, and the data provides insights and proof that ultimately convince readers.
💡 When these three elements are perfectly balanced, they work together to change readers’ minds. That translates to conversions, sales, or whatever you set out to achieve with your narrative.
So, without further ado, here are the steps you need to take to create a compelling data-driven story.
1. Data Storytelling Framework: Research & Understand Your Audience
Most data relates to people in some way.
Your customers, prospects, employees, partners, investors, or others should be the main characters of your story while the data shapes and influences the plot.
⚠️ Your story needs to be centered around what your main characters care about.
For example, if your story is meant to influence your freelance writing prospects, what they care about is how your writing will increase traffic, leads, and sales for their businesses.
➡️ To define your audience persona, answer the following questions:
- Who is involved?
- What are their demographics?
- What challenges or pain points are they facing?
- What metrics or KPIs do they care about?
- What are they influenced by?
- What’s their skill level?
💡 Thoroughly researching who your audience persona is and cares about will help you write a more compelling story that deeply resonates with them.
2. Data Storytelling Framework: Define Your End Goal
Your end goal should guide your whole narrative.
💡 Knowing the objective of your story will define the approach you’ll take, the perspective you’ll adopt, and the data you’ll include.
You can only create a compelling narrative that supports your end goal after defining these parameters.
Going back to the freelance writer example, if your objective is to sell more freelance writing services, the goal of your story should be to show prospects that your services are effective at solving the problems they face.
3. Data Storytelling Framework: Source Data for Storytelling
One of the questions in the first step was “What metrics or KPIs do they care about?”
💡 Once you’ve defined that, you can source the right data that’ll support your end goal and appeal to your target audience.
This data can then be used to guide your outline and narrative.
For example, if you’re writing a story about how your content increased organic traffic to your client’s website, it doesn’t make sense to include data about how it got old customers to buy again — that’s what I mean by sourcing the right data.
4. Data Storytelling Framework: Create Your Data Story Outline
As I recently said in my freelance writing newsletter, as a writer, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel.
There are dozens of tried-and-tested copywriting formulas and storytelling structures you can follow.
⚠️ The most effective dramatic structure for a data story is Freytag’s Pyramid.
With this structure, you start by establishing the setting and characters. Then, you incite the incident by showing how a change caused a problem or created an opportunity.
The rising action then culminates in the climax which leads to character growth, resolution, and a conclusion that shows readers what their next steps should be.
5. Data Storytelling Framework: Craft a Compelling Narrative
One of the biggest misconceptions about data storytelling is that visuals and data are the most important parts.
⚠️ But without a narrative providing structure, context, and meaning, most readers will just see them as random assortments of data points.
Plus, as Brent Dykes put it, narrative elements allow you to “engage your audience and connect with them on an emotional level, which data could never do on its own.”
⚠️ One important thing to remember is that the story isn’t about how you started from a question or hypothesis and your analysis journey. That’s what happens behind the scenes.
What you need to highlight are the insights you uncovered — but only after you provide context (e.g., background, setting, data source, etc.), show readers why they should care about your story, and bring the main characters to life.
⚠️ Another thing you need to keep in mind is that your text shouldn’t redundantly describe the information shown in visual form. It should explain it.
6. Data Storytelling Framework: Let the Data Guide Your Story
Above, I touched upon the difference between persuading and manipulating. This is where I’ll clarify that.
🤔 So, what’s the difference between a persuasive data story and a manipulative data story?
➡️ A manipulative data story will be guided by the narrative the writer wants to put out. The data will be nit-picked, manipulated, or massaged to fit that agenda.
➡️ A persuasive data story will let the data guide the story.
The story will include elements of persuasive copywriting and engaging storytelling, but if you strip it all down, at its core, the story is true.
A single manipulative story can shatter a brand’s credibility and customer trust as well as your reputation as a writer. Don’t go there.
7. Data Storytelling Framework: Create the Right Visuals
“A picture is worth a thousand words.”
Visual elements will engage readers and convey the message in a way a narrative alone could never.
💡 The human brain processes images quicker and more easily than text. Use images to display data, and text as an aid to contextualize and explain.
I know as a writer words are your bread and butter, but a data storyteller must be able to strategically combine data visuals with the narrative.
You also need to know what visuals are better at conveying a certain type of data.
➡️ Here are some of the most commonly used data visuals:
- Infographics
- Trend charts
- Line charts
- Bar charts
- Pie charts
- Comparison charts
- Venn diagrams
- Ranking tables
- Choropleths
- Heat maps
⚠️ The easiest way to create appealing visuals is by using Canva, a subscription-based graphic design platform with thousands of ready-made templates.
I used Canva to create all the images in this blog post, for example.
For more complex graphics, you can create them using Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Google Docs, Google Sheets, or Google Slides, save them as PDFs, and upload them to Canva to customize them with colors and more complex graphic elements.
The free version of Canva is enough to do most things, but if you plan to use it regularly, I highly recommend the pro version.
It’ll allow you to do a lot more and will save you so much time. Plus, it’s dirt cheap for all it offers (and you’ll get a free trial as well).
8. Data Storytelling Framework: Edit & Test Your Story
➡️ Here are six simple steps to self-edit your data story:
- Proofread: correct any spelling or grammar mistakes using Grammarly.
- Clarify and condense: make sure it gets the point across clearly and delete any extra words that don’t add value or redundant sentences. Simplify or explain jargon.
- Check if there are text-heavy bits that can be turned into bullet points or numbered lists.
- Optimize the story for SEO if it’s meant to rank in search engines.
- Make sure none of your outbound links are broken or link to the wrong page.
- Preview the post to see if you need more whitespace or visuals.
It’s also important to re-read your story and objectively assess if the data is telling the story — if it’s all true. Asking someone else to read and test your story can help.
TL;DR: Storytelling With Data — Summary
Short on time?
Here’s a quick summary of the steps you need to take to write a compelling data story.
Data Storytelling Framework — Key Takeaways
“Data storytelling has the power to open people’s minds to new possibilities and ideas they would have never imagined.”
— Brent Dykes, Forbes
⚠️ As a business owner, data storytelling is a powerful marketing weapon you should add to your arsenal — if you’re looking for data storytelling services for your business, I’d love to help. Email me at ines@freeworkerbee.com.
As a freelance writer, it represents a unique opportunity to jump into an underserved niche that has the potential to be highly lucrative.
You’ll have to invest time and resources to educate your prospects on its benefits, though.
P.S.: If you need more help advancing your freelance writing career, download my FREE freelance writing course 👇
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