6 Best Practices to Communicate Data-Driven Insights Internally

Businesses spend a significant amount of time and money on data collection and analysis to gain valuable insights about their customers and competitors. All this effort goes to waste if the insights gained are not communicated effectively within the organization. Data-driven insights must be communicated so that every worker thoroughly understands the data and can actively use insights to boost their productivity and output. But how do team leaders figure out what data is essential for their team from an extensive data set? How can managers ensure that workers get the right insights and integrate them into their work processes? This is where effective internal data communication becomes crucial, and we’ve compiled a list of best practices to help you out.

1. Data visualization

Providing insights to teams by visualizing the data via infographics, diagrams, and charts makes it easy to digest, interpret, and act on.

Flooding employees with tons of data will just frustrate them and won’t lead to improved work processes. However, providing insights to teams by visualizing the data via infographics, diagrams, and charts makes it easy to digest, interpret, and act on. For example, JoyOrganics has a live chat widget on their website that is excellent for gaining new leads and establishing authority simultaneously. The integration of the 2 most popular questions along with a search option for FAQs and a news section sets their live chat widget apart from its competitors. But those integrations didn’t happen overnight. They probably started with a generic live chat, which evolved based on feedback from customer service and data collection in data centers. It’s likely that the process was more complex and involved a lot more data, especially for larger companies that use data centers. This is where data visualization helps. Using data visualization, team leaders can understand and sort the data more effectively. Instead of wading through endless spreadsheets, they can disseminate insights efficiently using infographics and engaging reports. For example, an infographic of the most frequently asked questions can help the content team create a good FAQ section, while a report on what customers looked for the most can help the design team decide the order of the sections. This infographic from Reply about the benefits of their email outreach optimization is a great visual representation of their inside data. When you can clearly see all the data in front of you, it’s easier to understand where and how it should be distributed.

2. Keep it interesting

Insights must be delivered to employees in quick, concise, and, more importantly, visually appealing ways. Long, fully-text emails stuffed to the brim with information will turn off employees, with most of them not even bothering to read the whole thing. Most employees these days would rather read a visually enticing statistical rundown, like the below platform stats for a podcast platform, than be bombarded with paragraphs of text.

When employees can quickly read and understand important information, they are more likely to feel involved and integrate relevant data into work practices.

When employees can quickly read and understand important information, they are more likely to feel involved and integrate relevant data into work practices. Moreover, enabling features like comments allows for quick employee feedback and makes them feel like they are being heard. Employees who say they feel like part of a team are 2.3 times more likely to be engaged. Engaged employees are crucial for any team since they boost productivity and aid business growth.

3. The rule of 3

The rule of 3 is a principle that is crucial in both communications and writing. It’s a technique that can be traced back to ancient Greece. The principle capitalizes on the fact that 3 is the smallest number of items required to form a pattern. Patterns are easier to digest and more memorable, so a list of 3 items is more likely to leave a lasting impact. You’ve probably seen the rule of 3 in action in your daily life but never actually noticed. For example, WaveApps, a free invoicing software provider for small businesses, uses the rule of 3 at the top of their site to highlight the benefits of their products. And you’ve probably seen lists like these in many places around you, including airport terminals, slogans, and presentations. Using the rule of 3 to communicate insights is effective because employees are given essential information in bite-sized, easy-to-understand pieces.>

Using the rule of 3 to communicate insights is effective because employees are given essential information in bite-sized, easy-to-understand pieces.

4. Focus on key takeaways

Simply turning data into visuals isn’t enough. You need to hook the reader and keep them engaged. A great way to do this is to start with the end. Home Care Toronto does an excellent job of this on their homepage. Notice how the website uses a few words to describe themselves and the CTA button greets visitors when they enter. The rule of 3 is also used to highlight the benefits. This draws users in. Whether they’re moved by the text or visuals, it entices them to keep reading and more importantly, click on that CTA button. Similarly, when communicating data-driven insights, start with key takeaways that help your employees and expand on them further below.

5. Encourage collaboration by using diagrams

Whether you’re in HR or marketing or healthcare, many projects require inter-team collaboration. Good internal collaboration becomes crucial in ensuring everyone is on the same page, and that project goals are met. Diagrams can make collaboration easier as a single image, chart, or infographic can encapsulate the process and progress of a project. Domain mapping illustrates how diagrams lead to effective collaboration. As the name suggests, domain mapping identifies the different areas of a website and how visitors will move between them. In this scenario, using emails / chat to explain every area of the website will complicate the process. But with a diagram, every team, from content to marketing to web development, will know exactly how their work relates to that of the other team. Thus, data distribution becomes more efficient, and complex information about the website is laid out neatly in a single diagram. Each team can then work on their end to meet objectives. Like this scenario, diagrams can help break down complex information such that every employee understands their role and goals.

6. Implement automation

Automation has become an essential tool to boost all business areas, and it’s the same for data organization and distribution, where many tasks become repetitive. Considering the JoyOrganics scenario, there are probably numerous reports related to their live chat widget produced every week/month. These reports will likely lead to a predictable set of actions and tasks. Instead of individually performing these tasks every time a report is produced, companies can automate tasks and integrate data simultaneously. Even better, you can streamline the entire process by setting up an automated workflow to make data-sharing easier and more precise. For example, Irish solar experts Activ8 Solar Energies use Frevvo, a workflow automation software to speed up customer data collection and boost internal communications between on-site sales representatives and office staff. There are plenty of automation solutions and tools out there to make data distribution a breeze. Using these tools leads to better internal communication since team members no longer have to worry about missed customer response forms, reports, or any other data.

The importance of proper internal communication

Data-driven insights are crucial for business growth, but they are ineffective without proper internal communication. Employees in an organization cannot integrate insights into their work processes and improve productivity if they can’t understand the data given to them or if it takes forever to grasp concepts. Good internal communication, powered by data visualization and other aspects, plays a key role in forming a data-driven culture that capitalizes on insights.