Author: Alex Allen

5 Tips for Improving Your Website UX

Posted on by Alex Allen

The trends we have seen towards more online shopping in recent times show no signs of slowing down. According to the Office for National Statistics, online retail reached record levels in 2021, accounting for 35% of all sales in the UK.1

This brings both opportunities and challenges for businesses looking to take advantage of the eCommerce boom. The way consumers purchase products and services has changed, but so have the demands on businesses. For example, 88% of online shoppers surveyed say they wouldn’t return to a website after a bad user experience (UX).2

Why is UX so important? It’s all about fulfilling the user’s needs. A positive experience creates loyal customers, which in turn facilitates increased sales and other positive outcomes. Furthermore, a poor website UX can do real damage. 67% of users say a poor website UX negatively impacts their opinion of a brand.3

That’s why in this blog post, we’re going to look at five ways you can improve the UX your website offers. Let’s dive straight into the first one.

#1 Use design wisely

Your website’s design is critical to user experience. For example, incorporating images, videos and icons onto a business’s website is a great way to visualise a brand’s identity and unique personality to prospects. It can also help users absorb information — our brains process images approximately 60k times faster than text.4

However, it’s not as straightforward as filling a site with images and expecting an exceptional UX to materialise. Like everything else included on a site, images need to be used efficiently. Images, videos and icons all need to present information in a digestible way that attracts attention and ultimately drives clicks and views. Unfortunately, there are several common mistakes made that can actually harm UX, including:

  • Too much: While images can play a pivotal role in a site’s UX, too many on one page can confuse navigation. This ultimately makes it difficult for users to navigate and digest important information, increasing bounce rates. It can also cause your page load time to increase, which is bad for SEO.  
  • Using the wrong images: Stock or generic images are now easily identifiable for the average internet user. As a result, businesses should look to utilise their own images when possible, as this can demonstrate a unique identity and build consumer trust.
  • Poorly located design elements: Even if you’re using the right images, they need to be strategically placed. If images aren’t adding value or context to the rest of a site’s content, they might negatively impact UX.
  • Incorrectly sized images: Poorly sized images can create a confusing user experience. For example, we’ve found that including large imagery at the top of pages can increase bounce rates if users don’t see the info they want when landing on the page.  

While images, videos and icons can contribute to a great user experience, they can also make a website difficult for users to navigate if they are utilised ineffectively. This can detract from the experience a site offers and prevent prospects or returning customers from taking the next step on the customer journey.

However, there are methods available to ensure a site’s use of images is optimised. One of the most effective is data analytics, specifically multivariate testing. This technique helps determine which combination of variables, in this case images, creates an experience that helps users successfully navigate a site, providing actionable insights for optimisation. By combining this with heat mapping, you can better understand how users engage with your page’s design features, and figure out which images, videos and icons engage users and which they seem to ignore. 

#2 Deploy impactful CTA’s

Impactful calls to action (CTA) are a tried and tested method of providing visitors with a next step that most makes sense for their journey, and eventually to become a lead or a customer. In the context of the UX a website offers, CTAs need to be utilised to guide users, helping them navigate to where you want them to be.

Despite their wide usage, you’d be surprised how often websites get CTA’s wrong. It’s pretty simple. Whenever you include a CTA on your site, you need to consider:

  • Colour: Although it may not seem important, using eye-catching and visually pleasing colours can really enhance the effectiveness of CTAs. For example, the Laura Ashley website increased checkouts by 11% by testing colour variations to find the optimised experience for users5 . 
  • Font: As with colour choices, the fonts used for website CTAs can significantly impact the user experience. By using a clear and stylish text design across CTAs, websites can start to drive more users to take the next action they have to offer. 
  • Placement: Where CTAs physically appear on a site is crucial to the UX on offer. CTAs should appear in a relevant section of the page after users have digested the information on offer. Surrounding CTAs with white space that gives them room to breathe can also increase their effectiveness.
  • Functionality: You should make filling out a form on your website as simple as possible. There is no point in directing users through more pages than necessary. You also need to make sure that your CTAs actually work. This might be obvious, but you don’t want to lose conversions because you’ve embedded the wrong link.   

Each of these factors can influence a user’s thoughts, feelings and perceptions of a website, so getting them right is essential. The key is testing what works well and what doesn’t in the same way it’s possible to test variations of images we’ve outlined above.

There are additional, tried and tested methods that can be deployed to enhance the experience CTAs offer on a website. In order to give CTAs the best possible chance of driving conversions, they should always be:

  • Time-sensitive
  • Emotive
  • Actionable 

#3 Be mobile-friendly

Just as consumers’ shopping preferences have changed with the advent of eCommerce, so has the way they make purchases online. For example, in the UK, 46.5% of consumers utilise online shopping using a mobile device.6  

What this means is that businesses need to carefully consider the mobile browsing experience that they can offer to users. As a result, several aspects of websites need to be optimised with mobile users in mind. This includes:

  • How images are used
  • Image specs
  • The typography deployed
  • Site navigation
  • General layout
  • How the hover action works 

Tracking and analysing website visitors’ behaviour is also a crucial element of optimising the experience on offer to users on mobile devices. In order to identify where and how overall experience can be improved, it’s essential to always keep an eye on:

  • Visits
  • Bounce and exit rates
  • The browsers and devices being used
  • The number of repeated visits
  • How many pages users visit
  • Order conversions
  • Page funnelling 

Pro tip: It’s worth noting that desktop conversion rates remain higher — indicating that while people like to browse on mobile, they still want to make that purchase on a computer.7 Mobile-friendly doesn’t mean forgetting about desktop users. Your site needs to be able to accommodate both.

#4 Web errors

There are few things more frustrating for a user than site errors that detract from their overall browsing experience. While there are numerous errors to watch out for, the most common that detract from a smooth UX include:

  • 404s, the status code that flashes up when a requested page is unavailable
  • Broken links
  • Broken images
  • Delayed page loading times

If users can’t navigate a site seamlessly and access the pages they want when they want to, potential customers will disappear. Fortunately, there are various things businesses can do to try and minimise and eliminate the impact of these types of errors, including:

  • Identifying 404s: The easiest way to catch 404s before they cause problems is with Google Search Console (GSC). By proactively checking your site for errors using GSC, you can significantly reduce the disruption users have to endure and maintain a smooth UX on your site. 
  • Designing 404 pages: An error page is unappealing to users and prevents seamless browsing. While you want to avoid 404s, a friendly, personalised error page can help visitors navigate your site easily when an error does occur, thereby encouraging them to keep browsing.
  • Catching and fixing broken links: Free tools like Google Analytics make it easier to quickly locate broken links on a site, facilitating the process of fixing links, either internal or external, to ensure an optimised UX at all times. 
  • Compressing images: There are numerous ways to optimise loading times, but perhaps the most effective is focusing on imagery. Large images can delay loading times, so compressing images and testing the impact that has on loading times can help to ensure users don’t face delays when they browse. 

Pro tip: Although 404s are very common, don’t forget that there is more than just one kind of error message. 401s, 400s, 403s and 500s can all equally damage user experience. Make sure to audit your site for these errors as well and then take steps to minimise their impact.

#5 Utilise the power of data

Whilst there are numerous ways to improve website UX, each should be underpinned by the most powerful tool at your disposal — data. Establishing which elements drive engagement and a seamless experience provides the insights required to enhance website UX long-term. In the era of big data, you can do all that and more with effective analytics.

As we’ve seen with some of the strategies outlined above, data and analytics can help businesses identify actionable insights that can drive optimisation. Within the context of improving a site’s UX, data is instrumental when it comes to:

  • Multivariate testing: This allows businesses to examine how each variable on a page impacts the experience it offers. This information can be used to pinpoint where UX isn’t currently being optimised by the web design or layout, facilitating informed decision-making when it comes to making improvements. 
  • A/B testing: By focusing your analysis on just one variable, you can dig further into the details and ensure that you are making decisions able to drive the outcomes you need.  
  • Customer journey analysis: Carrying out an analysis of the customer journey is all about looking at consumer behaviour across touchpoints and over time. By better understanding the user’s current experience, businesses can obtain insights into how it can be optimised moving forward.
  • CRO: Generating conversions is a central function of your website. Everything from site structure and branding, to the use of overlays and promotions, can transform your conversion rate. By focusing your data analysis and testing on how variables impact CRO, you can make a large impact on the overall outcomes you generate. 

Ultimately, data enables you to create tailored and personalised user experiences. This will help to improve UX, increase loyalty and generate repeat purchases. For example, Amazon uses data science to offer a personalised and tailored UX by showing ‘your browsing history’, ‘inspired by your purchases’ and ‘top picks for you’. Netflix also uses data science, AI and ML to present thumbnail images that are most likely to resonate with the user based on other programmes and genres they tend to watch.8

Knowing that data holds the key to UX optimisation is one thing, but knowing how to utilise data to reach that outcome is something else entirely. It requires a data strategy that facilitates data:

While this can be done in-house, it’s time and labour-intensive, and the data skills gap makes internal hiring and training an expensive undertaking.

Get support for your data strategy with Ipsos Jarmany

If you’re serious about improving your site’s UX and increasing visits, conversions and sales, you need to be utilising your organisation’s data. An in-house approach is one way to go, but getting outside help can ensure you benefit from the insights stored within your data without investing in in-house teams, processes and overheads.

Here at Ipsos Jarmany, our mission is to ensure that organisations can understand the story behind their data and use that information to drive successful outcomes. Backed by our expert team of consultants, analysts, architects, technicians and data scientists, we can help you drive growth and make operational improvements using data.

With our managed service offering, you can access a whole range of benefits from data analytics that drive long-term business success, including: 

  • Saving time and internal resources
  • Support from a dedicated team of analysts
  • Increased resolution speed
  • Internal education on data solutions/dashboards

If you’re ready to start improving the user experience on your site by harnessing the potential of a data-driven approach, get in touch today and see how Ipsos Jarmany can help..

1. Retail sales, Great Britain: January 2021

2. Essential EX Statistics — Everything You Need to Know

3. 100 UX Statistics Every User Experience Professional Needs to Know

4. 19 Reasons You Should Include Visual Content in Your Marketing [Data]

5. The best practices for designing a website with good user experience

6. 23 Popular Mobile Commerce Statistice for 2021

7. Why Are Mobile Conversion Rates Behind Desktop? – SaleCycle

8. How Netflix Uses AI, Data Science, and Machine Learning — BecomingHuman

Crumbs! What do I do when Cookies are phased out?

Posted on by Alex Allen

What are Cookies and what do they do?

Cookies refer to the data that website’s collect on their users so they can get a better understanding of their website visitors and find out information such as:

  • their browsing history
  • what device they are using
  • how they’ve interacted with your site.

Think of it as users leaving cookie crumbs across the internet so you can follow their trail.

Now, aside from stalking internet users, cookies aren’t all bad. They allow advertisers to serve up more personalised content that closely aligns to the interests and behaviour of users. Regardless of cookies, you’re going to get served up ads, so surely you’d want to them to at least be relevant to your interests… right? Well, not if it comes at the cost of your data privacy.

Before we get into the data privacy thing, it’s important to draw the differentiation between first party cookies and third party cookies:

  • First party cookies – this is where data is collected by the same website the user is visiting. This type of cookie tracks information such as language, payment method, details to pre-populate form fields, and items you may have previously viewed on their site.
  • Third party cookies – this is where data is collected by a separate domain to the one the user is visiting. It’s typically used for marketing and advertising purposes and tracks browser history and cross-site navigation.

It’s third party cookies which pose concerns over data privacy and security of personally identifiable information (PII), fuelled by heightened controls over privacy regulations such as GDPR.

 

What’s changing and how will it affect me?

Third party cookies are due to be phased out by the end of this year, with 90% of browsers expected to reject these cookies by default by 2023*. This is going to shake up the digital world and will impact the future of targeting and measurement of digital advertising campaigns. With mobile eCommerce accounting for over 70% of the total eCommerce market in 2021**, the rise of the app is also contributing towards the need for robust tracking to provide businesses with a holistic understanding of customer behaviour throughout their lifetime.

  • For advertisers, this means losing the ability to track user’s engagement and cross-site navigation. There will be notably less data on consumer interests and behaviour which will significantly impact how you use behavioural insights to target new customers. As a result, the digital advertising industry will need to look for new ways to identify and target potential audiences, without compromising ad spend by serving up irrelevant ads to the wrong audience.
  • For website users, don’t get too excited… you’re still going to get followed around the internet by adverts. They’ll just feel less personalised but therefore less intrusive too. Most importantly, this change will bring about more security and privacy whilst you browse the internet.

 

5 tips to bridge the data gap

With brands losing the ability to track online engagements, it’s important to pivot to new methods that can bridge the gap between informed insights and digital strategy. We’re in the data business, so you may think we’re biased but data strategy is the new digital strategy.

Check out our 5 top tips to help you prepare for a post-cookie world:

 

#1 Strengthen first party data

With the loss of third-party cookies, the first most obvious thing to do is to leverage your first party data (which arguably is more important anyway). But before you can do that you need to make sure you’re effectively collecting, storing, and utilising your first party data. The more you know and understand about your existing customers, the easier you can model new audiences and increase sales through repeat purchase. Customer Data Platforms (CDP’s) are a clear solution here, with 67% of advertisers from a recent survey either currently or planning to use CDPs within the next 6 months*. This software allows users to aggregate, organise and structure vast amounts of customer data, which is pivotal for gaining in-depth insights into your existing audience and executing data-informed campaigns.

 

#2 Improve your customer experience

Customer experience will be key to enriching your first party data. The larger subscriber base you have, the more you’ll be able to understand and learn from them in order to segment, personalise and ultimately create relevant experiences – which in turn will lead to brand loyalty, advocacy and repeat purchases. A positive customer experience means they are much more likely to trust your brand and therefore consent their personal information.

 

#3 Collaborate with other data holders

Whilst first party data is crucial, it won’t take you the whole way there on your journey to finding new mechanics to target new audiences. Collaboration between media owners and advertisers is therefore a great way to use interest-based anonymised first party data to target new audiences. These types of interest-based cohorts are built by publishers grouping together their consented viewers based on viewing habits. Brands can then leverage this first party data by advertising through the publisher’s channels and targeting cohorts whose interests match their business offering.

 

#4 Get more intelligent with your data intelligence

It’s not just about having data, you need to ensure you have the right data and you’re utilising it properly. This is where data science tools and techniques like Machine Learning, AI and predictive modelling are helpful to extrapolate learnings from your first party data. The end of third-party cookies is also going to impact attribution modelling, so it’s important to be aware of new solutions that will help you identify last-touch and click-through attribution. Google are reviewing new solutions for this, such as their FLoC (Federated Learning on Cohorts) algorithm, to enable interest-based advertising on the internet by grouping together large anonymous audiences with common browsing habits.

 

#5 Don’t underestimate the skills required

Whilst the solutions may seem straight-forward, implementing them can be a whole other story, especially if you don’t already have the suitable in-house resource and capabilities. There’s a major skills gap in the industry which is driving up the cost of in-house resourcing, so consider outsourcing your data requirements to help speed up the process and save you time and effort.

At Ipsos Jarmany, we’re committed to helping you enrich and utilise your data to predict customers’ needs, increase efficiency and drive growth in a cookie-less world. We do that by applying the world’s most advanced technologies to your sales, marketing and operational data. Start the conversation today by getting in touch. 

   Data-driven decision-making, made easy with Ipsos Jarmany

*Embracing a Cookieless Future – webinar by Havas Media **11 Reasons Why You Need a Mobile eCommerce App | BuildFire 

Google Analytics is changing; here’s what you need to know

Posted on by Alex Allen

What is happening & when?

Universal Analytics and Universal Analytics 360 (the Enterprise version) will both be phased out and new data will no longer be processed through these platforms. 

Universal Analytics is sunsetting on 1st July 2023, and UA360 will be sunsetting 3 months later on 1st October 2023. Both platforms will enable users to have access to view historical data for a further 6 months. 

What are the key differences?

The primary driver for moving to Google Analytics 4 is the better management of data privacy. 

GA4 will: 

  • Anonymise IP addresses by default, therefore preventing the misuse of personally identifiable information and protecting personal privacy; bringing the platform in-line with GDPR compliance.
  • Will be less reliant on cookies and instead focus on an event-based data model. This helps to make the platform more future-proof and, by moving away from the previous ‘browser-page framework’, will help to improve the insights available across multiple platforms.
  • Allow optimised integration with Google’s BigQuery; helping businesses utilise their data for broader insights and modelling purposes.

As a result, GA4 will enable you and your business to benefit from: 

  • Broader multi-platform insights 
  • More valuable data and data-driven attribution 
  • More actionable data 

What do you need to do?

It’s important to be proactive and create your action plan so you’re geared up and ready for when this change takes place. Here are our top 4 tips for ensuring you are ‘GA4-Ready’: 

#1 Transition existing report settings 

As you’ll no longer be able to process data through GA3 from mid-2023, you’ll need to ensure that you transition your existing tracking tags, in Google Tag Manager or other tagging systems, and report settings over to GA4. This won’t be done automatically by Google so will require some manual work. 

#2 Use this time to audit current reporting 

Before you transition your existing reporting settings, you may want to view this time as a good opportunity to audit your existing reporting setup. Think about what your current reporting is showing you and whether it’s capturing all the business-critical, as well as ‘nice-to-have’, insights that you require. Don’t transition over a reporting framework that isn’t working for you, use this time to optimise your reporting workflow and improve efficiencies. If you’re unsure of how to optimise your reporting, seek consultation from an agency that can dedicate resources to guide you. 

#3 Save historical data 

You’ll still be able to access previously processed historical data for around 6 months after the sunsetting of Universal Analytics and Universal Analytics 360. However, you may want to consider exporting any reports so you can refer to these at a later date. If you don’t already track historical data outside of GA, this may be a good time to kick-start that! 

#4 Seek additional support for your reporting 

Data and analytics can be a complicated web of stats, charts, and figures if you’re not familiar with it. Instead of trying to weave through this alone seek support from specialists that are experts in Google Analytics, as well as other analytics platforms. By onboarding an agency to manage this for you, it will help you to smoothly transition your analytics and reporting set-up whilst saving you time, resources and hassle.

The transition to GA4 doesn’t have to be difficult.
Book a call with one of our experts to get started.

Start your conversation with Ipsos Jarmany today to see how we can help you transition to GA4 and improve your reporting and insights by emailing hello@jarmany.com or calling us on +44 (0)203 051 4960.

The real benefits of real-time dashboards

Posted on by Alex Allen

Enter real-time dashboards, a game-changing tool that not only showcases your data but also empowers you to make informed decisions, faster.

First, let’s differentiate between dashboards, and real-time dashboards. Real-time dashboards are more than just data visualisation tools – they serve as a dynamic interface that aggregates and visualises key metrics and data points in a clear and concise way. Unlike traditional static reports, real-time dashboards provide instantaneous updates, enabling users to monitor changes and trends as they happen. This accessibility to up-to-the-minute information enables you to respond swiftly to emerging trends, capitalise on opportunities, and address issues as they arise; they are catalysts for transformation and growth.

 

The benefits of real-time dashboards

Real-time dashboards play a crucial role in enhancing data-driven decision-making, improving operational efficiency and driving business success. They are a real game-changer when it comes to empowering businesses to harness the power of data and drive actionable insights, and they can revolutionize your business strategy. Let’s delve in to some of the key benefits:

 

1. Enhanced decision-making

One of the primary benefits of real-time dashboards is their ability to facilitate data-driven decision-making. By providing instant access to critical insights, decision-makers can evaluate performance metrics, assess market trends, and identify opportunities or challenges in real-time. This agility enables businesses to make informed decisions promptly, thereby gaining a competitive edge in today’s dynamic marketplace.

 

2. Agility and adaptability

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, agility and adaptability are essential for survival and maintaining a competitive advantage. Real-time dashboards enable organisations to monitor changes in market conditions, consumer behaviour and competitive landscapes in real-time, allowing them to adapt their strategies and tactics accordingly. Whether it’s launching a new marketing campaign, adjusting pricing strategies, or reallocating resources, real-time dashboards provide the agility businesses need to stay ahead of the curve.

 

3. Improved operational efficiency

Real-time dashboards streamline the process of data analysis and reporting, saving valuable time and resources for organisations. Instead of manually compiling and analysing data from disparate sources, users can leverage real-time dashboards to automate data aggregation and visualisation. This efficiency not only reduces the burden on data analysts but also ensures that decision-makers have access to accurate and up-to-date information whenever they need it.

 

4. Proactive performance monitoring

With real-time dashboards, organisations can proactively monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics, allowing them to identify deviations or anomalies in performance immediately. By setting predefined thresholds and alerts, users can receive notifications when certain metrics fall outside acceptable ranges, enabling them to take corrective action promptly. This proactive approach to performance monitoring minimises downtime, optimises resource allocation, and enhances overall operational performance.

 

5. Enhanced collaboration and transparency

Collaboration and transparency are critical in today’s digital-first world, especially when it comes to data and the rising need for businesses to establish trust and properly govern their data. Real-time dashboards help foster a culture of collaboration and transparency within organisations by providing stakeholders with access to real-time data and insights. Whether it’s departmental heads, team members, or external partners, everyone can leverage the same set of data to make informed decisions and align their actions with organisational goals. This transparency promotes accountability, fosters trust, and facilitates cross-functional collaboration, ultimately driving collective success.

 

Choosing the right real-time dashboard solution

Getting started with real-time dashboards doesn’t need to a burden. There are plenty of applications within the market that you can choose from; whether it’s an off-the-shelf solution, or custom-built dashboard tailored to your business requirements. Some well-known options include Tableau, Looker, QlikSense and, our personal favourite, Power BI. When it comes to choosing the right option for your business, you need to consider factors such as:

  • Scalability
  • Customisation
  • Ease of use
  • Your specific business requirements
  • Your internal technical capabilities
  • Your current tech stack and integration capabilities
  • Security features
  • Support and ongoing maintenance
  • Cost

 

Taking the first step

To conclude, real-time dashboards offer a myriad of benefits that can transform the way organisations leverage data to drive business success. From enhanced decision-making and operational efficiency to proactive performance monitoring and enhanced collaboration, the advantages of real-time dashboards are undeniable. By investing in the right real-time dashboard solution and harnessing the power of real-time data, organisations can gain a competitive edge, adapt to changing market conditions, and unlock new opportunities for growth and innovation.

At Ipsos Jarmany, we specialise in crafting bespoke real-time dashboards tailored to your unique business needs. Whether utilising your existing software or recommending cutting-edge solutions, we ensure seamless integration and optimal performance. Our platform-agnostic approach guarantees flexibility and scalability, empowering you to harness the full potential of real-time data visualisation. If you’d like support getting started with real-time dashboards, or would like to find out more about our solutions, then get in touch with the team today.

Data-driven decision-making, made easy with Jarmany

Data Visualisation Tools

Posted on by Alex Allen

Data visualisation is a vital element of all data management activities. When used right, the best data visualisation software can tell the story behind your data and provide a single source of truth to your business. It can enable informed, rapid data-driven decision-making and allow businesses to become more agile, responsive to emerging trends and be more in tune with their customers.

 

What is a data visualisation tool?

Data visualisation tools are software tools (often with a browser interface) that can import data, merge and mix data streams, and present the required views of data at the right level of detail for the intended user.

Businesses and organisations typically have many streams of data. For these streams to be usable they need to be presented in a form that can be understood by those who need it to make decisions.

Data visualisation tools transform “raw” data into graphs, charts, tables, lists, maps and more. They also allow for reports to be created which can include narrative commentary supplied by data analysts.

Key requirements of data visualisation tools are typically:

  • Ease-of-use
  • Speed of creating new reports
  • Ability to handle big data sets easily
  • A user interface that’s attractive and intuitive

Alongside these factors, total cost of ownership is going to be a key factor in the decision to adopt a particular tool. Different licencing models are in play, including simple subscriptions, per-seat models and feature-based models.

Reports should be easy to download and print, but data visualisation tools must also take advantage of the interactivity available on the web to provide users with the ability to easily navigate the reports, drill down from top-level data into detail and get the best user experience on the widest range of desktops and even mobiles.

Data visualisation tools are in fact much more than the user interface and presentation part. They must support the data connectors necessary to connect to a wide range of data sources, and preferably allow third-party providers to develop their own data connectors, if they don’t already exist.

 

Who uses data visualisation tools?

There are many types of users of data visualisation tools. The most obvious is management teams who need data that’s continuously up to date, in order to make timely decisions.

There are literally hundreds of data visualisation tools on the market today and the landscape is continually changing. Let’s look at four popular tools that are dominating the marketplace: Power BI from Microsoft, Tableau, Looker and QlikSense.

 

Microsoft Power BI

Microsoft Power BI (Business Information) is a strong contender for best-of-breed data visualisation tool. Microsoft pitches its product as a way of consolidating multiple streams of data and moving away from “raw” data views such as Excel, SQL Server, Access, and text-based formats, such as XML, and jSON. Like most visualisation tools, Power BI can be configured to import data from unstructured sources, such as emails and PDFs, as well as tabular or relational data.

Data can be presented on desktops, on the web (secured for access only by authorised users if necessary) and on mobiles.

A key feature, which is emerging in many visualisation tools is the ability for users to enter a natural language query into a search box to ask questions in their native language to interrogate the underlying data. For example:

  • Which sales team had the highest revenue last quarter?
  • Show me the top 10 products by sales this year
  • Show me sales by category as pie chart

As you can see these types of queries will return quite different results, intelligently and in real time. This feature is called Power BI Q&A and also supports autocomplete to guess the data sets and categories you are interested in.

Power BI also supports Data Analysis Expressions (DAX). Similar in concept to Excel’s formulas, DAX allows users to query data using expressions, maths and string expressions.

Visualisation types include the full range of traditional charts, including pie charts, column charts, stacked column charts, tables, lists, area charts, scatter charts, geo maps, and line charts of all types.

 

Tableau

Tableau is another data visualisation tool that can create beautiful dashboards and visualisations. It supports numerous data sources including both structured and unstructured data, drill-down, the capability to be programmed using popular languages such as Python and R, and has some unique features too.

Like many of the other tools, Tableau has a range of ways to connect your data including Amazon Redshift, Google Analytics, Excel, Azure databases, Databricks, MySQL and many other data sources. Databases can be cross joined so they don’t necessarily have to be merged together in a pre-visualisation operation, which can slow down the workflow.

Tableau dashboards can be viewed on mobiles and tablets, as well as desktops. It supports a very wide range of mathematical and statistical functions. And of course, it supports all the expected chart types including pie chart and bar charts, as well as histograms, Gantt charts, treemaps, geomaps and more.

“A great data visualisation tool will help management and teams understand the backstory behind their data
Ipsos Jarmany

 

Qlik Sense

Business Intelligence platform, Qlik Sense is another choice for understanding and visualising your data.

The Qlik angle is to close the gap between data (what you know) and action (what you should do about it) by providing ways to visualise data streams that give informative, actionable insights.

Qlik doesn’t force users to move data to the cloud, which can be difficult to do with legacy systems in play. But it also plays nicely with cloud data platforms including Amazon, Azure, Google Big Query, Snowflake, Databricks etc.

Qlik’s product suite offers more than just visualisation – it also includes data replication tools, automation, data management and more.

A unique feature of Qlik is the “associative engine”, which creates an internal catalogue of the relationships between your data points to find patterns and insights that you may not even have thought about. Using a visual interface, users (who could be non-technical) can explore data sets visually. Whereas, traditional data querying is done via query languages such as SQL (Structured Query Language) which can only filter and show the data that you specify in advance.

Qlik also has a mobile app, making it easy to use by team members who work in the field.

 

Looker

Looker bills itself as “Data at your moment of need” and, as you might expect from a Google product, there is a focus on speed in this visualisation tool.

Looker has no desktop app (it’s all browser-based). It allows you to create amazing visualisation of data, features strong security and sharing capabilities, allows you to schedule reports to be created and disseminated amongst team members, set up alerts when data points meet specified thresholds, and much more.

Looker might not be the right choice if your data stack is primarily Microsoft (in which case you should probably consider Power BI) but if you are more platform-agnostic Looker could be a good choice.

Like other tools, Google features powerful AI which can interpret English-language queries, avoiding the need for the data-consumers within your business to know database query languages such as SQL.

Looker has out-of-the-box integrations with many SaaS packages commonly used by businesses today, including Salesforce, Confluence, and SharePoint.

 

Need Data Visualisation Support?

To make sure your data is telling you the whole story about what’s going on in your organisation, look to Ipsos Jarmany.

How to Use Big Data Effectively

Posted on by Alex Allen

What is big data?

Big data simply refers to large amounts of data from a disparate variety of sources.

“Big data is big, fast-flowing, and often messy.”
Ipsos Jarmany

It could include information such as customer transactions, consumer behaviour, health records, internet searches, inventories, road mapping, weather conditions, financial data – or thousands of other types of data .

Characteristic of “big data” is that it tends to be large in volume (often terabytes and petabytes in size), it tends to flow into the business at a high speed, and it is, in most cases, unstructured.

Unstructured data tends not to fit into the traditional relational (table/column) based structure in which data has commonly been stored in the past. Instead, it can include all kinds of documents, emails, images, video, and many other unrelated data formats, all of which can vary in size and format from record to record.

In recent years, software tools to manage and make sense of these disparate data sources have emerged.

By combining strategic goals with sophisticated software tools, companies can mine this data for useable insights that can transform their business. For example, big data analytics can reveal customer preferences, market trends, identify operational efficiencies, predict required production volumes, and so much more.

Companies are seizing the opportunity to use big data. Big data analytics is a growing sector – estimated to be worth $14.85bn annually and predicted to be worth $68bn in 2025[i]

By understanding the many streams of data that affect your organisation, you can quickly and effectively adapt your business to consumer needs.


Using Big Data In Marketing

In our highly connected world, consumers are inundated with ads and information about companies and organisations every day. But we can only pay attention to so much before it all becomes just white noise. So, how do organisations ensure that their brand gets customers’ attention?

According to Forbes, one answer is big data. They argue that:

‘Big data analytics offers a competitive advantage to the brands that are able to work faster and target their consumers more effectively.’

Here are some examples of how you can use big data to benefit your marketing campaigns:

  • Creating focused and targeted advertising campaigns
  • Identifying upsell and cross-sell opportunities
  • Improving customer acquisition and retention
  • Effective upselling
  • Cost reduction
  • Identifying new revenue streams
  • Risk management

 

Big Data In Banking And The Financial Sector

Banking and the financial sector have long been at the forefront of developing new ways of exploiting the vast amounts of data they produce. Whilst they are developing new systems, they must retain older, legacy systems, which are too expensive to replace. The data produced by legacy systems must be integrated with newer systems seamlessly.

Banks are able to collect far more data on customers than ever before through use of apps, open banking systems and websites.

Financial services companies can use this data to analyse new fraud and security threats, manage risk, reduce operational costs, provide new services through open banking, work more closely with insurance companies, manage customer relationships more efficiently, identify cross-selling and upselling opportunities, accurately identify high-value customers, manage credit risk and (for businesses) liquidity and viability problems.

 

Big Data For Small And Medium-Sized Businesses

At Ipsos Jarmany, our experts can dive deep into your business and provide solutions that give you the insights you need to transform your business. We can help your spot opportunities and avoid pitfalls to give you a competitive edge.

Small businesses may not generate as much data as Google or Amazon but will have data that can be used to benefit the business. In many ways, small businesses are ideally suited to using big data because they are often more agile and can respond quickly to data driven insights.

As well as internal systems such as sales logs, transaction histories, customer interactions via phone and email etc., data can also be fed into small businesses from social media, online reviews, online trend data such as Google Trends and many other online data sources.

Operational data may come from Internet-connected devices using sensors in the warehouse or factory. For example, pubs and bars are fitting sensors inside beer pumps, providing a data stream that can help reduce wasted beer, improve drinks quality, monitor stock levels and much more.

Data analysis can provide insights into how customers prefer to buy, why they adopt products and services (and why they abandon them).

 

How Big Data Can Benefit Charities

Big data isn’t only useful for businesses. Charities can use big data analytics to adapt their services to better meet the needs of their service users as well as reduce costs and improve recruitment and funding.

According to Charity Digital, in their article about Big Data Trends:

‘Artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and other innovations will make big data more valuable than ever to charities in the coming months.’

Big data can help charities establish target donors by analysing the demographic data such as age and gender of service users as well as any other relevant user information.

At Ipsos Jarmany, we understand the specific needs of charities and have the expertise and tools to provide data analytics that can transform non-profits.

Using big data analytics, non-profits can identify gaps in their provision and prevent vulnerable people from slipping through the net. In addition, charities can use donor data to target campaigns and improve donor loyalty.

 

Green Data

Big data can give any business a competitive edge, but there is so much more to running a business in the 21st Century than just turnover and profit. The environmental impact of companies is becoming ever more important to customers as we experience the effects of climate change. Big data can help businesses improve their environmental credentials.

According to Nature Communications ‘The private sector is increasingly making influential environmental decisions and some large companies are committing to sustainability in their supply chains. Examples include ‘zero-deforestation’ and sustainably sourced palm oil pledges from Nestlé and McDonalds.’ These companies know that their environmental policies are important to their customers.

Businesses can use green data to improve their green credentials as well as to reduce energy use and carbon footprint. Analysing data about energy use, downtime and transportation costs can save money and help the planet.

 

How Can You Start Using Big Data?

Every business is different. However, all businesses will have a range of data available to them that they can use to improve their business. It’s just a matter of collecting and analysing that data so that it reveals the insights that you need.

At Ipsos Jarmany, we can work with you to define what data you need and how to use it to benefit your business. We can provide you with the expertise and the tools to make sure you know your business inside and out. This will ensure you can adapt quickly in an ever-changing world.

We start with an audit to get a view of where you are at with your data. We also look at your board level KPIs, your market challenges and build a data strategy that will deliver insights for your business on every level.

If you would like more information on how you can transform your company to a data driven business capable of responding to changes in real time, contact us today.

[i] https://www.statista.com/statistics/947745/worldwide-total-data-market-revenue/

Image credit: Starline | freepik.com