Marketing is supposed to be fun – full of excitement, creativity, and the thrill of ideas taking shape. Unfortunately, today’s marketers spend less and less time on the fun stuff and more time on chores and drudgery.
For instance social media marketers spend on average 3.8 hours every week on “data analysis and reporting”. That’s nearly half a workday spent not on storytelling, branding, or content creation – but on reports.
I love stories. My kids love stories. I’m sure you do too. Stories are exciting, emotional, and memorable. They grip us, surprise us, and stay with us long after they are over.
But when it comes to work, especially when dealing with numbers, we seem to lose that spark. We create long reports, spreadsheets and dashboards with no soul.
We often feel the need to be “professional” which often ends up becoming too serious and boring. And that defeats the purpose of a good report. What good is one if no one reads it?
What if marketers could bring storytelling back in their lives – not just in campaigns, but also in how they present data?
Every platform, every campaign, every touchpoint generates numbers. We are swimming in data – too much, in fact. Every week brings a new metric that suddenly becomes important. At this growth rate all these numbers start to lose meaning and blur out.
Numbers can inform facts, but only stories can give the full context, help build better relationships with your team, managers and clients. A well-told data story doesn’t just show what happened, it makes the audience care enough and make yourself (the story teller) memorable.
In the coming years, marketers who can transform data into stories will have an edge. They will be able to make insights memorable, connect creative and analytical teams, and drive real business outcomes.
A powerful data story blends facts, visuals, and emotions. A good story has a structure similar to a movie. Let me get into the 4 individual components of a good story. When preparing a report or drafting an email summary about your Ad performance. Make sure you include these to convey your message much more effectively. Let’s go through these with a simple example.
The Setup: What was happening before? (The baseline or context).
Start with setting up a good stage. It gives your audience a familiar world about where we are right now. Talk about what happened and where we are now.
Example: “For the past three months, our LinkedIn engagement rate hovered around 2.5%. We were posting twice a week, mostly promotional content.”
The Conflict: What changed in the data? Why?
Conflict is what makes people lean in. Every good story needs tension. Pick and choose what you want to add here. Be very critical, be selective and highlight only that is important to you or your audience.
Example: “In the last two weeks, engagement dropped sharply to 1.1%. At first, it looked like algorithm changes, but a deeper dive showed our audience had shifted to fewer organic and more paid followers.”
The Climax: What’s the key insight or turning point?
If you have played it right, your audience would now have this question in their head, ”thats bad so now what?”. This is your “aha!” moment – you reveal your progress or observations that connect the characters and turn the tension to a happy ending.
Example: “When we switched our content calendar to emphasize ‘insight-led posts’ instead of product updates, engagement bounced back to 3.8% – the highest in six months.”
The Resolution: What do we do next? What action should we take?
Every story must close with “what next”. Without that, people would be left wondering if there will be a Part 2 of your story. A good resolution should resolve the tension and leave the audience with a good settling feeling.
Example: “We’ve now redesigned our social strategy to maintain a 70:30 ratio between value-driven and promotional content, and plan to replicate this experiment on Instagram.”
Putting it all together, here’s a simple framework I call OMINS – a five-step guide for turning raw marketing data into a compelling story.
Whenever you’re preparing a client report, campaign review, or performance update, use OMINS as your checklist. It helps you move from numbers to narrative in a structured way – ensuring that every chart, slide, or insight you present connects to a clear story and a specific action.
Here is a practical 5-step playbook:
Data storytelling brings joy back to marketing. Data can influence people and decisions – if only we tell the story right.
Paul J Emmanuel
Founder and CEO – Two Minute Reports
