Data visualization is all the rage. You may also know it by another name, business intelligence. It’s helping companies like yours grow every day. This excellent post by Supermetrics details how marketers can use data viz to improve communication. But how do you do it?!

You could add a data scientist to your team and let them spit out reports to you…or you could get your hands dirty with one of these superb data visualization tools.

Google Data Studio

Google Data Studio lands first on this list because of the rollout to Google Analytics 4 (find out how to set that up here). Every marketer should have some familiarity with Data Studio, but the move to GA4 suggests we will have to become experts on the topic. Here are some resources to get you up to speed:

Google Data Studio Archives – Guides, Optimize Smart
Welcome to Google Data Studio – eBook, Optimize Smart
How to Use Google Data Studio to Build Better Dashboards – CXL, Guio Gonzalez
Getting Started with Google Data Studio – Measureschool

PowerBi

This Microsoft product is an excellent intro to the power of business intelligence. The best part, it’s free!! Well, not entirely, but a good majority of the features are. This tool will take a bit more commitment than data studio will, but it is definitely worth the time investment. Here are some resources to get you started:

Microsoft Documentation – yep, they have fantastic resources over at Microsoft.
A Guide to Power Bi: Big Data for Digital Marketers – SEER Interactive
Maven Analytics – For those looking for a more hands-on approach

Tableau

Tableau. You’ve heard of it, and you’ve probably seen it. This is a serious BI tool. Here are some resources to get you started:

Tableau Tutorial for Beginners – Medium.com
Beginners Tutorial – Digital Vidya
Learn Tableau in 6 Hours – edureka

At a minimum, a good marketer needs to be fluent in Google Data Studio; depending on your interest in BI, you can choose from PowerBi and Tableau and be well on your way to being a data citizen. And you thought excel smart charts were cool!