Why Numbers Need Words (And Why You Should Care)

Photo by Antoine Dautry on Unsplash

I was never very good at math.

Throughout my school years, courses that involved numbers and making sense of those numbers were never my strong suit.

Matter of fact, at one point I’d contemplated becoming a veterinarian, but worried I wouldn’t be able to hack those evil courses like chemistry or calculus, so I ended up as a business major. (And yes, as a business major I did encounter calculus, and as I had feared, it didn’t go well. I squeaked by.)

Now, on the other hand, I like writing.

With writing you have all these WORDS to describe and explain with. You can make a point or illustrate an idea in infinite ways. And the beauty of this is, if you write something one way and a person doesn’t understand it, you can re-word it in other ways until it finally makes sense.

In contrast, this chemical formula for caffeine will always be the same:  C8H10N4O2

And therein lies my point. Standing by itself, that formula would be meaningless to you, unless you’ve a chemistry background. But preceded by the words ‘chemical formula for caffeine’ the average Joe (sorry, had to say it) recognizes what it is -- his reason for getting out of bed every morning.

Remember this the next time you’re compiling numbers to include in your content marketing piece, whether it’s a case study, blog article, or social media post.

From a content marketing perspective, pure, raw data that stands alone is valuable only to those who can decipher and make sense of it. Pure, raw data combined with a written analysis that further explains why this data matters, is far more valuable.

Why? Because it educates the portion of your audience who may not have the aptitude to draw understandable conclusions from the numbers presented. These readers will gain a deeper knowledge because you shared your expertise with them.

They’ll appreciate your going that extra mile. By translating the numbers into digestible information, your readers grow a little bit wiser.

And in the world of content marketing, wisdom is a treasure. Knowledgeable consumers are more likely to buy.