Key takeaways
• An impressive-looking number isn’t necessarily meaningful. Data should help prove something that matters to the audience, not simply demonstrate that something has been achieved.
• Start with the claim, then examine the evidence. Ask what the statistic actually proves and whether it is the best evidence for the point you want to make.
• Numbers often need context. A baseline, comparison, denominator, or explanation of the practical consequence can help an audience understand the significance of a figure.
• Context should clarify, not exaggerate or distract. Good data communication makes the strongest case the evidence genuinely supports.
• This is editorial thinking in practice. Interrogating the data before writing is a key part of translating complex technical information into compelling content.
Industrial businesses have no shortage of numbers to communicate. Sustainability reports, press releases, case studies, and marketing campaigns are full of figures intended to demonstrate progress, performance, or achievement.
But there is a difference between reporting a result and communicating its significance. A statistic can be accurate, substantial, and entirely relevant to the business, yet leave its audience wondering what it actually means.
Consider a manufacturer reporting millions of kilowatt-hours of renewable electricity generated by solar panels on its production facilities.
It seems like an impressive output figure. But what does it tell us about the manufacturer’s progress towards decarbonisation? How much of its energy demand does the generation cover? Is the business reducing its reliance on externally supplied electricity, or will demand grow as it replaces diesel- and natural-gas-powered equipment with electric alternatives?
The figure answers one question: how much electricity the panels generate. It doesn’t, by itself, answer the bigger questions about what that achievement means.
That isn’t a reason to dismiss the statistic. It’s a reason to ask what else we need to know.
Start with what you need to prove
When preparing content, the temptation is to start with the information available: find the biggest number, identify the most striking result, and build the story around it.
A more useful starting point is the claim you want to make.
If the story is about progress towards decarbonisation, renewable electricity generation may be relevant evidence. But the proportion of energy demand it meets, how that balance is changing, and what future demand will look like may be more revealing measures of progress.
If a case study claims that a new process has improved efficiency, a percentage improvement might substantiate the claim. But the starting point and the practical implications of the change help the reader judge its significance.
A percentage without a meaningful baseline can be difficult to interpret. A figure without its denominator may obscure the scale of an achievement. Even a very large number can tell us surprisingly little if we don’t know what it represents in the wider picture.
The question isn’t simply whether the statistic is impressive. It’s whether it provides the evidence needed to make the case.
The context is part of the story
Once you know what you want the audience to understand, you can work out what context will help them get there.
Sometimes that means comparing a result with a previous period, a total, or a relevant benchmark. Sometimes it means explaining what a change enables in practice. And sometimes the most important information isn’t another number at all, but a clear explanation of why the result matters.
The choice depends on the claim and the audience. The important thing is that the reader can understand the significance of the evidence without having to reconstruct the missing context themselves.
There is a limit, too, to what context can legitimately do. It should clarify the evidence, not stretch it. Generating renewable electricity doesn’t automatically demonstrate energy independence. Improving one measure of production doesn’t necessarily prove that an entire operation is more efficient.
The job is to make the strongest case the evidence supports, not the biggest claim the numbers can be made to suggest.
Questioning the data
Interrogating which statistics are most meaningful and then contexualising them so the audience can grasp that meaning is an example of editorial thinking in practice and is central to translating complex technical information into compelling content.
Clear writing, a well-designed infographic, or simple explainer video can make a statistic easier to grasp, but they cannot compensate for a claim that hasn’t been properly examined. Nor can a sharper headline turn an isolated measurement into convincing evidence.
The thinking has to come first.
Sometimes that process makes the original statistic more powerful. Sometimes it reveals a better measure of the achievement. And sometimes it changes the story altogether.
The objective isn’t to find a use for every impressive number a business provides. It’s to understand the evidence well enough to decide which numbers deserve to be used, what they can credibly demonstrate, and how to make their significance clear to the people who matter.
So, the next time a statistic is proposed for a sustainability report, press release, case study, or marketing campaign, resist the urge to start with the headline. Instead, first ask:
What does this number prove, why should my audience care, and what do they need to know to understand its significance?
If you can’t answer those questions, you may not yet have the story.
Hannah Kitchener
Associate Director
About the author
Hannah is an associate director in the UK, leading strategic campaigns for industrial clients across the EMEA region. A professionally qualified journalist (NCTJ), she combines specialist sectoral knowledge in construction, energy, and materials handling with a strong network of trade media contacts to secure valuable coverage. Her expertise in inter-cultural communication, honed by degrees in modern languages and translation, is key to executing campaigns that succeed across diverse European markets.
