How to Bring Emotion Into Your Data Communication

So, a lot of people already know that to make data communication feel persuasive, it needs an element of emotion. It’s one of the elements of Aristotle’s Rhetorical Triangle , something I briefly mentioned in last week’s article.

Emotion is what makes insights feel relatable, memorable, and actionable. It’s the difference between saying “Revenue grew by 12%” and saying “Our new customer strategy drove a 12% revenue boost, equivalent of two new product launches in just one quarter.”

I’ll admit it sounds pretty simple in theory, but in reality, it’s not that easy. When the time comes to actually put those insights into slides, most people freeze. They struggle to figure out how to bring emotion into their presentation without it feeling fake or over the top.

And I get it. From a technical standpoint, it’s not always clear how to add emotional depth to numbers. You might wonder:

- Which numbers should I highlight?

- How much explanation is too much?

- How can I make the data meaningful for people who don’t think in metrics all day?

The truth is, the answer isn’t in fancy design tricks or advanced visualizations; it’s in clarity. Clarity built on human connection.

So, here’s a 3-step exercise that I often recommend, especially for beginner analysts or anyone who struggles to make their messages more persuasive. It’s simple, practical, and genuinely works to bring emotion back into your data communication. Tried and tested.

Step 1 : Start with Conversation, Not Slides

Grab a coworker or a friend (figuratively, of course) and try explaining your data to them. No slides, no script, no notes, no buzzwords.

Just talk.

Walk them through what you discovered and why it matters. Imagine you’re explaining it to someone completely new to your business. Skip the jargon like “quarter-over-quarter variance” or “statistical significance.” Just use plain language: “Our customer satisfaction scores dropped right after we shortened support hours.”

That’s it. That’s your story starting to form.

When you talk freely, you naturally start using emotional, human-centered language - words/phrases like “because”, “so that” and “which means”. These words connect causes & effects, and that’s where the emotional weight of your story lives.

Step 2 : Invite Curiosity & Interruption

Here’s where it gets interesting. Ask your listener to interrupt you constantly. Have them throw in questions like:

“Why is that important?”

“What does that mean for the business?”

“What changed because of it?”

“Why should I care?”

Initially, this whole interaction might feel uncomfortable. But that’s the whole point. Each time you justify your answer, you’re moving one layer deeper from describing what happened to explaining why it matters.

And that’s where the emotion comes from. Not from drama or exaggeration, but from relevance. When you explain why it matters, you connect data to people, outcomes, and consequences.

For instance, saying “Our website traffic dropped by 25%” might sound like a plain statistic. But “We lost a quarter of our audience last month, which is around 10,000 potential customers who didn’t see our new product” suddenly feels urgent and real.

You’ve just turned data into meaning.

Now, the final step.

Step 3 : Translate the Conversation Into Slides

Now that you’ve had the conversation, write down what you said (don’t worry about linguistics at this point. This is just rough work). That raw, unfiltered explanation? That’s your story.

Now, before you open your presentation tool, pause. Don’t jump straight into making charts (that’s where most people go wrong). Start by building a narrative skeleton around a few key questions:

- What was the problem?

- What changed, and what’s the impact?

- Why does it matter?

- What should we do next?

This will become your storyline. Once that’s in place, you can start layering in the data and visuals to support it.

At this point, you’re no longer just presenting information, you’re essentially guiding your audience through a journey. No melodrama. Just a clear narrative that your audience can relate to, feel motivated to think, reflect, and act.

That’s what emotion really looks like in data communication.

That said, here are a few other simple ways you can infuse emotions in your communication, such as:

Use a collaborative tone

Instead of saying, “The data shows….”, try “We discovered”. Or instead of saying, “XYZ issue needs to be addressed”, say “We need to find a solution for this issue.”

You get the idea. Shift your message from a detached report into a shared challenge. When your audiences see that you’re addressing the issue as a collective problem rather than pointing fingers at a specific person, department or team, they’re more likely to engage emotionally and intellectually.

Add Context Through Comparisons

People often don’t remember raw numbers, but they do remember what those numbers mean. So whenever you can, give your numbers context.

Think of it like a movie director who instead of just saying “the spaceship was big” shows it hovering over a city skyline to make people feel its size.

You need to treat your numbers & charts the same way. Instead of saying “Our customer attrition dropped by 2%”, say “We retained an additional 800 customers this quarter, which is nearly the size of our entire Chicago client base.”

You’re basically trying to bridge the gap between logic and emotion by giving your audience a sense of scale, proportion, and consequence.

Bring the Human Element Back

This is different from adding context. Here you’re trying to highlight the people behind the numbers. Majority of the time, data points represent someone - a customer, employee, user…etc.

▪️If customer wait times dropped, that means people are getting help faster.

▪️If operational costs increased, maybe the team worked overtime or maybe new systems were added.

Data is lifeless by itself, so it’s your responsibility to remind your audience of the human impact behind every metric. That impact alone can create connection and drive empathy.

Final Thoughts

Let’s get one thing straight - You don’t need to be a “storyteller” to tell stories with data. You just need to explain your insights in a way that can make someone else care.

So, don’t freak out when you think about putting emotions in your communication. This isn’t the tear-jerking kind. It’s the kind where you stop describing numbers and start describing impact. And when you make that shift, your message will instantly become more relatable & powerful.

And finally, if you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading. I hope you can try this out in your next presentation or report, and see for yourself how a little emotion can completely transform the way your audience connect with your data.