Heat map generator

The complete guide to creating your heat map

Sign up to create your heat maps

What is a heat map?

A heat map is a geographical representation of data, one that highlights the data’s density according to a color-coded rubric or another form of map key. Usually, higher-density areas are indicated by warmer colors like red, while lower density regions are marked using cooler colors, such as blue.

Heat maps help sales team leaders and reps quickly understand key data and develop actionable insights from it. The heat map generator is a key feature of eSpatial – one that can be majorly valuable to your organization’s revenue generation efforts.

What is a heat map generator?

Heat map generators are mapping software tools that take your geographic data and organize it by its activity levels. In one click, this turns a table of data into a map where you can visually understand how your data is geographically spread out.

You can easily see where dense pockets of customers are located and where the most high-performing sales reps are stationed. Heat maps also help you examine these variables across any number of different ZIP codes or post codes.


Two types of geographic heat map and where to use them

Let's look at the heat maps we can generate using eSpatial:

Hot spot heat map

A hot spot heat map is ideal when boundaries of territories or regions aren't important. It's best for examining patterns of high and low activity and identifying where those trends are clustering.

One common example of a hot spot heat map is a customer location map. High customer density is indicated by a dark shade, whereas low levels are expressed in lighter hues. You can modify the colors and shades to better present the story you're telling or gain greater insight.

Regional heat map

A regional heat map — also known as a choropleth map — uses graded differences in shading or color in order to clearly represent the value of a selected metric in each area. For instance, you would use a color scale to indicate ranges related to the aggregate value or volume of sales for each state or sales territory. Each hue would stand for a different value range.

Regional heat maps are used to compare numbers within the given boundaries. This allows you to:

  • Get a big-picture overview of your market performance.
  • Quickly identify high- and low-performing sales areas.
  • Uncover sales patterns in particular locations, such as higher sales of a product or service among a specific customer demographic, or sudden habit changes (e.g. once-reliable clients cutting back on usual orders with little or no advance warning).
  • Identify areas for further investigation based on the density of sales opportunities your competitors are taking advantage of (or other, similarly intriguing key performance indicators).

Create your own heat map now

Sign up for a free 7-day trial

Which type of heat map should you generate?

Your choice of heat map will depend mainly on why you wish to compare the data. Specifically, what decisions are you hoping to make based on your examination of this information?

A regional heat map works best if you want to compare different areas, such as ZIP codes, states or, if looking at the UK or other countries, post codes. (To learn more about categorizing and comparing ZIP codes on a heat map, check out our blog.) If you’re more interested in understanding the local density in a specific place, a hot spot heat map will be much more suited to the task.

One piece of good news regarding either of these heat map tools: Both of the maps will look great when you make them using the styling features in eSpatial. When you present to the rest of your team using this form of data visualization, key details will be easier for your reps to understand (and leverage in their day-to-day efforts).


What are heat maps good for?

The right heat map, when generated in eSpatial, can be a critical element of better business decisions for you and your sales team. Here are a few quick examples:

1. Identifying clusters of your customers & getting an overview of your marketplace

This is a great application for sales and marketing departments. In the map below, you can see a sales organization in Kansas has used our heat map generator to map their potential customers (state population) against their office locations.

Heat map of Kansas state

2. Refining distribution networks

Using heat maps to identify customer density can also be crucial when planning and analyzing your distribution or service network.

Based on your findings, you can look at your heat maps and identify where to best locate each center so it's accessible to as many customers in a given area as possible. You can quickly see if a distribution center is too far away or would provide more efficient service if it was moved closer to big clusters of customers.

Customer locations heat map

3. Analyzing third-party data to identify ZIP codes for marketing campaigns

Many marketing teams use heat maps to analyze third-party data and determine where to run effective marketing campaigns.

For example, say a fashion retailer in Texas is planning to run a campaign that involves putting up eye-catching billboards. Using a regional heat map of demographic data, the company's marketing department can quickly see which Texas ZIP codes contain the majority of their target audience.

This allows the marketing team to effectively use their budget and resources by planning and executing their campaigns in the high-value areas they found on the map.

Regional heat map of Texas

4.Identify areas for franchise expansion

Franchises that are in search of areas to expand their brand can also put regional heat maps to good use.

In the situation illustrated below, an organization has mapped its existing locations (shown as stars) in comparison with the number of customer inquiries (represented by the heat markers). Any area where the franchise gets a high volume of inquiries that isn't particularly close to a store location will be an ideal spot for the next franchisee.

Dispersed heat map clusters

5.Quickly spot customer trends or areas for further investigation

We mentioned earlier how regional heat maps are useful for location-based comparisons. The sample below shows a regional heat map of customer satisfaction rates nationwide: Green indicates a high level of customer satisfaction, while red represents the opposite. This quickly highlights which territories have the most dissatisfied clients, so management can immediately start making whatever changes are necessary to improve the situation and avoid any serious loss of business.

Regional heat map of the United States

6. Where are our profits being generated?

It's crucial for any company to understand where it is generating the most profit. Heat maps are a powerful tool for determining where your profitable customers are based, and examining how these locations compare with one another.

 

7. Where do we need more sales coverage?

Similarly, you could ask, "Where are our customers coming from?" These questions are opposite sides of the same coin. Understanding where your customer inquiries are coming from and matching that to current sales coverage is very common in heat mapping for sales. As you can see below, this helps to easily visualize what the team's addressable market currently looks like.

With this information, you can quickly decide where current levels of sales coverage are appropriate. Then, you can work to eliminate any gaps and address overlap so that your team and its resources are always allocated as efficiently as possible.

Hot spot heat map of sales volume overlaid with sales reps

8.Where do I start field selling?

A common challenge for any field salesperson is choosing the best place to begin. Heat maps can help sales reps find pockets of opportunity so they can use them as a starting point.

Hot spot heat map opportunity clusters

9. How can I tell how my sales teams are performing, and where they need to develop?

Last but hardly least, you can also use regional heat maps to compare the performances of specific reps. While it's tempting to look closely at raw revenue, evaluating salespeople purely on one metric won't give you the complete picture you need as a manager.

Sales performance analysis heat map

Heat map data allows you to judge your salespeople while understanding the market realities they face: competitors, excessive drive time and other factors. To read more details about the examples we talked about briefly above, be sure to check out these posts on the eSpatial blog:

Create your own heat map now

Sign up for a free 7-day trial

Generating a regional heat map

It's easy to create a heat map for regional analysis in eSpatial. Start by setting up a free trial account and then follow these steps:

1. Upload your point data

You first have to add data to your map – it will form the basis for all of your analysis and be displayed as points on your map. This could be sales data, service data, demographic information and other KPIs, with one row for each unique address.

Click the Add Data option from the control panel. Then click Upload new data and follow the instructions.

Add data to generate regional heat map

The boundaries of your regional heat map will define which groups your data points will be included in. This is often done by state or three-digit ZIP code. You can select various types of boundary data from our extensive data library.

To add your boundary, simply select Add Data and then Add from Library. Choose the eSpatial data store tab and then pick your boundary. In this example, we’ve chosen US states. (For more boundary options, visit our data set library.)

Add boundary/region dataset to generate regional heat map

From the Control Panel on the left side of your screen, select Analyze from below your dataset. From the options, select Regional Heat Map.

Open the regional heat map analysis panel

Next, select the points and boundary data sets. In this case, the points data is Client Accounts, and the region data is US states. Then, click Complete to generate your regional heat map.

Complete your regional heat map analysis

Below, the regional heat map you created shows the states with the most client accounts. You can see what each color represents by checking the legend on the right side of the workspace.

The default color range is from yellow to red, but this can be changed in the styling options.

Completed regional heat map

Need some help?

Get assistance from our mapping experts at any time

Talk to a mapping expert

Creating a hot spot heat map

Creating your own hot spot heat map in eSpatial is simple. Just follow the steps below:

1. Upload your point value data

Upload a data set (such as an Excel spreadsheet or CSV file) that contains one unique address per row as well as any other value fields you want to add to the map. In your new Workspace, select the Add Data option from the control panel. Then click Upload new data and follow the instructions.

Add Data To Generate Hot Spot Heat Map

If you wish to see the originally mapped data expressed as pins on top of your heat map, tick Overlay Pins from the bottom of the menu. Color Snapping removes the noise around the edge of your heat map.

Access Heat Map Option Via the Style icon in the Control Panel

Exit the Style Panel to view the map you have created using our heat map generator. The legend in the top right of the screen will highlight the color range from low to high data density.

Choose the Heat Map Styling Options

You've now created your own hot spot heat map.

Hotspot heat map

Create your own heat map now

Sign up for a free 7-day trial

Make your heat map understandable and useful

Using sensible design practices when creating your dynamic heat map is key to ensuring other users understand the story your data is telling. Consider the following key factors when the time comes for you to generate your map.

1. Choose the right base map

Because you're using a varied palette of colors to represent different density bands in your data, the map you overlay these colors onto shouldn't be in competition with those hues. You don't want the map to be hard to interpret for any reason.

Users checking out your map may be looking at it from a distance, on a small monitor or maybe even on their smartphones while they are out in the field. By muting the base map's colors, the data will stand out more and be easier to interpret at a glance.

2. Choose colors that are easy to understand

The right colors can help your users better understand the data on a map. We recommend using darker hues to represent high density and brighter colors in the same family (i.e. darker and lighter shades of blue) for low density. Look at the population density map on the right as an example: It uses different gradients of red, orange and yellow to display states with higher, more moderate and lower density, respectively.

3. Choose the right data display settings

How you cluster your data will determine if your users understand the story. If you're creating a national-level map, then state-by-state data clusters are fine. But if you believe your users will want to drill down into an individual state or ZIP code, then having the data divided into sub-level clusters will give your users a more granular view of the data.

Layer additional data onto heat maps

A heat map is often used as a base map on which you can plot other data. The heat map generator in eSpatial can create either, but the process differs between the two (as we outlined above).

Imagine you run a chain of long-term care facilities across the U.S. You could use eSpatial to create a map that shows the levels of retirees per state in percentages. Then, you can add data from your business to the map, such as the number of care homes you operate in each state. This will allow you to spot opportunities for expansion in an instant.

If you want to learn more about any of eSpatial’s territory mapping capabilities, get in touch with us today – or sign up for a seven-day free trial and start creating heat maps now.