Data-driven storytelling is poised to be the next big trend in content marketing. Indeed, companies are already harnessing its power at every stage in the customer relationship lifecycle—from building up-front brand awareness to reminding customers of their success. Here’s how to use data at each step in the marketing journey:

Build brand awareness, like Allstate. Allstate has put data at the heart of its communication strategy, leveraging a range of information sources and marketing channels to increase awareness of its brand. The insurer releases an annual report on America’s best drivers (see the map below), frequently features data-driven insights and infographics on its blog, and through its foundation offers data-rich resources on teen driving safety and domestic violence. Allstate also uses an eclectic mix of in-house, pre-existing and commissioned data sources to drive its frequent data-driven blog posts, reports and infographics: it used a range of publicly available sources in its blog post and infographic on auto theft that tells readers how to reduce their risk, commissioned a survey to address distracted driving, and used a combination of claims and polling data to look at holiday hazards. Once you’ve achieved some initial successes in building brand awareness with data-driven content, follow Allstate’s lead and look for ways to extend that success into in-depth reports or by tapping into a wider range of data sources.

Generate leads from your key audience, like IBM. When you’re going after a specific market or audience, it’s not enough to build brand awareness: you need to generate leads. A smart strategy is to create data-driven content that’s a must-read for your target—like the content IBM has built from its series of surveys with C-level executives, including The Customer-Activated Enterprise. By surveying thousands of CEOs, CMOs and other top executives—and then gating the results – IBM created a data asset that all but guaranteed it would get contact information from thousands of executives worldwide.

Close the deal with your expertise, like Intuit. Intuit has made data-rich infographics a key part of its content marketing strategy for TurboTax, covering subjects like the generational differences in spending habits, tax implications of crowdfunding, and the cost of attending Comic-Con. The company’s infographics draw on a range of pre-existing third party data sources, like Pew Research, the IRS and Gallup. Even though this content runs the gamut from playful to practical, it all testifies to the company’s deep expertise and passion for all things financial. By making dry data points come alive with compelling visuals, clever reframing, and on occasion, interactivity—like this interactive infographic on unclaimed tax refunds, which lets the reader see the value of unclaimed refunds in their own state—Intuit’s content helps turn prospects into buyers.

Show customers what you do with their data, like Jawbone. Jawbone makes fitness trackers that capture data on sleep patterns and physical activity—and being able to see that data is exactly why people buy Jawbone’s products. But Jawbone sees that data too—and by telling interesting stories with that data, Jawbone lets its customers know how their information is aggregated and analyzed. Of course, the company has also captured significant earned media attention with stories that have timely media hooks: when it looked at sleep patterns the night of the 2014 California earthquake, relative to the quake’s epicenter; the graphic (see below) attracted hundreds of mentions in the mainstream media and online. The Jawbone blog has also featured posts on what people eat and drink on Valentine’s Day, how many more chicken wings people eat during the Super Bowl, and the impact of the World Cup on Europe’s sleep. If you’re using your customers’ data for your own insights and business decision-making, sharing that data back to your customers as content is a great way to build traffic and let your customers understand how your analyze the data they share with you.

Build customer engagement and loyalty, like OkCupid. Too many companies end the marketing journey at the moment of sale. But keeping customers is as important as winning them—and by telling your customers how to get more from your products and services, data-driven content can help you keep your customers. That’s a big part of the value of OkCupid’s long-running data blog, which has explored a wide range of topics by tapping into users’ dating profiles. While the company has attracted a lot of media attention—and generated a book!—with topics like racial bias in dating and the role of appearance in dating preferences, its posts have also offered concrete insights that can help users themselves optimize their dating experience. From the optimum number of characters for an on-site message (see the chart they published below, “Men Contacting Women”), to the best questions to ask on a first date, OkCupid’s data-driven insights help its users find love. The data your company uses to optimize its business performance may well offer insights to your customers, too; if you can find a way of sharing those insights, you make your customers’ experience better—and your product or services stickier.

Celebrate your success, like Kickstarter. Just because you’ve won customers and kept them happy doesn’t mean you can rest on your laurels. In a year that included some harsh media criticism of Kickstarter failures, the company used data to make a compelling case for its success (see the map showing the geographic distribution of their backers). That’s particularly crucial when your customers are not only buyers but partners in your business, as is the case with Kickstarter: it needs would-be project leaders to see that the platform is a valuable and dynamic way to raise funds. The company blog frequently uses data to underscore its success stories, whether it’s the story of individual projects like the Coolest Cooler, or milestones like reaching 5 million backers. Its blog is one of the few that actually makes “data” one of its main post categories—a practice that other companies would do well to embrace, since it makes it easy for readers to find the original insights you share. If you are eager to take your company’s story directly to customers and investors—rather than waiting for the media to do it for you—then producing and releasing your own performance metrics is a great way to take control of the narrative.

As these companies show, data can play a powerful role in telling your story at every stage in your relationship with customers. And of course, there are many more success stories out there, particularly among companies that are in the business of telling stories with data, like media companies, data companies and graphic design shops. But the examples here show that you don’t have to be in the business of data journalism to do a great job of telling stories with data—and keeping your customers engaged.