Posted by Alden Cushman on Fri, Aug 27, 2010 @ 10:37 AM
We've all suffered through one of those conversations with an endless series of questions: “What are you doing? Why? What are you doing? Why?....” As many know, sometimes the only way to end the cycle is to answer with: “Why not?” Well, during the past year we've noticed a somewhat troubling trend in marketing data reporting questions that sounds a lot like “Why not?”
We start by identifying the drivers of this behavior. Four market forces are pushing most marketing organizations to improve and increase their reporting of marketing metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs):
- Increasing focus on marketing ROI
- Improving marketing processes and skills
- Increasing implementation of marketing automation platforms, and related systems and tools
- Increasing number of marketing service agencies that report campaign and program ROI measures
One of the interesting, and some might say unfortunate, consequences of being able to track the results of marketing campaigns, programs and tactics is the desire to search for answers by analyzing and reporting as much data as possible as often as possible. Senior management demands better information and intelligence to make better business decisions and improve results. However, since many companies (especially public ones) run on a quarterly cycle of reporting financial results every three months, many marketing groups have adopted the same reporting mentality.
The biggest problem is that most of our B2B clients have marketing and selling cycles that last well beyond three months, so they are reporting on marketing lead generation and nurturing activities that do not fit neatly into a quarterly view. The result is usually a potpourri of misleading conversion ratios between program response rates, inquires, marketing qualified leads, marketing sourced pipeline, marketing influenced pipeline, and a handful of other measures. We don’t advise that marketing groups refuse requests for quarterly or even monthly data, but do yourself (and senior management) a favor and put it within the context of the company’s regular marketing and selling cycles.
Begin by uncovering the decisions senior management is wrestling with and use those to determine which marketing metrics and KPIs impact them the most. Don’t measure and report on everything you can. Generating pages and pages of marketing activities only confirms what many senior managers believe, that marketing has no idea how to prove its return on investment. Report on fewer items and make sure to compare last quarter’s marketing metrics and KPIs to the same quarter of the previous year; don’t compare them to year-end numbers. Prove to senior management you understand their underlying business issues, you are investing in campaigns and programs designed to address those issues, and you can report the right indicators in the right timeframe to show concrete positive results.
Posted by Megan Heuer on Fri, Feb 12, 2010 @ 08:58 AM
I am about to reveal the number-one, top-secret tip for successful marketing reports and dashboards. The one CMOs ask for every time. This is the big one. I mean it.
Here it is...
Include a summary at the Beginning.
Feeling let down? Saying “duh” out loud? Sure you are. Now take a look at your report. What’s the first thing you see? It’s data in charts, isn’t it? Most marketers, in their quest to deliver credible performance numbers, go right for the charts. But what most dashboards skip is what marketers should be best at: telling a story. When numbers are all that is shown, the report makes it too easy to focus on minutiae and not the bigger picture of what happened and why. Worse still, when too many numbers are shown without context, it is impossible to tell what matters and what’s really happening. The numbers and charts become an end in themselves and not a diagnostic tool.
Why is this a problem? Because lack of context for numbers results in unconstructive dialog about the numbers themselves, and not about what’s being done to improve them. The numbers-only approach leaves senior managers frustrated that they don’t know what marketing delivers, despite so much data. It leaves marketers wondering why no one uses the report when they provide such detailed numbers. The fix is simple: Senior marketing leaders tell us that, while they appreciate and need numbers, what they really want is a summary upfront that simply tells them what it all means.
Here’s the action item: Before you get to the numbers, add a summary. Put numbers into perspective so the rest of the report backs up the headlines. Include what happened, why, and what is being done to fix the bad and do more of the good. Caution: A summary will not fix bad data, or cure the fact that a report has the wrong metrics, or too many metrics, in it. A summary will require careful thought about what the numbers mean, and which ones are most valuable to determine past performance and future requirements. Marketing reporting should be more than a litany of available facts. It serves to illuminate facts with diagnosis and insights that support better decision making.
What’s in your dashboard?