Ask any digital marketer what the prerequisites for a successful campaign are, and no doubt most of the answers will revolve around getting or using data points. Photo Background Removing Simply put, marketers, especially digital marketers, love data. But despite the love for mining data, looking at statistics, and identifying trends and outliers, it's no secret that formalized recurring reports can sometimes be a bit tedious to compile and to Photo Background Removing assemble. (What, you thought you were the only one dreading that Monday morning number?) It's not that time consuming - although depending on the complexity, it can add up and get quite tedious.
But no, the main reason why reporting becomes a dreaded task is usually that the report doesn't have enough impact and starts to feel like a busy job. So how can you create reports that are valuable, lasting, and most importantly, impactful? stay focused Photo Background Removing Some of the most common reporting problems are the result of good intentions. For example, in an effort to be inclusive, reporting can quickly become an attempt to boil the ocean. The massive ocean-boiling reports are the reports that become dreaded because you have to sift through so much information to get to what's important. If you create a powerful report, recipients will read it. If the report is watered down, Photo Background Removing people will overwrite it or ignore sections (and maybe eventually the whole thing). It's a slippery slope - even if they continue to consume part of the report, they might miss things you really wanted them to see. Here are a few tips: Instead of starting the report by creating a list of metrics you (or your customer) want to see, start by identifying the questions you want the report to answer, then create the report to answer those questions. If a client or stakeholder provides a long list of metrics they want to see, drill down into their reasoning and make sure these are the right metrics to achieve the report goals and ultimately the campaign success metrics. Remember that sometimes less is more. If a stat isn't useful, don't include it, no matter how good the chart looks. Do not attempt to create a single report.
Different deadlines tend to require different reports. Likewise, if there are multiple stakeholders with different interests, it may be beneficial to create separate Photo Background Removing reports, as opposed to a watered-down report. For example, if one report is for the marketing manager and the other is for the CMO, it might make sense to keep the CMO's report distilled so that he's not overwhelmed with information he doesn't care about. You now have your report, but so what? If your reports aren't getting the attention they deserve and you've already followed the steps listed above to keep them focused only on the most important analytics and data points, then ask yourself this question: "So what ? » No, really - so what? There is a purpose to getting reports, and each report has a different story to tell. So what's the story? What is important in the report? What do you want people viewing it to know? What should you know ? After asking yourself, “So what?” then ask, “Then why?” and fill in the blank after "So next…" Photo Background Removing Here are some examples: So what are the areas of opportunity? This brings us to our next step. Create a story If the report is shared with someone else, the best way to ensure that no key takeaways are missing is to share the data in the form of the story. Telling a story with the data is far more impactful than going over a bunch of percentages and dollar signs because it connects the dots between what happened, what the results were, and what the dishes are to carry. It delivers your “so what” on a silver platter. There are even a few different studies that show a demonstrable impact of storytelling on memory. (For starters, there's one from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, which shows the impact of storytelling on recall, and one from Stanford, which explores how that recall can be affected by the composition of the story.) And a quick search will bring you loads of posts !)