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A marketing report is a document that presents, in a structured manner, a series of data from different sources together with their respective analyses, to explain or describe the performance of a specific marketing campaign or effort.
It is used to effectively and analytically communicate the results obtained by one or several marketing strategies , after having been executed in a given time, with the purpose of making future decisions.
Digital marketing strategies can be:
Search engine optimization (SEO).
Lead capture and/or nurturing.
Advertising campaigns, content marketing.
Growth hacking, among others.
Creating a successful marketing report requires following a series of guidelines or basic principles to communicate the information correctly and coherently. This is regardless of the strategies that have been implemented and the results obtained.
In the following lines, we will give you tips on how to create successful marketing reports taking into account their basic principles. Let's get started!
8-tips-for-creating-successful-marketing-reports
1. Set the goals
Every marketing campaign or action has a goal to achieve; therefore, it has associated objectives that must be presented in the marketing report.
Stating objectives is important because it provides context for the report: the reader can know what results were intended to be achieved and, with the information provided, check whether they were met or not.
The objectives presented in the report must be SMART, that is:
Específicos (specifics).
Measurable.
Achievable.
Realistic or relevant
Set a time range in which you want them to be fulfilled (specific time).
If you want to know more about this topic, read also: How to design SMART objectives in digital marketing?
An example of a SMART goal is:
Increase the number of qualified leads by 30% (achievable and measurable) through advertising campaigns for lead generation and nurturing (specific and relevant) during the third quarter of 2020 (time limit).
The second basic principle when creating a successful marketing report is to specify the time in which the data was obtained; the channel or channels in which the strategies were implemented; the audience or target audience to which the strategy was directed.
In relation to time, a SMART objective can be set in the long term, such as six months or a year, so a marketing report can be presented weekly, biweekly or monthly to evaluate the performance of the strategy over the entire established time.
In this way, your marketing report should make clear the time range in which the results are being analyzed . This is important because it allows you to compare, in the future, the data by date, joining all the reports; detect and graph behavioral trends; establish correlations.
As for the channel and audience, we advise you to specify the exact location where the marketing actions were implemented , as well as the users, prospects or clients who received them.
Taking as an example the SMART objective raised, related to the capture of leads through advertising campaigns, the channels used can be: Facebook and LinkedIn.
Regarding the audience, the main characteristics of the audience segmented in the marketing campaign would be highlighted.
Taking as a scenario that the advertisements seek to offer scholarships for master's and doctoral degrees at the University of Antioquia, an example of an audience could be:
Men and women between 18 and 45 years of age, residing in Medellín, germany whatsapp number with university degrees and interests related to postgraduate studies.
Once the results are presented in the marketing report , you can know the number of men and women reached, their age range, the specific areas of Medellín in which they are located, among other data related to the characteristics of the audience.
3. Include the most important metrics
When presenting your marketing report, you should include not only those metrics that allow you to directly know whether the objectives were achieved or not, or to know the performance of the strategy, but also those that serve as a monetization indicator .
Continuing with the advertising campaign example, the number of leads obtained versus the number of qualified leads, i.e. those who are most interested in buying, are important metrics. As is the rate or percentage of qualified leads or leads converted into customers (conversion rate).
However, the budget spent on ad distribution, the cost of each lead obtained versus the cost of qualified leads, and the ROI (return on investment) of the campaign are financial metrics that are even more important and cannot be missing from your marketing report .
For the marketing department manager and the CEO of the company, it is important to know whether the money invested in the marketing strategy is generating any benefit that can later be converted into sales and profits for the company.
In this sense, the most important metrics are those that allow you to know how the strategy is being monetized . The opposite occurs with vanity metrics, for example: number of followers, number of likes and comments received; these are metrics that do not tell you exactly whether the strategy is generating economic benefits.
4. Use statistical charts and graphs
Charts and graphs are tools used to present statistical information, in this case, that which is related to the results obtained from the implemented marketing strategy.
These tools allow you to relate variables and metrics, and convert the data obtained into information to increase knowledge on a topic.
Statistical information, in addition to being presented through tables and graphs, must be accompanied by textual information, which is known as metadata. Metadata includes:
The meaning of the variables or metrics being presented.
The methodology that was used to collect the data.
The complementary theoretical aspects that were taken as a reference for the elaboration of the data.
In this sense, we advise you to conceptualize the variables that are being presented in these tools. By this we mean that your marketing report should have a section that defines, for example, what a qualified lead is, what an advertising campaign is, what ROI is.
Even though readers of the report, usually marketing managers and CEOs, are familiar with these concepts, it is important to make them very clear in the report. There are many definitions of the variables, so it is important to know which ones were used to understand the results,
Statistical tables are used to organize numerical data in the form of tables (columns and rows) according to certain criteria; while statistical graphs are illustrations that are used to visualize and summarize the data that are present in the statistical table.