You know what they say: never assume. This truism could not be more apt as it relates to the role of marketers with their most important partners. Every marketer should have a structured way of communicating their marketing results to each client that illustrates their progress. The fact is, marketing is often a mystery to clients who have never created an advertising campaign or produced targeted strategies based on demographic data. That’s why routine reporting is an essential ingredient in building strong client-agency relationships that enable your clients to grow their business.
Why Do Regular Client Reporting
Every good marketer should be tracking their efforts to determine the impacts of their efforts. Part of your role as a marketer is to keep your clients abreast of the latest trends and to implement ones that will help them get ahead. What you include will depend on the individual campaign. Clients want to know they’re getting a return on their investments. Any information that supports your decisions and helps demonstrate gains, savings or measurable growth will do just that.
Examples of three common elements of a good client report include:
- Metrics based on trackable data
- Key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess their level of services
- Dollars and hours spent to indicate how the budget is tracking
Feel free to tailor your report to the circumstances. Any data that showcases your progress is fair game. However, successes shouldn’t be exaggerated. What’s important is that the information in the report is transparent and covers the scope of your work.
Top Benefits of Client Reporting
Monthly client reports are an opportunity to highlight benchmarks using quantifiable data to demonstrate the effectiveness of your latest campaigns. In the absence of regular reports, some clients will make assumptions about the effects of a given campaign or the relative success of their marketing team based on misguided ideas.
The solution: a report that lays the data out a little more clearly so your client can grasp how their marketing is progressing. Regular reports are necessary to update clients on the status of their campaigns. They remind your partners of the role you play in their businesses – and the value that your team provides. There are many benefits to client reporting:
- To keep in touch with your client
- To determine what is working and what isn’t
- To hold yourself and your client accountable
- To shed light on how dollars are being spent
- To educate clients about the process and how it’s helping their business
Being in touch with key clients on a regular basis keeps you in touch so that you can avoid potential problems and become more familiar with their overall goals.
Communicate to Clients Significance of New Data
Keep in mind that not every client who reads the data will absorb their significance. To
balance your approach, add language that personalizes the summary piece of your reports. It’s also vital to communicate to your clients the significance of your findings – and your role in unearthing them. For instance, use this as an opportunity to call attention to your findings in addition to issues that still need to be addressed. Open communication can go a long way in earning trust in your relationship, even if there were miscalculations that caused your team to change course. When plans don’t go as intended, you can still emphasize what actions were taken and what is being done instead. Explaining how you settled on certain approaches can show that you learn from your mistakes, build trust and gain future business.
Let Your Digital Marketing Partner Do the Reporting for You
Many growing enterprises simply don’t have the manpower to create in-house marketing campaigns, let alone track them. One of the best ways to access the latest tools and services is by partnering with an experienced digital marketing agency. Doing so gives you access to the best resources so you can take advantage of newer trends and stay competitive.
At Connections Marketing, our specialists are well-versed in the latest data tracking and reporting methods. We can let you know what’s missing from your campaign and tailor the best solutions for achieving your business goals. Contact us to discuss ways to incorporate client reporting in your next campaign today.