Nowadays, there is so much attention being paid to the "M" word in Marketing – “Measurement”. The goal is to have real-time access to reliable, relevant and actionable information. Standard Reporting solutions are being replaced with robust Marketing Dashboards to meet such demands. Here are a few tips to take into consideration while embarking on such an initiative:
1. Consistent operational processes: The most expensive mistake an organization can make is to start thinking about Dashboards after operational process is set in place. Thinking through and formalizing KPIs and supporting metrics that need to be tracked and measured upfront is extremely critical and will help make the right design decisions in the operational system. For example, if we need to track Responses by channel like web or email we can make sure that the right tracking codes are in place for landing pages that are shared. Otherwise, Marketing Operations team will be tied up with manual methods to break up the Response metric after the fact.
2. Design Role based Dashboards: One of the key drivers for adoption of dashboards is the ability to setup role-based dashboards. Let’s take executive dashboards as an example. Executives are always trying to measure the performance of their organizations against their MBOs. Make sure executive dashboards are aligned with their MBOs. Setup gauges on the dashboard that can help an executive track progress weekly or monthly and take appropriate actions. Typical KPIs could be:
a. Qualified Leads per Quarter
b. Qualified Opportunities per Quarter
c. Marketing Responders per Quarter
d. Number of Campaigns per employee
e. Cost per Lead
f. Cost per Response
Similarly mid-management might be interested in understanding the performance of key initiatives and tactics. Create a matrix of the different roles within the department and metrics relevant to each role. This will help design effective Dashboards by role.
3. Setup Dashboards to track “areas of improvement”: We would all love to be in a situation where the initiatives we undertake deliver results as expected and we are able to consistently meet or exceed our goals. The reality is we have a mixed bag of Campaigns that provide expected results and campaigns that don’t. Every quarter pick an “area of improvement” that you want to focus on and setup Dashboards to help you analyze the results of the tests you conduct to improve yield from the tactics within this initiative. For example, one of my customers recently mentioned that they were getting steady improvement in their web traffic but the number of soft offer downloads was stagnant. We are now setting up a dashboard to measure tracking on pages that drive traffic to the whitepapers and measure conversions. This requires side-by-side views of “web traffic” & “form downloads”, understand where the drop-offs are happening and optimize appropriately.
4. Incorporate best practices into Dashboards: There is lot of great research being produced by organizations like Sirius Decisions, Marketing Sherpa among others. Incorporate benchmark data relevant for your organization into your dashboards. This is a great way to peg your results against industry standards and also set the bar within the organization.
5. Constant Tuning: Dashboards need to be agile and need to be tweaked based on changing business needs and goals. As priorities change appropriate metrics and KPIs need to emphasized/de-emphasized on Dashboards. Reading dashboards and gleaning knowledge is a non-trivial skill and requires some ramp up. Regular knowledge sharing sessions within the organization is a great way to help Marketers share tips about how to recognize patters in the data, understand what the patterns suggest and make appropriate decisions.
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