Every month, business owners everywhere open a marketing report, scroll through twenty charts and close it again. They're none the wiser.
The report wasn't wrong. It was answering the wrong question. It showed that the marketing was busy. The owner wanted to know whether it was working.
Activity is easy to report
Impressions, reach, clicks, followers, open rates. These numbers are easy to pull and they usually go up, which makes them comfortable to send.
But none of them pay the bills. An owner can't take "reach was up 18%" to the bank, and they can't use it to decide where next month's money should go. So the report gets skimmed, filed and quietly ignored.
Owners have three questions
In my experience, every business owner wants the same three things from marketing reporting:
Is it bringing in customers? Not leads. Customers.
Which parts are working? So I can do more of them.
What should we change? In plain words.
A good report answers those on the first page. Everything else is supporting detail, and most of it can go in an appendix nobody needs to open.
The numbers worth tracking
For most businesses, I'd put five numbers at the top:
Leads, by source.
Response time to new leads.
Conversion rate from lead to customer.
Pipeline value: what's currently being quoted or discussed.
Revenue from marketing, by source.
These need the website, the CRM and the ad platforms talking to each other. That's why they're rare. It's also why they're worth the effort. Once you can see revenue by source, budget conversations take five minutes instead of an hour.
Agree the numbers before the work starts
When I was at AWD Digital, we agreed the numbers with a client before we started, such as conversion rate, qualified leads and pipeline value. Then the monthly report showed each one against where we began.
It changes the relationship. The report stops being a defence of the agency’s work and becomes a shared scoreboard. When something isn’t working, it’s visible early, and you can change it.
Write the report backwards
If you're the one making the report, try this. Start with a single sentence you'd want the owner to read: "This month, marketing brought in X customers worth $Y, mostly from Z, and next month we'll do more of Z."
Then add only the numbers that support or explain that sentence. If a chart doesn't, leave it out.
If you're the one receiving the report, ask for that sentence. A good marketer will be glad you asked.
The take
A marketing report should help someone make a decision. If nobody can act on it, it's not a report. It's a scrapbook.
Report on customers and revenue first. The clicks can sit at the back.
Common questions
What should a marketing report show a business owner?
Whether marketing is bringing in customers, which parts are working and what to change. Lead with leads by source, response time, conversion rate, pipeline value and revenue by source.
Why are clicks and impressions not enough?
They show the marketing is busy, not that it's working. An owner can't make a budget decision from reach or clicks alone.
How do I make my marketing reports more useful?
Agree the numbers before the work starts, then write one sentence summarising the month and include only the figures that support it.
Got an idea, a question or a guest for Off The Record?
Send me a message. If it's help with your marketing you're after, that happens through Cushy Digital.