A Forbes Insights Report notes that only 22% of marketers have data-driven initiatives achieving significant results. Reporting is an important aspect of your marketing activities, because it will get you a more successful and fact-based marketing strategy. It gives insight to the success of programs, the acquisition of names, ROI and what your target audience is interested in. But more importantly, it will steer you in the right direction.

How do you start with reporting?

1. Organize brainstorm sessions together with the marketing team. Start with asking questions you would like an answer to in terms of your marketing activities. After that, ask your management team what they would like to know regarding marketing activities. A few example questions:
   • Which programs should I continue to invest in?
   • Which events / webinars are the most successful?
   • Which landing page converts best?
   • Which newsletter articles convert are most interesting to our target audience?
   • Where do our leads come from?
   • Which programs acquire the most new names?
   • Which e-mails are triggered the most to click through?
   • What is the ROI of our various events?
   • What are the costs per lead in a program?
   • What are the costs per new name in a program?

2. Look at the options of your marketing automation platform and your CRM. Marketo offers various reports for basic reporting and advanced reporting. When this is the first time you start with reporting, then start with the basics. Are the basics in place? Then take a look at the advanced options.

3. Build and customize reports that answer your questions. You can subscribe yourself and the team to weekly/monthly updates automatically. See which reports answer your questions best.

4. Take appropriate actions on reporting outcomes. Adjust you marketing plan and budget accordingly, if necessary.E.g.: when the outcome of a report is that the ROI of a particular event is not nearly enough, you can decide not to repeat and invest in this event in the near future and put more effort and budget in the event that generates the highest ROI.

Think of what is relevant for your team and management with regards to marketing activities instead of just creating reports, no one is actually using and a waste of your valuable time. Don’t forget to download ‘The Essential 8: Top Reports That Every Marketer Needs’.