- In digital marketing, you'll have tremendous data
at your fingertips, and in order to make sense
of this data, you'll need to synthesize it into reports.
But your reports need to have purpose.
Too many times, I see data collection and reporting
just for the sake of having data,
and it's not all that helpful,
and it can actually distract from your overall goal.
Every report you create must have
an actionable outcome and influence change.
When you report on something, it's really important
that you focus on what you want the key takeaway to be.
For example, let's say we look at a chart like this,
and I summarize, traffic declined significantly in July
from the preceding month of June.
Well, this isn't enough.
We need to layer in the context.
Your report would need to show the decline,
the supporting data that hypothesizes the source
of the decline, and then whatever the key takeaway is.
So I might layer in data that shows
we decreased our advertising spend on, say, LinkedIn,
and then subsequently saw a drop in traffic.
I can now connect the dots to what the ripple effect
of this impact is, and what we should do about it.
Now, you always want to be telling a story with your data,
and always have a clear takeaway,
so that you can take action.
If things are bad, explain why.
If things are good, well, also explain why.
If the data doesn't contribute to the story you're telling,
well, then it's okay to leave it off your reports
simply to help you simplify.
Now, reporting doesn't have to feel overwhelming,
and you don't need to summarize all the data.
Just find where the most actionable opportunities are,
and keep the narrative simple and easy to understand.