Marketing reports are essential to understand and justify your efforts, through data visualizations, facts, and more. They must be written clearly so that your organization can easily make decisions and maximize returns.
However, creating impactful marketing reports is often easier said than done. It requires utmost perfection in data cleansing, visualization, and discussing; a diverse set of capabilities that many individuals do not possess, naturally.
The solution here is to correctly utilize the AI tools available today to help you get through the work quickly and efficiently.
Want to learn the details of such tools, best practices, and the procedure to use them? Keep reading till the end to learn all such details about today’s topic.
What is a marketing report?
A marketing report is a collection of data coming from your ad campaigns (or other sources.) The primary purpose of this document is to show the results of your efforts by discussing multiple key metrics and data points.
Marketing reports help you draw meaningful conclusions that result in better strategies, improve on weaknesses, and highlight strengths as an organization.
Steps to creating a robust marketing report
Below, we have discussed all the necessary steps to write an impactful marketing report, along with the tools that can help at each stage.
1. Define the audience
Before you start writing the report, you need to clarify what the audience will be. The writing tone, the language used, and everything will depend on the people who will be reading your report.
If the document is targeted toward business executives or marketing teams, it may have more detailed metrics and jargon used to analyze and explain that data.
But, if you have to target stakeholders, especially those external to the organization or niche, then writing and presenting data most simply is your best bet.
1. Determine the right KPIs
KPIs stand for Key Performance Indicators. Before you begin crafting words and compiling data, you need to realize what you’re looking for – the purpose of the marketing report.
If your organization wants to improve its customer acquisition cost (CAC), then the metrics you’ll track and report will be different than the ones required to optimize bounce rate.
Sit down with your marketing team and decide the KPIs that need reporting. Then, look for ways in which you can access that data.
For instance, you can utilize Google Insights as an e-commerce platform or SaaS solution to see page views, average time on page, and other related metrics.
2. Create a clear structure
Marketing reports are made impactful when they’re written with the reader/viewer as a priority. When the person interacting with the document is provided with a table of contents, headings, subheadings, etc., they will thank you for not wasting their time.
You may consider the following structure for reference purposes, however, this can change according to your needs:
- Title page: It should contain the report name, date, and author(s.)
- Introduction: Link to company goals and specify the period and campaigns you’ll cover.
- Executive summary: A brief overview of key findings must be written last to provide all details succinctly and with command.
- Objectives and strategies: Outline the strategies used to obtain the data for monitoring and optimizing the desired KPIs and what you want to do with all the reporting.
- Data for analysis: Present performance metrics with visual elements like graphs, charts, infographics, etc.
- Next steps and Takeaways: Summarize the trends you’ve seen from the data and recommend the next steps to overcome weaknesses and magnify strengths.
3. Compile data with meaningful visuals
Get data from all your online platforms and compile them in singular destinations. Utilize Google Sheets, Excel, Looker Studio, or any other tool you find fit to complete this process.
Also, create an appealing data template that has all the visuals clearly labeled and placed. Remember, all efforts can go in vain if the reader isn’t impressed with the document, or if the required work makes no sense.
| Pro tip: If you are finding it difficult to present the data properly. Then, you can utilize online tools like Windsor.ai. Leverage our free marketing templates to stun the audience with interactive bar charts, histograms, maps, etc., leaving the required impact. |
4. Keep words clear and concise
Write by focusing on the problem at hand and not to fill words. Fix jargon usage according to the audience but always keep sentences in active voice. Directly deliver the key points without any fluff.
Make short paragraphs to promote readability and always provide a glossary of acronyms that you utilize throughout the marketing report.
A useful tip when looking to write content is to leverage online tools like the Hemingway text editor and see readability scores.
If the score is too high, consider breaking down longer sentences and replacing some jargon where not needed. If all this seems tiring, then the Editpad’s AI Paraphraser is here to automatically break down complex ideas into simpler terms, making the marketing report impactful.
5. Prioritize accessibility and sharing
The final step would be to proofread and make any amendments that you see fit. Furthermore, prioritize accessibility and sharing of data by using file formats that are widely acceptable in the industry and supported by various systems.
For instance, you can use PDFs to contain vital content. By doing so, you can easily sustain key elements of a document for a long while (great preservation capabilities.) Also, the viewing and editing experience will not change regardless of the device being used.
This is great for creating impactful marketing reports as you can easily collaborate with your team and work without hiccups.
Conclusion
Creating an impactful marketing report is essential for data-driven decision-making in organizations. It involves defining your audience, determining relevant KPIs, structuring the document effectively, and presenting data with clear visuals.
AI tools can significantly streamline data compilation and writing processes for reports. However, you must prioritize content accessibility, ensure the document is shareable, and maintain its integrity across various platforms and devices.
By following these steps, marketers can easily highlight the required changes through meaningful insights from data and suggest improvements to uplift the business.