Showing Clients Results: Scorecards and Activity Reports

“The job of a marketing agency is to produce results that impact the bottom line. It’s that simple.” — Paul Roetzer (@paulroetzer), The Marketing Agency Blueprint

Marketing MetricsAgencies need to move away from arbitrary metrics such as PR value and impressions, and analyze and report on those metrics that truly impact the bottom line, most importantly website traffic, leads and sales.

Even then, how you present these results is of utmost importance, as today’s business executives are drowning in data. Continually prove your agencies worth and encourage transparency by regularly reporting on metrics that matter—in a way that makes sense to your client. We recommend using scorecards and activity reports.

Monthly Campaign Scorecards

At the start of every campaign and project, work with the client to determine both short- and long-term objectives, and agree upon how ROI and value will be measured. Using historical data (preferably a minimum of three months), benchmark where they are at today and lay out realistic improvement goals.

Then, each month, tie activities performed back to these benchmarks and goals to determine campaign success. In your scorecards, lay out both high-priority KPIs (e.g. website visits, leads, sales) and supporting metrics (e.g. inbound links, social media reach, referring traffic) so that clients can easily see results from all major activities completed the month before in an easy-to-scan executive summary format.

sample-scorecard-chart

Scorecards also provide the opportunity for agency professionals to do a deep dive into the data to determine what worked and what didn’t, identify trends, find cause-and-effect relationships and answer difficult questions. Share key findings from this analysis with the client, and use them to guide the next month’s strategy.

Your goal should be to take what may seem like data overload and transform it into actionable intelligence. What can you draw from the data to adjust or reconfirm your strategy moving forward?

Weekly Activity Updates

In addition to Scorecards, provide clients with weekly updates on progress and any noteworthy performance results. For example, we typically send an overview of:

  • Activities completed in the week (and associated results, if available),
  • Activities planned for the following week, and
  • How rendered services compare to service package allocations.

This weekly check-in helps promote transparency, and keeps the client and agency on the same page. We find them especially helpful in showing progress during longer projects, in which tangible results may not be available right away.

Complement weekly updates with real-time notes if there are any significant fluctuations in metrics, large campaign wins or other performance results that warrant immediate notice.

How Do You Show Results?

What metrics are you tracking for clients, and how do you present the results? Share your processes below.

For more on how to turn information into intelligence, and intelligence into action, check out session 5 of the Marketing Agency Blueprint webinar series.

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