How To Write Monthly Marketing Reports to Impress your Boss

Presenting a report can be a difficult challenge for many people, whether they’re confident marketing professionals discussing a campaign with a client or a teenager presenting a 10 minute speech on a book that they most certainly did not read. Unfortunately there’s not much we can do to help that teen (except by telling them to at least watch the movie version of their book next time), but when it comes to marketing reporting techniques, we’re all over it.

Ideally, a meeting should be held with a marketing client once a month, giving you an opportunity to get everyone on the same page with regards to how their campaign is going, often with the help of a deck or presentation, something visual to convey your info. Same goes if you’re reporting up instead of out- if you need to inform a superior of how well your digital marketing efforts are performing, schedule in a little bit of you time once a month to keep them in the loop. That’s how we at Neighbourhood conduct business, and we are great at business. This is especially true for businesses using inbound marketing, where sometimes it can be hard to convey the ROI on content development. 

So, what should you present at these meetings? Let’s break it down into the essentials, so you can start impressing the boss with your insightful and considered monthly reports from here on out. You’re welcome in advance, by the way.

Highlights

We’re all busy people round here, with places to go and people to see- don’t assume that whoever you’re speaking to is any different. They’ll appreciate a ‘best-of’ highlights early on in the presentation both as something to refer back to, and in case they’re called away before you finish. Focus on successes, on your growth as a business and sales information- all the good news.

Progress Report

Remind everyone where you were at the end of the last meeting and what you achieved since then. Let them know what campaigns have started, what’s happening currently and what you intend to come next. Quantity is important here, the amount of work you have done or are doing should be impressive and show that you are invested in the business.

Your Success Stories

What’s working? Break down the channels that are proving the most successful for you and driving your growth. Some metrics to consider are your organic search traffic, email metrics, the performance of landing and thank you pages, social media channel performance, paid advertising returns and whatever other data you’ve picked up in your travels. If you’re struggling to pull that data together, then focus on the big three that everyone cares about; visits, leads and customers. This is your opportunity to show your worth, to prove your value, so don’t shy away from displaying it proudly. Don’t just show that it works, but explain why it works and how, as far as you know, you’re the only one on Earth that could have made it happen and how bloody lucky are they to have you. Break it up into sections and go through each of these elements individually and specifically, so everyone understands what the data means.

Your 'almost' Success Stories

Here’s your opportunity to examine things that haven’t gone to plan, or need a little more TLC to get them where you want them. Always present them in relation to a plan to fix them, simply defining your issues isn’t going to win anyone over.

Any Questions?

Finish off your report by opening up the floor to discussion, this is your chance to address anything with the decision makers that you haven’t had the opportunity to during the month. Here is where you can talk budget, or any issues outside of the campaign that you’d like resolved. Speaking of budget, be sure to check out our article on the ins and outs of budgeting for marketing, if you're looking to learn more.

And that’s all the essentials. Pretty straight forward I think. To top it off, use a visually appealing design to tie it all together and practice what you’re going to say before you go in so that it’s top of your mind. If you know your content (and after working on it for weeks I certainly hope you do), then discussing the why and how behind the data should come naturally.

If all’s gone well, then through using this monthly reporting technique you’ve made yourself one hell of a monthly report... I wish I could be there to see you present it.

Alternatively, you could always skip making your own and download our tool below. I'm sorry I didn't mention it earlier and save you having to read my dribble but at least you know how to roll one out now right.