Mistakes To Avoid In Digital Marketing Client Reporting

Client reporting is the most important part of an effective digital marketing strategy. Being able to provide your clients with a digital marketing report each month is important but it is even more important that you are avoiding these very common mistakes that are made in client reporting all the time!

What To Consider Before Creating A Digital Marketing Report For Your Client

Having a digital marketing strategy meeting with your client is extremely important before you are able to identify the type of report to compile for your client as well as the frequency in which they would like to receive their report. A few examples of questions that you need to ask your client during the strategy meeting are:

  1. What are the main results/goals you want to see in your reporting?
  2. How often would you like to receive a digital marketing report?
  3. Would you like to receive campaign-specific reports or would you prefer to have them included in an overview performance report?
  4. What KPIs would you consider being the most important when looking at the performance of your campaigns?

It is very important to know the whathow, and when of your client’s report before you start working on your report structure.

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Mistakes To Avoid In Digital Marketing Client Reporting

Here is an outline of the most common mistakes to avoid in your client reporting:

Not using enough or the right visuals

Clients respond better to data that is represented through visuals. You need to use graphs that will display the data in an optimal format while making it easy for the client to understand what the data means. Try using more chart types such as pie charts, line graphs, and bar graphs rather than only tables or spreadsheets to give your client an exciting way of analyzing the performance of their campaigns and keep them engaged with the data in the report.

Picking only the best results

Transparency is key in client reporting! Providing your client with data that is true is more important than providing them with data that is good. Make sure the report focuses on the important KPIs set out in the digital marketing strategy meeting and that you are able to explain how they are performing, whether the performance is good or bad, and recommendations for the next steps.

Long and repetitive reports

The truth is, clients, don’t care about ALL the data we think to be important. They care about whether or not your marketing efforts are making them money, and if their return on spend is reaching its maximum potential. Make sure that the report is able to answer these questions for them and that they include the data you know they will want to see. It can take a couple of months to build the perfect digital marketing report for a client, but it can be easily achieved by communicating with your clients after their report is sent. Not using insights Insights are an undervalued aspect of the client reporting process. Taking the time to explain the data in a digital marketing report not only shows the client that you understand the data but it also removes the headache of the client trying to figure out what each bit of data in the report means.

No consistency in the frequency of which reports are sent

Building a strong relationship with your client should be a priority in your agency. Having an inconsistent reporting schedule can cause some unnecessary issues in your client relationship as they might not know when they will hear from you again. Generally, monthly reporting is considered the norm in digital marketing, but it is good to have a conversation with your client to understand how often they want to see the result of their marketing campaigns.

Not planning the report

It is extremely important that time is spent planning your client report each month! A lot of what you learn from your client during the strategy meeting can be applied in the planning of the report However, each month may require some additional strategizing depending on the types of marketing campaigns that ran over the course of the reporting period.

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Mistakes To Avoid AFTER The Client Report Has Been Sent

No communication

Not communicating with your client after you have sent a report is a big mistake. Make sure to follow up to check that they have received the report, that they understand it, and if they have any questions.

Assuming no changes need to be made to current campaigns

If no communication happens between you and the client, you will not know if any changes need to be made to the report moving forward. This can end up wasting a lot of the time you invest into putting their reports together each month.

Not offering to run through the report with the client

Going over a report with a client should fall part of your monthly client reporting. This offers them the opportunity to ask you questions and for you to take notes on any changes that need to be made on the report the following month.

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Client Reporting is Critical to Your Growth

Generally, the digital marketing reports you create are sent and presented to someone on the marketing team in a business, but 9 out of 10 times the client report is sent over and presented to executives or decision-makers by the marketing team. This is why it’s so important that the data you are presenting them with is accurate, helps them make informed decisions, reflects positively on your agency, and shows them how you are helping their business achieve its goals.

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Ready To Take Your Client Reporting To The Next Level?

Now that we have covered the most important mistakes to avoid in client reporting you will be able to provide your clients with reports that they want and need to see!

Check out some more of our content on digital marketing and reporting in the blog section on our website.

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