Marketing results dashboards exist in many scents and colours. From super-simple to super-complex. From super-quick to ‘don’t start’. This article is written for those who are satisfied with measuring a few KPIs. You don’t need a supersonic marketing dashboard to monitor this. However, do you want to avoid creating a separate Excel document again? Then it’s best to do that right away in your marketing planning. In this way, planning and results are linked to each other.
Marketing has become incredibly measurable, thanks to digital parameters and measuring instruments. Measuring is - more than ever - knowing. That's why you should start as early as possible by listing all the marketing figures you would like to see every month in one clear dashboard. Think of turnover figures per customer group, website statistics, Facebook involvement, visitors to events or the number of leads via certain channels. Don't exaggerate in the beginning, because you will have to show a monthly discipline! Be sure to read our article 'What types of marketing KPIs exist?'
You can then list these so-called KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) in an Excel table. This is free, fast, user-friendly and you can immediately link charts to it. However, in practice it turns out that separate Excel dashboards often die a quiet death. They are set up with a lot of good intentions, not often after a complaint from the management that no figures are being reported.
The very best solution for measuring marketing results in a sustainable way is to use a (Business Intelligence) application such as Klipfolio or Google Data Studio. Below is an example of a Google Data Studio dashboard with marketing results. However, such a dashboard is not just set up in one-two-three. You even risk getting demotivated when you want to start such a marketing KPI dashboard. If you do take up the challenge: be sure to read our article 'In 7 steps towards a marketing KPI dashboard'.
However, there is also an in-between solution that is more professional than Excel and easier than using specific marketing KPI software. After all, our marketing planner Husky also offers a 'Results' module. In this module you can quickly and easily create a marketing KPI dashboard. Below is a concrete example of a campaign to enter a new market. In order to measure the results of this campaign, 3 KPIs have been defined: number of trials, percentage of trials from the country in relation to the total number of trials and the number of new customers.
In Husky's marketing results dashboard, you can set up a new marketing KPI with a single mouse click. The system automatically creates a new results line within which you can enter both a target ('Target' in the example) and a result. If the target is at least achieved, then the result mark is set to green. If the target is not achieved, the score is set to red. In this way you have a nice visual timeline with monthly figures. If you click on the name of the KPI, a side window opens where you can fill in more information about this KPI. You will also see that a graph is created automatically. You can copy this quickly and easily, for example to put it in a management presentation.
Do you want to know why Husky can be an asset to all your results?
Read more about marketing results here or book an online demo.
