How Bee Inbound Uses Databox to Unify Client Data and Streamline Reporting

Agency marketers know better than most that the more tools and systems you use, that harder it is to compile data into a coherent report that tells the full story for your clients. As clients bring their own MarTech stacks into the picture, it’s even harder to create comprehensive reports that deliver real insights. That’s what led Bee Inbound to Databox.

An inbound marketing agency and certified HubSpot partner specializing in MarTech solutions, Bee Inbound struggled with bringing together data from all of the different platforms and systems their clients use.

To learn more about they solve this dilemma, we talked with Michel Pham, Technical Project Manager for Bee Inbound.

The Challenge

When Pham started at Bee Inbound, the agency was already neck-deep in multiple client configurations, and they didn’t have a good solution for dashboard reporting.

“The agency already had client goals set up,” Pham said, “but the Chief Manager used to gather all of the data from different systems into Excel and prepare reports from there. I’m someone who really likes to work with Excel, but I think Excel is so misused for so many reasons.”

The old process required the report preparer to go into each tool manually, pulling data points one by one from Google Analytics, Google Ads, LinkedIn, and a dozen other systems. That process didn’t work for Pham: “I refused to follow that time-consuming process. I was like, ‘We must find a better solution.’”

Some of the challenges Bee Inbound faced:

1. Bringing all client data together into one place:

Building client reports requires Pham and the team to analyze data from dozens of different tools and systems, each with their own internal reporting systems that don’t communicate with one another.

“We base our reports on the user needs and the client’s business. It really depends on the client’s needs. Our clients have a wide variety of tools they need to have for marketing campaigns, for many things, and they want to bring it all together in one place.”

2. Streamline the client reporting process:

With each agency marketing specialist reporting separately, client meetings dragged on and required as many as 5 or more different team members to interrupt their other duties and report on their data.

“We have different specialists, SEO specialists, campaign specialists, traffic managers, and they did performance reviews with clients individually. So your meetings would often take 90 minutes or more.”

3. Enable deeper data analysis:

While Pham values the data available in HubSpot, it isn’t always enough for the kind of deep, granular analysis the team really needs to answer client questions and challenges.

“If you want to dig deeper into the data and combine dimensions from one source with another, it’s impossible [in HubSpot].”

The Solution

Once they started looking for a better way, Pham found that some people at the agency were already using Databox, but not to its full potential. Pham jumped in and began to connect all of the diverse data sources and build out performance dashboards for each client.

They connected SEMrush, Facebook Groups, Google Search Console,Google Ads, Instagram Business, Facebook Ads, Facebook Pages, Twitter, LinkedIn Ads, LinkedIn, Google Analytics, HubSpot Marketing, and HubSpot CRM.

Bee Inbound’s Top Integrations

Pham was able to connect all the data sources their clients wanted to see into one centralized hub for their data. According to Pham, the breadth of data sources available for quick integration led them to go all-in on Databox.

“The data sources are a lifesaver. To have so many data sources in one place is a great feature. That’s why we picked Databox over all the other tools. The main difference was the number of data sources available.”

“It was quite amazing. It was really easy to use, especially to connect the data sources, which is the main challenge for most of our clients: how to bring all that into one place. It makes my life much easier.”

Many of the agency’s clients are concerned with similar metrics, so it was easy for Pham to build similar dashboards or templates, and then customize them based on each client’s needs.

“It’s easier to get data into one place,” Pham said. “I had the same data before when I was going to Google Analytics or Google Ads or LinkedIn. Now we have everything in one place.”

For Pham, that’s the biggest impact of implementing Databox. The team can offer clients in-depth, autonomous reports with automated alerts. Pham is able to set up each client’s dashboard once and then move on to other responsibilities.

As they’ve implemented Databox across their client portfolio, Pham and the team have standardized the process, allowing them to get each new client set up even more quickly.

“We have about 10 clients set up with Databox right now, but it’s going to grow more and more because we started to really standardize that process internally here. Now, many clients have their own Databox accounts because they realize its benefits.”

When it comes to data visualization, many of Bee Inbound’s B2B clients are particularly interested in how leads actually move through the funnel, something they’re able to show more completely with Databox.

“Most of the dashboards have standard KPIs, such as impressions, clicks, and HubSpot leads. So they want to know how many people have seen client ads, how many people have clicked on an ad, and how many people have converted into a lead, converted to a marketing qualified lead, sales qualified lead, etc. Visualizing the whole funnel by our HubSpot clients is a recurring topic of interest.”

“We have goals that we agree upon with each client. Our key account manager does that every month and, based on those dashboard numbers, they set up actions for the next month or quarter. From there, we monitor results and adapt strategies to meet or exceed them.”

“We set up alerts for them, and they monitor the data themselves. I have other responsibilities, so we try to automate the whole process. Once it’s done, then my job is done. Now we have only one person, the key account manager, who does the reporting meeting with the client. That saves us a lot of time and utilizes our specialists more effectively.”

Bee Inbound saves time, automates the reporting process, and frees up Pham and other team members to focus on revenue-producing activities.