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Kiera Abbamonte on January 15, 2021 (last modified on October 14, 2022) • 6 minute read
An average company spends time compiling monthly and quarterly reports for one business. When that process is overly involved and arduous, it eats up valuable time that could otherwise be spent improving metrics instead of compiling them.
For agencies, that time waste can add up quickly as the number of reports and data sources skyrockets with each new client.
That was the case for Knowmad, a boutique digital marketing agency. Located in Charlotte, NC, Knowmad works with SMEs locally, as well as across the U.S. and Europe, to provide inbound marketing, SEO, PPC, content marketing, and web design services.
To find out more about how they use Databox to cut down on reporting time, set and monitor big picture goals, and build long-term client relationships, we talked with Markelle Harden, Digital Strategist at Knowmad. Markelle walked us through how they use Databox and shared some of the results and time savings theyâve seen since implementing the tool.
According to Markelle, Knowmad really began to recognize the challenges they faced with reporting when they started to pursue more aggressive growth. âWe doubled our team size in two years,â Markelle said. âWhen you add that many people to weekly meetings, you really need a tool that can give you a high-level view.â
Before Databox, the team had been using HubSpot for analyticsâbut to get a pulse on all their campaigns and platforms involved logging into dozens of different tools to pull metrics. As their client and employee rosters grew, that time waste exploded right along with them.
Here are the challenges Knowmad faced before Databox:
âPer client, reporting can take a minimum of an hour,â Markelle noted. âIf you multiply that times 15 or 20 clients, thatâs a big jump. Itâs too much time.â
âWe really pay attention to growth and we set challenging goals,â Markelle told us. âWithout Databox, we couldnât set those goals, because we wouldnât know weâre going to miss a certain goal until itâs too late.â
âIf you rely on digging into individual reports in Google Analytics, HubSpot⌠youâre going to be spinning your wheels and spending the entire day compiling reports. Who has that kind of time? We donât,â Markelle explained.
Once Knowmad’s co-founder and operations leader, Diona Kidd, realized they needed a better solution, she turned to Databox first. After moving from a Google Analytics/HubSpot-centered reporting process, they transitioned both internal and client reporting to Databox, quickly building out dozens of Databoards based on public Databox templates.
They connected Google Analytics, CallRail, Google My Business, Google Ads, Google Search Console, HubSpot CRM, HubSpot Marketing, QuickBooks.
Here are the solutions Knowmad implemented with Databox:
âWe use the public templates from Databox,â Markelle told us. âThe Acquisition Snapshot is really helpful, and weâre getting ready to launch the Instagram Business Account and the LinkedIn Company Pages templates for some of our clients.â
âAcross the board, all of our clients have goals set up for organic search, traffic, organic conversions⌠Databox sets off the flag for us that something is either a huge success or isnât getting the results weâd like, and we need to spend more time on it,â Markelle said.
Markelle explained, âThe way we have the Goals Overview set up, we have the client name on the left and all the goals on the right. Not all of our clients sign up for HubSpot right away, so I really like being able to add extra metrics and goals as we go along.â
Databox helps us have intelligent conversations with our clients.
According to Markelle, implementing Databox as their central reporting software has changed the way they spend their time and the ways in which theyâre able to serve their clients. Noting the changes necessitated by the recent COVID-19 pandemic, Markelle told us that Databox enabled Knowmad to have more intelligent, proactive conversations with clients.
With time savings of more than 15 hours each month, the team is able to spend more time working for clients and theyâre more nimble as circumstances change in real-time.
Here are Knowmadâs Databox results:
âWe love the simplicity of the overview,â Markelle noted. âWhen you log in and look at a goal dashboard with all of your clients, youâre immediately drawn to the redâit really helps you prioritize which accounts need your help today.â
âDatabox helps us quickly look at the big picture, annual numbers. So we can go back and look at everything from last year and go quarter-by-quarter this year. If weâre continually overshooting our goal every quarter, then our goal isnât high enough. If weâre way below our goal, something is off,â Markelle said.
Markelle explained, âDatabox helps us look at anywhere from 15-30 different initiatives at one time, in one meetingâso that we can pick something out of the list and say, âThatâs not working. Whatâs wrong? What can we make better?ââ
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