How Russell Marketing Ditched Manual Reporting & Now Uses Real-Time Data to Improve Performance

Even great products need help to get to market and make a great impression—or more appropriately, impressions.

This is where the team at Russell Marketing comes in.

This digital launch agency helps early-stage products (cool ideas you’re likely to see on Kickstarter or IndieGoGo) make the most of their digital presence in order to reach their next raving fans.

Russell helps product companies validate, market, and optimize their position in the marketplace to give their products the best visibility possible. 

Visibility in the digital marketing landscape boils down to one thing: good data. For that reason, the team at Russell needed a way to properly visualize the data on their clients’ ads, audience, and conversion stats without the heavy lift of manually reporting data that often changes by the day. 

The team reached out to Databox for help bringing all that data under one roof and using it to craft successful strategies that get their clients’ products into as many hands as possible, quickly and effectively.

Databox was able to help the team contextualize data for all these purposes, saving them time and money while making the best impression on those they serve.

Cutting the Right Figure

When your business mission is to help new products make a splash in the market, the way you present yourself is an audition for the important work you’ll do for clients in a partnership.

For this reason, the team at Russell makes the extra effort in how they present the ideas and data that are most important to their clients. 

“Most of the time they’re hiring us because we’re the experts,” says Valerie Blomberg, account manager at Russell Marketing.

Part of that expert image lies in the delivery. Where manual report-building is both tedious and sometimes underwhelming, Databox gives the team the ability to deliver professional-looking reports with the touch of a button, so that their strategies can shine as well. The well-designed, intuitive Databoards and templates “gives us a nice, clean, client-facing snapshot.” 

The team at Russell isn’t just out to tell a story; they want to add the wow factor to everything they do.

“That’s one of our core values as a company,” Blomberg explains.

They rely on Databox to help the team go the extra mile and present their insights in the best manner possible.

“It does give the clients confidence that we’re listening to them. I think it’s a nice gesture to show that in our reporting we’re always tracking toward a goal. Nothing is done arbitrarily.”

Russell Marketing’s Top Integrations

Bringing the Team Together

As a fully remote team, getting on the same page is important. While Blomberg and the team communicate via Zoom as needed, they make a commitment to keep video calls to a minimum, allowing everyone to focus on creating successful launches for their clients. 

Databox has helped them support this commitment to digital wellness by reducing the need to overanalyze data findings or negotiate trends and what they may mean.

Instead, the team comes to their Monday morning sync-up fully informed and ready to make decisions that keep everything moving forward.

“It helps people come to our meetings more prepared and then being more productive,” explains Blomberg. “We can use that time to talk about strategy rather than arguing about what’s happening because that’s already clear.”

The ease of use that makes Databox a hit with their client base is great for the team as well. Where meeting prep before Databoards could take over two hours, with the live link to pertinent information and goals, the team can get to grips with the information they need faster and easier than with manual reporting.

“Just look at the performance dashboard and immediately get the temperature check on how a project is going, rather than an hour combing through data.” 

For Blomberg herself, the ease of Databox makes it easier to do the work that clients and her advertising team need.

As the most direct line of communication between the Advertising team and Russell’s growing client base, it gives Valuer access to actionable data that allows flexibility in their approach.

“For my role as the bridge between clients and advertisers, it’s incredibly helpful because it helps me identify if there’s a big issue, or if something looks off. I now know immediately what questions to ask my advertisers.”

Saving Time

Manual data reporting requires a considerable time investment and invariably creates a lag in the information you report.

For a team that relies on daily progress toward its goals, attending to manual reporting is inefficient at best. What’s more, for a company experiencing brisk growth year after year, manual reporting isn’t scalable.

This was one of the top reasons the team sought out a solution to their reporting needs.

“Prior to Databox, we were updating our Google Sheets every three days,” says Blomberg. “Now we update once a week. We can also reduce the number of metrics that we track.”

This easy access to real-time data in a Google Sheets reporting tool like Databox, has reduced the manual entry down to just one weekly instance, leaving more time for the important work of developing strategy and helping their clients’ products come to market with as much visibility as possible.