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Have you ever felt like your boss is breathing down your neck, every time you submit a report?
That’s the feeling automated reporting can help you avoid. Let’s go straight to the point and take a look at what automatic marketing report generation is, and how it can help you to improve your business performance.
Automated reports are generated with the use of a program. The marketing report automation software does the heavy lifting for you – you only have to enter a few details (like name and email address), set up your templates, and voilà – all your reports are sent automatically on a schedule you choose.
On to the details:
Thanks to reports automation, businesses can save time and money by allowing the system to work on behalf of marketers with minimal human intervention. In fact, report automation software can be implemented with very little programming and technical knowledge. These tools are designed for marketers who may not have IT skills but would still like to enjoy the benefits of automated reporting tools.
Report automation software is typically running on your own computer (or cloud) to collect and process online data by using software APIs. Therefore, automated report gathering and composing technology can eliminate a lot of manual work processes in an organization.
Report automation is a great way to get a bird’ eye view of your digital marketing efforts. It’s important for all parties involved to always have access to updated reports that are specific to the data they are interested in. Data is entered into the system, automated and then delivered either online or sent via email.
No doubt there will be a time or two in your business life where running and reviewing reports is a time-consuming process that impacts your ability to take appropriate action. Report automation can help remove the burden of some inefficient processes which bog down your staff, give you the ability to produce reports on a more frequent cycle, and free up resources for more value-adding tasks.
There are a lot of benefits to using automated reporting, such as:
An automated reporting system that automatically tracks and updates your data is going to save you countless hours of manual effort, as well as a lot of money. More than that, it will empower you to get the most value from the time and energy that you invest. You will always have the necessary up-to-date information ready at your fingertips within minutes of your request.
Related: How Automated Reporting Saved 16 Agencies Time, Money, and Headaches
Increased collaboration and transparency, greater productivity, and better insights are just some of the benefits of working with automated reports. These reports can be easily accessed from your software application or made available on a centrally located website or via service-oriented architecture. By providing all stakeholders with access to reliable information (delivered on a regular cadence) they will be able to make better decisions. This is essential for steady growth. What’s more, as modern reporting tools offer built-in analytics, you will get more bang for your buck!
Sometimes, you need data fast. Like, really fast. That’s when a simple automated report can come in handy. Reports are one of the most effective ways to gain insight into your marketing efforts, but not all reports do the trick. Let’s look at an example: If you notice your blog is underperforming, how long will it take to analyze your traffic and find the problem? Having access to real-time data is important, especially for small businesses and startups. And that’s where having a small business dashboard software comes to play.
What good does having a basic dashboard with historical data do if you have to wait three weeks for it? Are you going to wait three weeks to make a decision? Maybe in the time that it takes you to gather accurate reporting data, your business could be missing out on potential customers and sales.
Thanks to the latest innovations in data analytics, your business can benefit from continuous growth and development at any point in time. If you can work between the hours of 8 am and 2 am, you’ve already got access to tools and technology that will greatly improve how well you monitor your web stats and digital marketing performance.
There are many options out there when it comes to automation tools. Some are more complicated, while others are easier to use. Some are more expensive, while others come free. The only way to know which is right for your particular business is to have a clear understanding of your business goals, the important metrics that affect those goals, and what kind of reporting you find yourself doing over and over again.
Here is a list of the four most popular methods for automating your reports:
This is the most time-consuming and expensive way to create a reporting system. However, it can offer you the highest level of customization and flexibility. You can pick your own features, add in custom-made functionalities, or choose from some pre-developed ones.
There are also some other issues that you might face. First, as in the case of DIY tools, you won’t be able to get any support from the team if any issues arise. So, you’re on your own. Second, you might need a lot of time to build and customize your own system. And last but not least, if you plan to grow fast and hire a lot of employees, the DIY option is not for you. It might cause bottlenecks and slow down your sales process because every time someone new joins the team, they have to learn how to use all of your tools.
Tool manufacturers often provide a wealth of ready-to-go templates, including dashboards, scorecards, and reports with all kinds of data visualization. You can use these templates as-is or customize them to fit your needs. The downside to these tools is that they generally require a steep learning curve. For example, Tableau offers a free version, but you can’t export your data outside its platform.
In addition to the analytics capabilities, BI tools work best when you have a good deal of raw data available (not just a small sample), which means you have to collect more than you need right away.
The best data analytics dashboard software for small businesses is the one that lets you build and deploy your reports quickly, and easily share them with colleagues. I’ve been using Google Data Studio for over a year now and it has served me well. One of the best things about Google Data Studio is that anyone on your team can use it! With just a little bit of help from your analytics expert, most of your team will be able to create their own reports in no time. I also love how easy it is to share my reports with clients or prospects by simply sending them an email with a Google Drive link.
Setting up an automated reporting system can be a tedious process. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. There are countless tools out there that make reporting easier, like Databox.
From the multitude of tools available today that allow users to create automated reports, I have chosen this tool as the best among them. With Databox you can use the following types of integrations: Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, AdWords, MailChimp, Salesforce, Twitter, and more.
The reports you can create with this tool include: Ad Campaign Reports, Top Landing Pages Report, Cost Per Acquisition Report, Affiliate Referral Report, Geo-Location Report, and many more.
When you’re using a tool like Databox, all you have to do is connect your data source, and choose your metrics in order to visualize them. With pre-built templates, you don’t even have to pick your own metrics.
Like most marketers and marketing managers, you want to know how well your efforts are translating into results each month. How much traffic and new contact conversions do you get? How many new contacts do you get from organic sessions? How are your email campaigns performing? How well are your landing pages converting? You might have to scramble to put all of this together in a single report, but now you can have it all at your fingertips in a single Databox dashboard.
Our Marketing Overview Dashboard includes data from Google Analytics 4 and HubSpot Marketing with key performance metrics like:
Now you can benefit from the experience of our Google Analytics and HubSpot Marketing experts, who have put together a plug-and-play Databox template that contains all the essential metrics for monitoring your leads. It’s simple to implement and start using as a standalone dashboard or in marketing reports, and best of all, it’s free!
You can easily set it up in just a few clicks – no coding required.
To set up the dashboard, follow these 3 simple steps:
Step 1: Get the template
Step 2: Connect your HubSpot and Google Analytics 4 accounts with Databox.
Step 3: Watch your dashboard populate in seconds.
The potential of automation certainly has a positive impact on business productivity levels since the entire workforce can focus on more human-centric tasks while embarking on deeper discussions surrounding the meaning of the data, migrating away from tedious tasks and manual calculations in the process. But how does this look in practice?
To make sure you make the most out of report automation, before you start, answer these critical questions and consider these tips or tricks.
Here are some tips and tricks to help you get started:
Pick the right KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). They should be relevant to the project at hand and motivate your team members to take action. An easy way to do this is by picking those metrics that are most important for each team member’s performance review. You should select around 6-8 KPIs. These will be the center of each report and you need to communicate them clearly and on-point.
It all starts with defining a clear set of goals. This sounds glaringly obvious, but you’d be amazed at how many people overlook this task. Once you’ve decided on which department, processes, or functions you think need streamlining, it’s time to define your core data automation goals within those parameters. You can ask yourself these questions:
If you set specific automation goals, you will streamline your data analytics strategy in the right areas. As a result, your automation will provide responsive, intelligent insights related to the departmental functions that matter most.
The frequency of automated reporting depends on the business problem you’re trying to solve. Most data-driven companies have different reporting frequencies for operational and strategic data, but there are no hard and fast rules about when one solution is more appropriate than another. A daily report is commonly used for operational data, as it provides real-time information that can be acted upon immediately. On the other hand, weekly reports often suffice for strategic data that requires more time to analyze and draw conclusions from. But depending on your business needs, both types of reports could be needed simultaneously.
Related: Sales Report Templates For Daily, Weekly Monthly, Quarterly and Yearly Statements (Sourced from 40+ Sales Pros)
A report format should be consistent, easy to read, and contain the information that needs to be conveyed. The ultimate goal is to create a report that is clear and actionable for the consumer. You should also determine whether your data should be visual or non-visual (text only). Also consider whether it will be helpful to have a “live” report that updates regularly, or if you want the data at a specific point in time–for example, such as after the weekend or after a monthly financial review.
These are the two cornerstones of creating a smooth automated reporting system. If you’re considering moving your business to an all-automated data reporting solution, you’ll need to implement both of these measures in order to reap the benefits that such a system can offer.
The more people who have access to your data, the more likely they are to use it effectively. The secret is making sure that these resources are easily accessible from anywhere at any time. Once you’ve established a foundation for success, you should begin working towards an ever-increasing level of automation, which will ensure that there’s always someone on hand to interpret the data for those who need it most—making your business as efficient as possible.
Related: How to Position Automated Marketing Reporting To Your Clients
Choosing the best-automated reporting software for your business needs is crucial in order to save time and boost productivity. With so many available options, it can be difficult to determine which one fits your needs best. Here are a few key factors to consider when choosing the best tool for your business:
Once you’ve started collecting data through your various sales and marketing automation tools, it’s time to start analyzing that data – so you can make more informed decisions. Marketing Automation tools have extremely robust reporting capabilities that can help you understand the effectiveness of your campaigns. Since there are so many different report options available, it can be difficult to know where to start.
But don’t worry!
Databox created a free collection of 90+ Marketing Automation dashboards with all the major metrics you’ll need to assess your performance. Use these templates as-is or customize them to suit your needs.
In addition to tracking your marketing metrics, HubSpot Marketing Dashboard does something very special: it allows you to see how your team is performing together. The report provides instant snapshots of over 140 key marketing metrics, including traffic sources, social media performance, and lead generation funnels across all stages of the sales cycle — all in one place.
Use this Klaviyo Dashboard Template to track open and click rates, subscribers growth, email performance in real-time, and more. With just a few easy steps, you can set up your own dashboard to track and measure your email marketing performance in real-time.
The monthly Marketing Performance Dashboard is the most comprehensive way to track how each traffic source is contributing to your bottom line. A well-planned and regularly updated marketing dashboard such as this one can help you measure month-over-month progress toward your end goals. We suggest using this template as a starting point for your custom report.
This is a very easy-to-use marketing template that offers you the ability to track and assess the impact of your outreach in real-time. In addition to tracking the number of times you contact your prospects and how they engage with your outreach, you can also track the percentage of your prospect list that did not receive an email from you. This will allow you to easily see if any segments of your prospect list are not being reached by your messaging. If a large percentage of your list is not receiving your emails, then you may need to adjust the frequency or type of messages.
This Drift dashboard template is a great asset for businesses that want to set up automated reporting systems to help monitor sales performance and sales tea activity. The main advantage of this template is that it provides everyone in your team with an insight into the activity of your customers and prospects, helping you consolidate salespeople and support agents’ activity in one view.
One of the best tools to help you to monitor all stages of your inbound marketing efforts is the HubSpot’s Sources Report Dashboard, which enables you to track how visitors move through your funnel based on how they found your site (e.g., from a link on another site versus from an organic search). This dashboard will allow you to filter and view data based on specific sources, mediums, and campaigns.
The first step to automation success is having the right tools and marketing dashboard software at your disposal to assist you.
Databox has everything you need to streamline agency reporting. This end-to-end data visualization platform makes it easy for agency owners and business executives to connect their client’s data, visualize it in one place, build dashboards and reports, customize them in real-time, and serve their clients with personalized analytics that look great and perform smoothly on any device.
At the end of the day, automating your reporting setup is really a question of saving time. And if you ever want to scale your business goals, you’re going to need as much of it as you can get. Take a look at some of the major benefits that Databox can offer for your business and see for yourself how making a small investment today will pay off in the future.
Sign up for free today to automate your reporting processes.
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At Databox, we’re obsessed with helping companies more easily monitor, analyze, and report their results. Whether it’s the resources we put into building and maintaining integrations with 100+ popular marketing tools, enabling customizability of charts, dashboards, and reports, or building functionality to make analysis, benchmarking, and forecasting easier, we’re constantly trying to find ways to help our customers save time and deliver better results.
Grew up as a Copywriter. Evolved into the Content creator. Somewhere in between, I fell in love with numbers that can portray the world as well as words or pictures. A naive thinker who believes that the creative economy is the most powerful force in the world!
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