Our Team gauges success via many methods of reporting.

Five Best Practices for Digital Reporting

Reporting is one of the most valuable components of a digital marketing agency’s relationship with its clients. Agencies must continuously prove the value of their work over and over again to demonstrate how their actions have helped businesses succeed. The members of your agency must not only know how to do their job well, but also how to show clients the results of their work.

Highly effective digital marketing agencies drive relevant, engaging campaigns that show consistent progress and growth through reporting. Preparing reports on a regular basis will help build relationships, educate clients, give proper credit to your efforts, and show transparency. Let’s dive into the five best practices for digital marketing reporting, and prove why certain agencies are reporting rock stars who stand out from the pack!

They Use Reporting to Establish Marketing Credibility and Elevate Their Value

With digital, you can measure anything and everything. However, often it is not what you measure but what you don’t measure that defines your success. As a general rule, you want to over-communicate with clients, especially in the beginning of a relationship, to ensure they are aware of everything you are working on. Reports are an opportunity for regularly scheduled communication that involves not only data to review, but a chance to touch base with a client on a deeper level. A great way to prepare for any client reporting session is to anticipate what questions they may ask regarding the reports.

They Implement Reporting as Part of a Process to Help Clients See Progress

All agencies want to keep their clients happy and demonstrate they’re achieving success. Having a standard reporting process that involves weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly reports makes seeing success crystal clear. If you ever receive questions on progress from a new contact asking how things are going, you can easily refer back to the report and explain the data to them. By fully disclosing online performance, both good and bad, you help to create transparency and good faith between your agency and the client.

They Add Metrics Objectives and Business Goals into Media Proposals

Successful agency reporting rock stars clearly identify the metrics and business goals of each client and ensure they are reflected in all business agreements. Brands are often unsure of what they need to be measuring, so this is an opportunity for agencies to be consultative and make the proper recommendations in their proposals.

They Add Insights to Result Dashboards

Rock star agencies go beyond exporting a report from their analytics tool and sending it to clients. The data is just the start. Advertising agencies have the unique opportunity to not just share metrics but also add analysis and context to the data. Reporting is where account managers and analysts can own their results, get clients excited, and look strategic. Also, consider going beyond sending the report in an email to clients. Spend 30 minutes or an hour reviewing the data and results in real time (in-person or video call), and show how you’re planning to align your program based on the data.

They Encourage Clients to Stick with Metrics Goals

Having a formal reporting process in place can help you prove your value and retain at-risk clients. However, be prepared to adapt, like refreshing and renewing your agreement, as your strategical mix of capabilities may change. Goals for brands change quite often. If the client decides they want to add new metrics to your reporting mix, use this as an opportunity to have a discussion with the client to ensure you’re all aligned on the strategy. Remember, a digital marketing report should break down and outline the performance of each advertising channel they have with you, including traffic, engagement, and conversion.

Digital marketing agencies need to place quality reporting front and center among all of their efforts. Without proper reporting, your work means little to your clients. Regularly creating and reviewing reports will help build trust with clients, which leads to long and mutually beneficial relationships.

Quantifi Digital utilizes digital reporting to maintain client satisfaction and it works! We want to help your agency thrive with clients as well. If you want to learn more about our company or are interested in partnering, visit our page or give us a call!