How to Report on Your Marketing Goals

We know the pain that marketing directors feel when it comes time to report to the CEO about marketing goals. What does the boss want to see? What metrics are important? If you have clear, measurable goals, then reporting on those goals should be easy.

Here's a step-by-step for telling the right story with your monthly marketing report:

1. Set a Monthly Meeting

If you don't already have a monthly or quarterly meeting scheduled to present your marketing stats with the boss, then it's time to do it.

A monthly meeting is a great way to update everyone about the marketing work that has been done for the month, what's coming up next, what worked and what needs to be improved.

It also gives you the opportunity to show how your inbound marketing strategy is working. Show off the results of your work and present the business value of marketing.

2. Package Your Presentation

At the end of each month, gather the information you need: pull screenshots from your marketing automation software (like HubSpot) or whatever analytics tools you use to track performance; list projects and campaigns for the month; list upcoming projects and campaigns for the next month; include discussion items that you've been saving for the meeting. 

Review this post about how to create your marketing report. You'll get the basic idea from the template about what needs to go in each section, but this post dives into the details about what to include in the presentation. 

3. Focus on Trends

We always focus on trends (is the arrow going UP, are metrics looking better or worse over the course of the quarter/year?). 

Our reports tend to be about 10-20 pages long. Sometimes we breeze through some of the performance pages, and spend extra time on the Upcoming Projects at the beginning, or perhaps the discussion items at the end might take the most time.

The main thing is to have consistent data to review each month to evaluate activities.

When trends start going in the downward trajectory, it's time to get the bottom of it and turn the ship around. When we don't see those bar charts going UP, then we know it's time to rethink strategy or switch tactics. When you feel like you're getting in the weeds, come back to the big picture:

Visits  ----->  Leads  ----->  Customers

4. Export to PDF

Pass along your report to the board or your boss, whoever wants to see it, by exporting the presentation to a PDF. This gives everyone the chance to review the report before or after the meeting, prepare for questions or add to the agenda.

After you've used this method for a while, you'll start to get the hang of it and tweak your process to fit your organization's particular needs.

I really hope this series has given you a solid foundation for setting marketing goals, putting tactics into practice and reporting on your progress and success.

What's next? We want to hear about your marketing goals and successes! Share away in the comments below.