As marketing communications pros prepare reporting results, questions swirl. What numbers matter? What story am I trying to tell? Was this campaign successful? How will I explain what happened? What can we learn?
While reporting can seem like a challenge, it doesn’t have to be if you use the many tools at your disposal. One tool Stratacomm uses is Google Data Studio. While you still need to determine what story you want to tell and what numbers matter from your campaign (more on that here), Data Studio can easily help you display and explain how the campaign was successful. Here are four benefits to using the platform.
1. The result is heavily visual and easily digestible.
No matter how complex your data points are, the report in Data Studio is always going to be visual and understandable for viewers. Through Data Studio, you can make everything from pivot tables to pie charts. Even little blocks called “scorecards” make single numbers come alive and stand out. Data Studio also allows you to add text wherever you’d like to provide context and analysis of your campaign alongside the visual representations of your success. Below is an example of how you can make your metrics come alive visually with Data Studio.
2. Your report will always be saved.
I’ve always had the fear of documents not saving properly and then losing hours of work. With Data Studio, that’s never a worry. Since the platform is like Google Drive, it automatically saves your work whenever changes are made and allows you to see version histories if you need to go back to a different layout. This takes away the stress of potentially losing a lot of tedious work and allows you to pick the report up and put it back down as you have time to work on it throughout the day with ease.
3. You can collaborate with others.
Find yourself needing input from others to provide the full picture within your report and worried about version control? Data Studio solves that problem for you. With this platform, you can invite others to collaborate through a link and all updates can be seen in real time. You’ll never have to worry about multiple versions floating around again!
4. Clients love it.
The arguably biggest benefit to using Data Studio is that your clients will love the reports they receive from the platform. As we’ve transitioned into using Data Studio more and more for client reports, the feedback we’ve received is all positive. Clients appreciate the ability to quickly check out the visuals and immediately have an idea of campaign success. Another fun part that clients enjoy is the interactive link you can include alongside the PDF version of the report. Viewers can hover over the graphs and other visuals to get more detailed numbers. It’s a great feature for the client who wants to know the nitty gritty details of the campaign’s success.
Reporting doesn’t have to be a daunting or intimidating task. With the help of tools like Data Studio and their many benefits, you’ll be well on your way to becoming a reporting master.
Amber Garnett is an account executive in Stratacomm’s D.C. office. She works on a variety of transportation and infrastructure clients, heavily focusing on social media, digital strategies and reporting. Wondering what to post on social media for fall? Check out Amber’s “Four Fall Tips for Social Content Creation.”