Any digital marketing professional can deliver a report chock full of impressive stats. But simply spouting numbers is not an effective way to show value, nor does it offer guidance to create and refine future strategies.
I take issue with the “data dumping” approach for two reasons:
- First, it’s a little presumptuous. Perhaps not every stakeholder in the room knows what all the numbers represent and decipher whether the outcomes are good or bad. It’s a good way to alienate individuals for whom data is not a strong skill.
- Second, anyone can run a bunch of numbers. But it takes a strategist to figure out how it all plays together, articulate that message to a varied audience, and discover the story that supports ongoing recommendations.
Rather than reciting a bunch of numbers on a slide, we prefer to take the data storytelling approach. While the numbers themselves are the basis, it’s how those numbers are explained and implemented that matters for client stakeholders. Every bit of data we report upon should supplement a need and should guide future recommendations.
How data can supplement a need
Several of our large clients rely on multiple vendors to create and manage lead generation efforts. Each of these vendors delivers reporting on the performance of their various activities. For the client, these reports are glimpses into each vendor’s individual initiatives.
However, when we collate the data from all the reports, we find a unique opportunity to uncover areas of opportunity that the snapshots don’t provide, and we can uncover a story that illustrates the entire picture and allows our clients to refine their strategies to improve processes and increase sales.
In spring 2018, we provided deep insights to a large client by delving deeper into Smartlead data combined with reporting from the client’s other vendors. We found that, using the Smartlead system, the median time from delivery of a lead to a salesperson to examination of that lead was 4.5 hours. That’s very fast!
How data can direct future decisions
Using this same data report, we were able to determine where budget leakage was occurring and how to remedy it down to the macro-level. Lining up all the client’s vendors’ performance stats side by side was the easy part – one vendor clearly was underperforming. But the next step required finding the story behind the data.
We analyzed the quality and conversion rates of all leads. From there, we developed an algorithm to break down the data to determine which geographical areas were hotbeds for both sales and opportunity to convert leads that required further nurturing. The final deliverable to our client was a strategic road map of recommendations to optimize their budgets among vendors and zip code-specific data for sales-qualified leads.
The client was impressed – they’d never had a partner strategize with them on such a level before. And we were excited as well. Our success hinges on our clients’ successes. The better strategic partners we can be for our clients, the more likely we all are to succeed.
If you’re ready to increase sales, connect with me for a free demonstration of how SmartLead can help.