Should you switch to automated marketing reports?

Every successful business owner, manager or marketer will tell you that marketing reports are priceless. While their value and importance are quite well known, many companies use different types of marketing reports to present the data important for their future. In this text, we’re going to look at the benefits of automated marketing reports in comparison with previous, old-fashioned ones.

Defining the Term

Let’s start by establishing what marketing report automation is. Those working in marketing have to submit regular reports to their clients. In these reports, they need to show how much of ROI has been achieved. Until not so long ago, such reports were done manually, but there is now an option to automate the process, which is great news for those who want to keep track of KPIs, website performance, SEO strategies, social media and Google Ads campaigns, etc.

How Does it Work?

The automated reporting system works by pulling data from your client’s various marketing channels and platforms. These might include your client’s website, Google Ads, Facebook, and other social media channels. The aggregated data are then converted into a monthly (or weekly, or half-monthly) report. Both you and your client can receive weekly updates in your inbox, allowing you to monitor things in between reporting periods. The system also allows you to deliver your agency analytics to a precise schedule (the same day every month, for example).

Why Should you use it?

There are numerous benefits you can reap from automated marketing reports. To begin with, it saves time and money, because state-of-the-art reporting software pulls and aggregates data and organizes them into a comprehensive and attractive report. That saves countless man hours. That means you don’t need to pay an employee to do this task and the savings can be substantial, especially if you have many clients. Also, saving time helps your team better meet deadlines, whether report-related or otherwise.

Better Communication

While those in favor of manually produced reports claim that automation deprives clients of personalization, this is simply not true. Report automation gives you a much greater level of accuracy and precision, almost entirely eliminating error and with very sophisticated and have customisable features, you’ll lose no benefits of a person-crafted report. Such customisable features typically include comments, e-mail messages, notes, appearance and more. 

Boosting Employee Happiness

We know how important it is to have satisfied and happy workers. They are more motived and, hence, more productive. If they see that a task they don’t see as particularly rewarding can be completed much more quickly and precisely, they’ll be readier to perform higher-value tasks. Without having to produce reports manually, employees will also be able to focus their creativity and problem-solving skills on strategy and campaigns. 

Increased Customer Satisfaction

Automation impresses clients with its accuracy and precision of results. Also, it eliminates the option of falsifying them, which means that both the transparency and reliability of agency analytics are increased. Such benefits should be stressed to clients to assure them you are compliant with report automation best practices. They are likely to be impressed and have loyalty towards your brand.

Streamlining In-house Processes

One of the first benefits we mentioned was related to saving money and time. Namely, report automation helps you streamline in-house processes, gives you the advantage of seeing and handling all your client’s reporting in one place. Consequently, you’ll also improve your company’s ROI.

Other Advantages

Unlike manually created marketing reports, automated ones are online, which means they get updated automatically. This allows you to simply send a link to your client that allows them to consult their updated data anytime, day or night. Next, there is the design of the report, which is also an important factor. A catchy report design makes it possible for everyone to find the information they’re looking for. The fact that automated reports can be easily customized is a great advantage, which allows you to sell your results in a report a lot more easily.

Final Remarks

If you’re not using automated marketing reports, but would like to give them a chance, we’ve got some great news. To begin with, there are many tools out there offering a range of options. Since you probably don’t need all those options, find a tool that includes those you’re interested in. Next, use the offer that comes with most automated tools to try them first. Typically, you can test a tool free of charge for 15 days, which is enough time to make sure you like it and that it integrates well with all your data.

These are the main advantages of using or switching to automated marketing reports. As you can see, the benefits are not only numerous, but also substantial. With the time and money saved, you’ll be able to allocate the resources you used for creating reports. In a nutshell, this is a shrewd investment that can not only attract new clients and thus improve your ROI, but also make your business operations smoother.