Many agencies struggle to create digestible reports for their marketing clients. It’s not that they are hurting for data – there are hundreds of data points in the arsenal. Too many agencies revert to pulling all the available data and sending it over to their clients each month. One Google expert has referred to this as “data puking”. (Avinash Kaushik)

At BringShare, We Call It Over Reporting

Over reporting is identified by the inclusion of data that isn’t absolutely necessary to fulfill the purpose of the client’s monthly or annual report. And it’s a quickly formed habit that wastes the time of both agencies and clients while causing more harm than good.

It’s a hard habit to kick

To fix over reporting, we have to understand why over reporting happens. The standard reasons typically include:

• Wanting clients to know that the agency team is working hard on their behalf

• Forgetting that clients typically don’t care about viewing the extremely detailed level of data that the agency experts care about

• Having no clearly established purpose for the reporting process

Over Reporting Has Consequences

The effects of over reporting can be far reaching. Clients may quickly learn to ignore reports making the valuable time spent creating them useless.

For the agency, this is wasted time that could be used to study the market, deploy new tactics, or improve upon current strategies. For the client, this builds frustration and might even increase suspicion – creating a wedge in the agency/client relationship.

Over Reporting Can Be Fixed

The great news is that there is a much better way to approach monthly reporting - by focusing on what the client needs. At BringShare, we call this Purposeful Reporting.

Purposeful reports are up-front and clear about what the client will learn, specific about what marketing elements will be covered, and precise about how much information the client will be given. They get rid of all the filler data, focusing solely on the critical data the client needs to know. What’s more – this style of reporting encourages agencies to create the report with the client in mind – rather than spewing out vast amounts of data.

Find out how to create a purpose-filled report by checking out our latest slideshare:

 

Purposeful Reporting Has Real Benefits

Rethinking your approach to monthly or annual reporting could pay huge dividends for your agency. By creating reports that are focused on the needs of your client (rather than on the need to prove oneself), you will:

• Show progress toward overall marketing goals

• Identify trends and insights the client will care about

• Earn your client’s trust and loyalty

• Save valuable time that can be used to deploy new tactics

By focusing on what the client needs to know, agencies can create relevant reports that tell a business-impacting story about their marketing efforts.

And That’s What Agencies AND Client’s Care About Most.