Make Your Reporting Stand Out

It’s July, and that means a lot of things; but in the marketing world, it typically means year-end reporting. This is one of the most important times of the year for reporting – it’s how you show your ROI and prove your worth to clients and stakeholders. It’s a big job!

Providing quality data is only half of the puzzle. The other half is making that data easy to digest. You want your clients to be able to understand and use this information, and it shouldn’t feel like a slog to get through. Read on for a few tips for making that happen:

• Pick your format. Depending on your program’s size and scope, this could range from a microsite to a one-page document to a 24-page printed booklet. In this day and age, you’ll almost always want a digital version (it’s free, easy to share and can be uploaded wherever you want), but sometimes a high-quality printed piece makes sense too. Decide on this early so you can set your formatting accordingly.
• Keep it simple. You might start with a whole page of text as an internal document, but pulling out short snippets and showcasing large numbers along with colorful graphics will make your report much more digestible. This draws the reader’s eyes around the page and keeps them from getting overwhelmed by a ton of data.
• Use a variety of graphic elements. Sometimes a bar or pie chart is the best man for the job, however; if you use too many of the same visual, they start to lose impact. Start with the basic charts you can build in Microsoft Excel (bar, pie, line, scatter, etc.). If you’re comfortable doing something more advanced, you can expand into icons, statistics, bubbles, heat maps and more. Pro tip: White space is also a graphic element!
• Use color. Help those charts pop by adding some bright colors! Assign specific colors to groups or topics and carry this throughout your reporting – it will help label your data while also adding a striking visual element. Start with your brand’s colors and add in others if it makes sense for organizational purposes.
• Proofread! Your last step before sending just about anything should be a thorough proofread to remove any errors or typos. Those little mistakes can really ding your credibility.

Click below for a few examples of these tips: