The 21st century equivalent of gold is data. But without being able to convert data into actionable insights, data can never function as a steering wheel of your activities. A good designed dashboard focuses on the key metrics that truly thrive your business and helps you in converting just a pile of numbers into concrete and valuable business insights. Therefore, you want to make sure your dashboarding is set up correctly and as up-to-date as it could possibly be. Check out our best practices to get the best out of your dashboarding.
Determine your audience
If you want to build an effective dashboard, you’d have to define your audience first. Dashboards are – generally – designed to tell a story, so it’s highly important to define who is listening to that story. A well-designed dashboard links to KPI’s that are relevant to the dashboard user. Example: a social media marketeer will need a dashboard that shows social media metrics. An executive will be better off with a dashboard that summarizes performance metrics so he or she can make informed business decisions
Determine data sources
Your dashboard will be as strong as the quality of your data sources. The saying in dashboard country is: if shit goes in, shit comes out. If you have got different sets of data sources feeding the dashboard, make sure to consolidate them to a single platform. This way you easily measure the performance of your marketing activities.
Determine objectives of your stakeholders
Different marketing dashboards will tell different stories and it’s important to establish the objectives of each dashboard. The goal is to understand your data better: the first step is determining your short- and long- term objectives. It’s important that marketing performance dashboards tell a powerful story that provides a path for immediate action. The goal is to provide insights and connections between various elements of a marketing strategy to discover ROI and opportunities for improvement.
Determine marketing KPI's
It’s incredibly important to understand what strategy to use: it’s even more important to define the right KPI’s based on this strategy. These KPI’s can include marketing performance metrics, such as likes, impressions or clicks, but can also include the marketing impact metrics that tie performance to business goals like conversions, increase in brand value or increase in sales.
