Saturday, December 7, 2019

Marketing Reporting- Top 5 Templates for Digital Marketers



Everyone has to make marketing reports at some point in their professional lives. Making reports isn’t glamorous, but it is a very necessary part of business management. For small businesses, a solid reporting system can make or break strategy implementation. There is no doubt that businesses need to create reports on a regular basis—for every level of management, and across departments. Your report needs to have an attractive layout and strong design choices, so your employees, managers, customers, or stakeholders will engage with it.

But how do you create a marketing report that people will actually read?

You have the option of hiring a graphic designer or investing in software that will create beautiful reports for you. But, if you want to save money and time, you should be looking at using a marketing report generator that offers you templates. Templates are highly customizable, extremely attractive, and flexible to use. A marketing report template will allow you to visualize KPIs, create process charts, and incorporate graphics. All of which make for exciting and engaging reports that will effectively share your information. Additionally, templates can be easily reused for a number of different needs.

We share five report templates below that you can use to create excellent marketing reports for your company.
Project Status Template
Content marketing focuses on campaigns and projects that have varying durations, with multiple deliverables. They also involve a number of people—not just the marketing team, but external parties, as well. To keep track of what has been accomplished in a campaign, what roadblocks have started appearing, and what remains to be completed, a project status report template is an ideal choice for your marketing report.

In the below example of a project status report, you can include an overview of the campaign you are working on and the elements that have been accomplished.


















The simple icons explain clearly what aspects of the project have been possible to execute. On the second page, you can include more details of the project, including planned dates for completing each task, along with the actual completion dates. This system allows the report maker to accurately flag any problems with reaching deadlines. You can also highlight upcoming tasks that remain incomplete and outline next steps.

With a project status report, you can easily summarize your tasks, and the progress made in achieving them. The template can be updated on a regular basis—weekly, monthly, quarterly—depending on your project’s needs. This report gives you a quick and easy-to-absorb snapshot of a campaign that leaves nothing to the imagination. 

Competitor Analysis Template
Whether you are a startup or a business that is expanding into new territory, a competitor analysis report is necessary for making your mark in your industry. However, competitor analysis can be a complicated process, which is why marketers need a convenient tool like a report template.

The competitor analysis template below includes an overview of your competitor’s products and services, the objectives you are aiming for, a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), as well as important statistics about your competitor that will inform your marketing strategy.
 
This clean competitor analysis template is easy to read, packs in a large amount of information, and uses a combination of icons and data flow diagrams to convey your message to readers.

Case Studies TemplateCase studies are an intrinsic part of most business models. Particularly for the marketing department, case studies are an excellent way of analyzing past campaigns and projects. Case studies need to tell a story, with an overview of your company or project, as well as the team members who played an important part in the campaign. There also needs to be a summary of the findings and a conclusion.A case study report needs to encompass a great deal, while putting an emphasis on the key takeaways from an event or campaign.

A template, like the below example, will help you make it more engaging.


The front page has enough space to create a narrative for this fictional social media case study report. The second page outlines the approach and the conclusion, including important statistics. A case study report template succinctly provides an overview of your campaign or project, and shares your findings in a coherent manner.

Market Research Template
Market research is an important part of marketing. You need to know what is happening in the current environment, not just so that you remain on trend, but also for you to improve your strategies, and to grow your rankings. It is also imperative for understanding what your consumer base needs and why, so you are assured of customer loyalty. Once you have collated all your research information, through surveys and by studying focus groups, you will need to put the information together in a comprehensive report with clear next steps and guidelines.  A market research report template, like the below example, will help you do that.

The above market research report from a fictional smartwatch company looks at current industry trends, analyzes competitors, looks at what is driving the market, outlines user personas, and concludes with the company’s next steps.

With a combination of colors, icons, images, and graphs, the market research report template successfully shares a great deal of information in simple yet attractive terms.  No more will you need to worry about the top boss or manager deciding to undertake a new project on a whim—this concise report will share just the facts and keep your marketing strategy on track. 

Annual Report TemplateOne of the most important kinds of reports that all companies need, across all departments, is the annual report. More than any other kind of report, the annual report needs to pack in a significant amount of information. It is essentially your one-stop-shop for everything to do with your company over the past year.Additionally, the annual report is a document that is often shared with external stakeholders, which means it needs to include more than just a cursory amount of information about your company.

The annual report design needs to give readers a summary of the company’s activities, mission statement, growth, status of the company capital, stock details, successes, and learnings. That is a lot but all of it has to be included and it needs to look inviting to your readers. You can put the information together beforehand and use a visually appealing annual report template, like the below example, to do the job of keeping your readers engaged.

The annual report above has clearly demarcated sections that can easily be absorbed at a glance. The modern design is not only readable, but attractive enough for people to want to keep a copy in their home. Additionally, the multiple graphs condense the year’s data into bite-sized pieces of information that can be easily shared.

A strong annual report template not only makes it easier to input the data and information you have gleaned over the past year, but also ensures that your readers will gather what you are trying to say.
Conclusion

Using a template to create your reports will make it easier to produce reports on a consistent basis. There are a few things to keep in mind while using templates, however. You should always incorporate your branding first, such as your logo, fonts, and color palette. Keep the information precise and clear, instead of crowding the template you have. And always focus on the functionality of a template, rather than how attractive it is. Use icons, colors, visuals, and text to support your information, not hide it.

With those points in mind, and a host of templates to choose from, you will be making marketing reports easily from now on.

All report templates provided by Venngage.

Ronita Mohan is a content marketer at Venngage, the online infographic and design platform. Ronita is interested in a variety of topics related to digital marketing, visual content, and online engagement, which she enjoys researching and writing about.

Twitter: @Venngage

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