Data Overload? Consider These 8 Metrics and Reports To Ease Your Load

Overloaded with data? Don't know where to turn for the most relevant, useful information to help achieve your brand's marketing goals? Which metrics to monitor? Which reports to present to the C-suite? Maybe this will help. Earlier this year, Marketo published a report called "The Essential 8: Top Reports That Every Marketer Needs."

The following is an excerpt from the introduction, followed by a list of the 8 reports:

"Marketing suffers from a crisis of credibility. Outside of the marketing department, executives often perceive that marketing exists solely to support sales, or that marketing is an "arts and crafts" function that throws parties and churns out brightly colored brochures.

But this is all starting to change. Technological advances have sparked a shift in the classic buyer's journey - the relationship between brand and buyer is no longer owned by the sales team, but by marketers. Yet the perception of marketing as a "cost center" persists. How can marketers rightfully assert themselves, as drivers of both revenue and profits?

Soft metrics (also known as "vanity" metrics) like brand awareness, impressions, organic search rankings, and reach are important, but only to the extent that they quantifiably connect to hard metrics like pipeline, revenue, and profit. And it's no secret that CEOs and boards don't care about vanity metrics.

So what do they care about? In today's economy, CEOs and CFOs want to hear about growing revenue and profits. They are asking questions like:

• How much faster are we growing now vs. last quarter? What about now vs. last year?
• How much profit was made last quarter vs. last year?
• How much revenue and profit do you forecast for the next quarter?
• How can you trust your answers to the above questions?

To answer those questions with authority, marketers need to:

• Know the impact of each marketing investment
• Forecast results, not spending
• Make a hard business case for spending

In short, reporting and metrics gathering are your new best friends. That's where marketing automation tools with robust reporting capabilities come in. Once you're confidently reporting and tracking your program performance, you can confidently answer questions from the C-suite."

These are the 8 reports:

1. Top-of-funnel lead analysis
2. Middle-of-funnel opportunity analysis
3. Program channel performance
4. Group by vendor/channel for more insights
5. Content program performance
6. Content impact through first-touch and multi-touch analysis
7. Opportunity influence
8. Pipeline to investment