We all know the drill, getting called in to talk with the CEO and some senior VP because they want to know the “status” of their online marketing efforts. Do they really want to hear about the awesome new social networking tool you are using, or how you streamlined the company’s website increasing click thru rates by 5%? No. They don’t know what any of that means. They want to know if what they have paid out has given them sales in return.
As I’ve said a hundred times before, when you are working with C-level executives, in-house or not, it is all about the data and readable reports. But why spend all of your time stressing over that one meeting wondering what they are going to ask. Why not automate some of those reports to them on a monthly basis so these “surprise” meetings go a little smoother.
Google AdWords does a fantastic job of allowing advertisers to format custom reports and send them to whomever and whenever they wish. The other PPC players do this as well, but not with the same finesse (sorry guys).
Here is how to do it – since I’d rather not bore you with those details. I’d like to leave you with a few things to remember when setting these up.
- Run the report query yourself, have it sent to your email before sending it to them. Sometimes the reports look different when in email versus online.
- Be sure they are sent as an attachment. They should be easily readable and not require a login.
- Work with the IT department to ensure that the emails will arrive in their inbox.
- Don’t send them too often. Your options are once a week and once a month. I’d start with the monthly. We are the only people that care what happens on a daily basis.
Kate Morris is the Director of Client Strategies at New Edge Media. You can find her on her blog or on twitter @katemorris.
