3 Features of best-in-class retainer reporting

Laura: So Phil, at Bespoke we've been dealing with clients' marketing retainers for over 20 years and in that time, we've learned something about the reporting and the best ways to report - the best-in-class reporting on marketing retainers. So, do you want to give us some insights into what makes that best-in-class reporting?

Phil: Yeah, I think the headline with reporting is less is more. I think the temptation when reporting is done badly is to produce lots and lots and lots of layers of detail, perhaps at task level, to almost justify the work that's been done. When in fact, what we really need to do is go back to the business and commercial goals that were set at the outset, really clear ones, and just report at a simpler level at a, perhaps just three or four key metrics that indicate that we've achieved or met those goals.

Laura: So really driving an outcome based report as opposed to a task?

Phil: Exactly yeah, so it's all about outcomes. I mean, if we get to the point where we are discussing the position of a particular keyword or layers and layers of data on, perhaps social media likes or, you know, engagement on that level, we've already got it wrong, you know. We should be looking at ‘have we achieved a lead goal linked to a commercial outcome?’ And is that giving a great return for the client for the services that they've engaged us for?

Laura: Yeah and what about the delivery of the reports? How's it best to do that?

Phil: That's a good point actually, because I think, let’s look at the worst way of doing it. If it's done really badly, you've got layers and layers of waffly detail delivered into someone's inbox, with no context- disaster. The best way of doing it, clearly, is a face-to-face, we always do a face-to-face meeting. So if we've got really succinct metrics linked to outcomes, delivered face-to-face, there's a couple of thing there. One is that a report that's delivered into someone's inbox is just simply looking back, whereas reporting should be looking at what we've achieved and perhaps how we'd pivot or tweak that going forward, so we're looking ahead and we can do that in a face-to-face meeting.

Laura: Yeah, letting the report drive new outcomes and new objectives.

Phil: Yeah, because we're not going to achieve every result every time, and that means we've got to continue to adapt and tweak the strategy to get that outcome, and we can only do that by looking at the data that we've achieved and then making changes based on that. So that's looking ahead.

Laura: Yeah, those data-driven decisions. So if you was to offer up some sort of little nugget of value or little nugget, a key insight to really help someone deliver those best-in-class reports, what would that be?

Phil: Well it would be to be really clear on focusing on the business goals, spend less time pulling masses of less meaningful data together for reporting, and spend more time actually achieving the result. Achieving the result for the business and making sure that we're always taking that data that we've gathered and how that's going to drive decisions and changes to make further improvements looking ahead.

Laura: Brilliant.