Customer Analytics and Marketing Dashboards - The Gift that Keeps on Giving
The session on marketing dashboards was in full swing when I walked in about two minutes late. Not only was the moderator well into things, but the room was jam-packed. Luckily, I was able to find a seat because it ended up being standing room only. I had high expectations for this session. As an analyst my job is to find better ways to bring context to data - so this session was the one I was looking forward to the most, and I was not disappointed. You may be wonderng what a marketing dashboard is, and the simplest answer is that a marketing dashboard is like the dashboard on your car. It gives you all the information you need to make an informed decision without having to take your eyes off the road very long, as one of the panelists described it. Marketing dashboards provide high-level data that allows people to make decisions without spending hours pouring through data.
Moderator Stephen DiMarco deftly moved from introduced the session and challenged the panelist to answer these “silver bullets” about marketing dashboards:
1. What are the defining elements of the best dashboards?
2. How do you get people to take action on the information?
3. How do you balance insight with overload?
4. Where do I find the best data?
All four panelists handled things with aplomb. My usual complaint of speakers just reading PowerPoint presentations was not even the slightest issue here. Susan Chiu, Associate Director of Analytics for Modem Media, was the first speaker. She deftly wrapped her presentation in a movie metaphor that was carried through her entire presentation. She began by telling us, “metrics are like movies,” and then told us how. What could have been as disastrous as the Titanic - turned out to work as well as the film of the same name that she used as her through-line for the presentation. Each type of metric was a different character, and she illustrated how they need to work together. One of my biggest take-aways was the difference between operational metrics and success metrics. I’ve never considered click-through rates to be a measure of success, and neither does Ms. Chiu, and now I can explain why. While Ms. Chiu’s presentation was not specifically on marketing dashboards, the review of metrics and analytics and approach to applying them was a great setup for what to look for in a dashboard.
Next up was Dawn Hepper, Interactive Director for Carlson Hotels. I work with a lot of hotels, so I was keenly interested in what Ms. Hepper had to say. She started out by walking us through her “dashboard philosophy,” which is comprised of these five elements:
1. Make it Quick,
2. Make it Actionable,
3. Include Competitive Data,
4. Be Consistent, and
5. Communicate and Educate.
In a nutshell, her dashboard needs to answer the question, “are we doing a good job driving qualified people to our websites.” This brings up an important point. Much of the focus of the presentations was focused on Internet and online metrics, which are much easier and more reliable to track than offline. When asked for an example of a tangible action taken from the information gleaned from her company’s marketing dashboard, Ms. Hepper explained at the new booking engine for Carlson Hotels was directly based on information gained from both their own sites and competitive data which is available through the dashboard.
Darren Beck, Lending Tree, and Molly Walker, The St. Joe Company, rounded out this strong panel. Both shared excellent examples of how they make use of marketing dashboards and a variety of and a variety of analytic techniques. A couple of points that stood out were the importance of competitor tracking, and Mr. Beck provided several companies that can help with this, and the importance of balancing effort maintain dashboards with the goals. Ms. Walker gave a great example of how her company uses weekly, monthly, and quarterly dashboard-style reports to inform different internal audiences.
This panel made the day worthwhile. They were knowledgeable and able to express that knowledge in a compelling and engaging way. Moderator Stephen DiMarco is to be commended for his handling of things. He was an asset to the session, which is not always the case. The “silver bullet” list he posed to the panel at the beginning set the tone, and the panelists did a fine job of answering each point. I did leave with a better understanding of the importance of marketing dashboards, and concrete ideas about how to improve my own dashboard-style reports, as well as leads to follow for vendors and other resources.
