If you’re like many marketers, defending your budget to the C-suite can feel like answering a pop quiz on a book you forgot to read…in Greek. First of all, executives don’t care about “soft” metrics like brand awareness, impressions, or followers on social media — even though those metrics help marketers improve performance, your CEO is more concerned with pipeline, revenue, and profit. They’re asking questions like:
- How much faster are we growing now vs. last quarter, or 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?
In short, they’re looking for robust reporting and metrics — and you should be too. If you can’t draw the connection between your marketing and the bottom line, it’s nearly impossible to defend your budget. But it’s not just about securing next quarter’s marketing spend. If you can’t answer those questions, it’s also difficult to test and improve your performance.
To help marketers confidently answer questions from the C-suite, and continually refine their strategies, we’ve compiled our most essential marketing reports in one place — The Essential 8: Top Reports That Every Marketer Needs. Here’s a brief rundown of our essential eight, but be sure to download the ebook for a full explanation (and examples!).
