Data Driven : Dashing Toward Data
Improve performance and communication among all departments with weekly multichannel dashboards
November 1, 2011 By Philippe Graner
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The answer is to the point: It’s critical to have all major departments looking at the same set of numbers when evaluating business performance. While the details each department produces may differ, the critical metrics must be identical. If accounting practices used by the individual departments differ for sales, orders, contribution, etc., overall business goals can suffer. A weekly dashboard distributed to all key stakeholders/departments will quickly highlight any discrepancies.
A business may need several dashboards, depending on the marketing channels used. If you have print campaigns, online campaigns and email campaigns, the critical metrics for each can differ significantly. That said, it is important to have grand totals for revenue, orders, gross margin and contribution margin.
The charts (in the mediaplayer to the righ), when combined, form a typical dashboard for a multichannel direct marketing business. To reiterate, it is important to build a dashboard that reflects your industry’s nuances and your company’s overall business goals. Adding critical metrics and removing columns that are not applicable to provide perspective on your business goals should be a priority for any department tasked with producing the weekly dashboard.
It’s assumed that this marketer is running concurrent print, email and PPC marketing campaigns. The plan (forecast) is shown in the charts as a total. It can also be shown for each individual campaign, if necessary. (Note: Various components of what is discussed below may or may not be critical to your particular business. You can substitute in any metrics not mentioned below, and remove metrics that are not applicable.)
I have assumed a 50 percent margin for both dashboards. If applicable, prior year results can also be added.
Print Campaigns
In the case of the print dashboard, it’s important to provide the average of printed pages in the totals. This affects the cost per thousand pages circulated (Cost/M Pgs Circ.’d) calculation. Following are the calculations embedded in the print dashboard:
- RR% (Response Rate Percent) is calculated by dividing your Orders into your Mailed Circ.
- AOV (Average Order Value) is Revenue/Orders.
- Cost/M Pgs Circ.’d is Cost/((Mailed Circ. x Printed Pages)/1,000). This metric provides an equal look at prior year results or against plan if the number of printed pages or the total circulation has changed significantly.
- Mktg. Contribution is (Revenue x Margin)-Cost.
- Contribution per Order is Marketing Contribution/Orders. This metric is useful in determining how hard each order is working toward revenue goals.
Email Campaigns
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