Practices agencies should avoid when reporting digital marketing performance to clients, and tips for how to get it right. Learn how Avarice, Lust, Gluttony, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, and Pride sometimes get in the way of how you report to your clients and how it can be deadly to the agency/client relationship. This was formatted from a guest post originally published on the Smart Insights blog.

1. Kieran Wilson,
Digital Marketing Manager

2. DEADLY REPORTING SIN #1

3. AVARICE: A SIN OF EXCESS (aka Greed)
Guilt Indicators:
² Consistently sending clients overly comprehensive
reports
² Spending too many billable hours on reporting

4. DEADLY REPORTING SIN #2

5. LUST: AN INTENSE DESIRE
Are you seeing what you want to see and then fitting that
fantasy into your own desires? An unsexy move when it
comes to client reporting….
Guilt Indicators:
² Fudging numbers
² Sugar-coating insights
² Ignoring negative results

6. DEADLY REPORTING SIN #3

7. GLUTTONY: OVER-INDULGENCE/OVER-CONSUMPTION
Ever sent a dashboard to a client? You’re helping clients pig out on chart junk.
Like junk food, dashboards are easy to consume and filled with empty calories.

8. A picture is not worth 1,000 words. Stories need to be
told, use charts and visualizations to complement
written analysis, not replace it.
Clients are paying you for insight and action.

9. DEADLY REPORTING SIN #4

10. SLOTH: FAILURE TO DO THINGS ONE SHOULD DO
Guilt Indicators:
² Not reporting to your clients
² Not using insights to inform strategy
² You don’t: Test, Measure, Optimize
Don’t. Be. Lazy.

11. DEADLY REPORTING SIN #5

12. WRATH: INORDINATE FEELINGS OF HATRED/ANGER
Reporting can suck sometimes
– but don’t resent the
reporting process or, even
worse, your client.

13. DEADLY REPORTING SIN #6

14. ENVY: AN INSATIABLE DESIRE; JEALOUSY
Competitor analysis is necessary. Keep tabs on the competition, but
don’t assume what works for them with work for you.
Guilt Indicators:
² Not using data to drive action
² Letting competitors’ marketing
activities dictate your own

15. DEADLY REPORTING SIN #7

16. PRIDE: EXCESSIVE ADMIRATION OF ONE’S SELF
You may think you know it all and that your reports
can show it all…
…But this is digital marketing. There is always
more to learn.

17. 7 Deadly Sins of Client Reporting for Digital Marketing
is published in full on the Smart Insights blog.
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