What Is a Marketing Dashboard?

A marketing dashboard is a brief, detailed compilation of all of the pertinent data about a company's marketing efforts. In the past, companies had to compile this information by hand, but now all of the useful information can be included on a single computer page. The page that contains a marketing dashboard may also include links which can show the user all of the data on a specific marketing area. All of this information about past performance ideally will show marketers how to proceed with future marketing campaigns.

One of the most difficult problems that marketers face is how to parse through all of the information afforded them by modern technology. Whether this information comes from customer surveys or it is driven by more intricate computer models designed to judge how well a marketing campaign reaches its goal, all of it taken together can be overwhelming. Deciding which bits of information are important and which are relatively trivial can make the difference between efficient marketing and waste. Creating a marketing dashboard might be the best way to solve this problem.

It is important to understand that there are many ways for a company to go about constructing a marketing dashboard. As a matter of fact, doing so may require a great deal of trial and error until a company settles on a formula that works for them. This formula should not only show marketing efforts and the result of those efforts, but it should also do so in a clear and concise manner with a design that is easy to use and understand.

The structure of a marketing dashboard usually includes a main page that provides all of the most pertinent information. This data may include the results of past campaigns in terms of return on investment from sales revenue of the products being advertised. It may also include customer-based data like brand recognition or customer satisfaction levels with specific marketing efforts.

From this main page, a marketing dashboard can be broken down into many smaller areas which allow for much closer inspection and study. For example, one link might lead to a page showing the effectiveness of television advertisements run by a company in comparison with radio or print advertisements. Another might show the company's efficiency in their marketing efforts. The basic structure should allow the main page of the dashboard to show the highlights of the marketing data, while the links give a more complete picture of all marketing areas.