Transparency and the Essential Art of Reporting

At Bolder & Co. Creative Studios, we understand it takes an enormous leap of faith for a business owner to entrust their brand and budget to an external marketing firm. And word on the street is that such trust isn’t always well rewarded. That’s why we make transparency a cornerstone of all our client relationships. Our approach is simple: we develop the marketing strategy, we implement the marketing strategy, and then we report on the marketing strategy.

And while each step is essential, many agencies either never bother with the reporting part or only share results on an infrequent basis. So how does a client know if their marketing investment is paying off? And if it’s not, how does the agency know when to course correct?

The fact is, there is really no excuse for failing to gather data and share marketing outcomes. The tools are readily available and are extremely effective at showing the big picture stuff (Are we getting sales leads from our efforts?) as well as the little picture stuff (What messaging is getting the most engagement?). As marketers, we can get super granular, viewing and analyzing daily results to stay on top of what is working and adjust the strategy for what isn’t. But for customers, we’ve found that monthly reports hit the sweet spot, giving enough data to provide an overview of successes, challenges, and opportunities.

Here's an example of the kind of report we deliver every month to our marketing clients along with our analysis of what it all means.

In an ideal partnership, our clients offer transparency right back, sharing information about their customer growth and sales leads so that together, we can continue to evolve or expand our marketing efforts. Or dial them back, as was the case in one wildly successful marketing campaign where a client had gotten more sales leads than they could handle.

“We have worked with many marketing companies during our 25 years in business and most of the time we’ve been disappointed. It was all talk, no results, and, honestly, a big waste of money. But Bolder is different. They’ve captured the attention of many hard-to-reach potential customers and have moved our sales efforts years ahead in just a matter of months.”
– Steve Staub, President, Staub Manufacturing Solutions

Successful marketing is a formula: get the right message to the right people at the right time. But figuring out what defines “right” can be more art than science. As a creative marketing agency, our job is to use our professional expertise to develop the right combination of all three categories. Often, we nail it right out of the gate but sometimes, it takes a little finessing. What’s more, marketing strategies can and should evolve over time. The only way to add science to the art is to track, report, regroup, repeat.

Think of it this way. Would you entrust your retirement portfolio to a financial planner who doesn’t provide monthly statements on how your investments are performing? And if they’re truly dedicated to your financial well-being, wouldn’t you expect them to talk through how your results are aligning with your goals, and if they’re not, collaborate on a plan to get you on track?

Here's the skinny: If your marketing agency isn’t giving you the results you’re looking for, or worse, they’re not even sharing results, it’s time to get Bolder.