3 Reports Your Marketing Team Will Love

Editor’s note: This is one of our most popular posts, so we’ve updated it with the latest information and resources.

Salesforce can be a powerful reporting tool for marketers tracking potential customer interactions and activity. In fact, setting up a basic Marketing Dashboard is a great way to learn the basics about how to use the Salesforce Reports & Dashboards really quickly. Let’s walk through, step-by-step, how to create a great Marketing Dashboard in just a few minutes.

Report #1: Incoming Leads Over Time

Let’s say your marketing partner wants to know that the quantity and quality of incoming leads are on track. She wants to see how her marketing efforts are impacting incoming business. Did the December holiday campaigns bring in as many people as the spring break campaigns? Marketers want to make sure that lead generation is consistent over time, and to account for seasonal dips or industry-specific dips. Perhaps she can add an extra campaign for slow months, or warn the sales team that lead generation will slow down. To see this data, we need to create a report tracking incoming leads over time.

Steps:

1. Open the Reports tab, and click New Report. Select the Leads object, leave the second option as Leads, then click Continue.
2. Edit the report filters to show All Leads, and change the date filter to All Time in order to populate the report. Click Refresh.
3. Add the Create Date field to the Columns, then hit refresh.
4. Next, type “Created Month” into the Group Rows box, and hit refresh.
5. Finally, click Save & Run.

Now let’s see what this report looks like in a chart as we start to build our Marketing Dashboard.

1. Click the Dashboard tab in the navigation menu, then select New Dashboard.
2. Click the + Component button. Select the Incoming Leads by Month report you just created.
3. Click the edit icon on the chart, and change the format to line chart. This will allow us to see the trends over time. Don’t forget to save your new dashboard!

Report #2: Leads Conversion

Now that your marketing partner can see how many leads marketing efforts are bringing in over time, she wants to measure the quality of those leads. Are her team’s marketing efforts actually bringing in new customers? She can evaluate this by tracking how leads are moving down the sales cycle, which gives her an idea of how the marketing and sales teams are performing. To do this in Salesforce, we can create a report on Lead Status field.

Steps:

1. Open the Reports tab, and click New Report. Select the Leads object, leave the second option as Leads, then click Continue.
2. Edit the report filters to show All Leads, and change the date filter to All Time in order to populate the report. Click Refresh.
3. Add the Lead Status field to the Columns, then hit refresh.
4. Next, type “Lead Status” into the Group Rows box, and hit refresh.
5. Click Add Filter. Select Lead Status not equal to Closed Not Converted. This prevents us from seeing dead leads.
6. Hit refresh, then click Save & Run.

Now let’s see this in chart form on our Marketing Dashboard.

1. Click the Dashboards tab in the navigation menu, then select the Marketing Dashboard, and Edit.
2. Click + Component and choose the Leads by Status report you just created.
3. Change the chart type to funnel, then click Add. Save the dashboard.

Report #3: Expected Revenue by Lead Source

Steps:

1. Open the Reports tab, and click New Report. Select the Opportunities object, leave the second option as Opportunities, then click Continue.
2. Edit the report filters to show All Opportunities, and change the Close Date filter to All Time in order to populate the report. Click Refresh.
3. Next, type “Lead Source” into the Group Rows box, and hit refresh.
4. Find the Expected Revenue field column, click the drop-down menu to select Summarize, and then select the Sum checkbox. Refresh the report.
5. Finally, click Save & Run.

Now let’s see this data in a donut chart.

1. Click the Dashboards tab in the navigation menu, select the Marketing Dashboard, then Edit.
2. Click the + Component button, and choose the Expected Revenue by Lead Source report.
3. Change the format to a donut chart, and click Add. Save the dashboard.

Now you can move around and resize the charts on the dashboard to display the data in the best way possible using drag & drop. Don’t forget to save.

Look at that beautiful Marketing Dashboard! Now you can share this with your marketing partner, and she’ll be amazed by how quickly you built it. You can even add it to her homepage so she sees it when she logs in to Salesforce every day on her computer or mobile device. She’ll be so thrilled that she’ll ask you for more insights since she knows what you are capable of doing as an #AwesomeAdmin!

Want to learn more about Reports & Dashboards? Check out these great resources:

• Resource Page: Analytics
• Trailhead module: Reports & Dashboards for Lightning Experience
• Salesforce Help doc: Build a Report in Lightning Experience
• TrailheaDX video: Build Reports Lightning Fast!