These are a few of my favorite reports
With all due deference to Rogers and Hammerstein and Julie Andrews, raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens have nothing on a good report for me*.
Knowing that this can’t be a one-size-fits-all list because reporting needs will vary for every organization depending on their operational model, database, and staffing (among other things), these are a few of my favorite things.
Time Savers
Sometimes running reports isn’t about doing fancy analysis to maximize your revenue potential. Sometimes it’s just about saving time (so that you have more time to do other things to maximize your revenue potential.) If there are data points you are always spending a lot of time looking up in several different places, maybe this is the time to create a single repository for them. One of my favorite time savers is a list of all your productions or events with your topline sales numbers. Rather than checking individual reports or going into the database every time, a simple spreadsheet with event name, total tickets, and total revenue could be an easy time-saving solution. The key is finding the right balance when determining the level of detail to include. You want enough to make it useful, but not so much that it is no longer a simple, easy-to-use reference. For example, breaking down by category may be useful: subscription tickets, single tickets, education tickets; but including every promo code is too much for this report. Find the thing that always takes too long for you and see if a report can make it easier.
Content Popularity
There are a lot of ways to look at what content is resonating most with your audience. Make sure the ones you are taking the time to track are the most useful for you. Click rates on the individual links in your emails can be more useful than overall click rates for the entire email. On your website, look at how many views different pages are getting, but always put them in context. For example, how does traffic on your summer camp page compare to this same time last year?
On social media, I like to combine two of the standard metrics provided by the platforms’ built-in reporting. When you divide the “average daily reach” by the “average number of daily engaged users”, you’ll get the engagement rate. In other words, of the people that a post reached, how many engaged with it. This provides more context than standard stats on their own. You can either look at this month by month to get trends or dig deeper and look at this at the post level to find your most engaging content.
Database Health
How many of each production’s patrons are new to you? You could compare the answer to industry benchmarks, but perhaps more insight can be gained from making comparisons to other shows in your history. A high number of new patrons may signal that you’re succeeding at reaching new audiences, but if the percentage of new patrons remains high, it could be a signal that you aren’t retaining them and getting patrons to come back for other shows. Also keep an eye on the health of your database. Perhaps these patrons aren’t coming back because you didn’t get their email address and they haven’t been getting your marketing emails. Check what percentage of all the patrons added to your database in the last five years have email addresses, mailing addresses, or phone numbers.
What Works
Knowing which segments of your database responded to a campaign can help you judge the effectiveness of the messaging and help determine the next right step for each group. Instead of using promo codes to measure response, I prefer to compare the list of people who received a mailing (direct mail or email) with the list of people who purchased tickets. It’s not an exact science, but the data is very useful in pointing you in the right direction. You can follow up with segments who are most likely to respond to a second mailing, and you can adjust future strategies, messaging, or offers.
Understanding Your Audience
Patron surveys can help you understand your audience, but so can a simple review of the ZIP codes in your database. A look at which ZIPs, towns, or counties are most represented among your buyers can be particularly useful when determining where to advertise and who to include on your direct mail lists. To take it a step further, you can look at the penetration rate for each ZIP code. By comparing the number of your patrons in a particular area with the total number of households located there, you can tell which areas are particularly likely (or unlikely) to be in your audience.
This is just a sampling, of course. There are heat maps and discount drift reports. You can compare capacity filled by day of the week or phone call wait times. In this era of big data, the possibilities are endless. It can be easy to get overwhelmed. Reporting isn’t a silver bullet, but it can validate your assumptions or challenge you to revisit them, get others on board with your strategy, and ultimately help you make the most of your limited resources.
Start with the questions you know you need answers to and branch out from there to the information you think you could really make an impact. Then look to see what information you’ll need to pull from your database and start putting it all together in reports that have the end-goal in mind.
*Scientific testing has confirmed that warm apple strudel and schnitzel with noodles are better than reports when I’m hungry, but once I’ve eaten, it’s back to the databased and Excel for me. If you need help building or analyzing reports, let me know. I’ll have a snack first and then be ready to jump in!