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As a marketer, I like to think of Salesforce Dashboards as the reward for all the hard marketing work, as the results display beautifuly in Salesforce. Using dashboards, it’s possible to have a single view of all the metrics you’ll need to not only monitor results and efficiency, but also to show off at your next board meeting.
The Marketer's Definitive Guide to Salesforce, created by RingLead and RingDNA, looks at ways for marketers to use Salesforce the best ways possible, including dashboards. Here are some insights on Salesforce Dashboards for marketers.
Dashboards are based on Salesforce reports. Once you’ve created all the reports that will be the basis of your dashboards, the critical step is making sure that those reports are updated regularly. If you’ll be looking at your Salesforce dashboards at least daily, then your reports will need to be scheduled to run daily as well so that your dashboards will be up to date.
Of course, entrance/exit pages on your website, share of social voice, and email open rates matter to anyone running a marketing team.
Measure those metrics elsewhere, as they are useful within the context of your marketing operations. But when sharing with the broader team, put yourself in the position of your CEO or board members, and focus only on what they would want to see.
Here is a look at typical marketing metrics and their definitions. This will help you plan which metrics you'll use in your dashboards.
Report |
Objective |
Overall Lead volume |
What is overall lead velocity? |
Lead volume by Channel |
Which channels are producing the most Leads? |
Lead volume by Campaign |
Which campaigns are producing the most Leads? |
Lead to Contact conversion ratio |
How many Leads are sales-qualified? |
Opportunities by Channel |
Which channels are creating the most opportunities? |
Opportunities by Campaign |
Which campaigns are creating the most opportunities? |
Closed won Opportunities by Channel |
Which channels are creating the most sales and revenue? |
Closed won Opportunities by Campaign |
Which campaigns are creating the most sales and revenue? |
If you're looking to do a deeper dive or add more metrics to your marketing mix, consider these.
Report |
Objective |
Number of open Leads |
Is your sales team attending to all incoming Leads? If not, how many are being missed? |
Lead response time |
Is your sales team responding to Leads within five minutes, or at least one hour? How are they responding - by phone, email or other communication channel? |
Call Ratings |
Which inbound market ing channels are driving the best calls? |
Deal competitors - total Opportunities |
Which competitors is your sales team coming up against again and again? |
Deal competitors - closed/won Opportunities |
Which competitors are you consistently winning deals against? |
Deal competitors - closed/lost Opportunities |
Which competitors are you consistently losing to? |
Salesforce dashboard pages are typically three columns, with each column designated for a general type of activity or time line. Here’s an example:
Left - Current Activities |
Center - Current Results |
Right - Long-Term |
Total Lead volume, past 30 days |
Closed/won Opportunities by Channel, current month |
Month-over-month Lead volume Past 6 months |
Leads by Campaigns, past 30 days |
Closed/won opportunities by Campaign, current month |
Closed/won opportunities by Campaign, past 6 months |
Leads by Channel, past 30 days |
Lead to Contact conversion ratio, current month |
Closed/won opportunities by Channel, past 6 months |
What other metrics or dashboards do you like to use? Add your thoughts in the comments below.
Amanda Nelson is Director of Marketing at RingLead where she leads the content marketing strategy and execution. She has spent the last three years in content marketing and community management at salesforce.com and Radian6, and has a background in account management for interactive and full service advertising agencies. Follow her on Twitter at @amandalnelson.
