Are Marketing Dashboards Just About Look And Feel?

Is look and feel the determinant of a great Dashboard?

Well the first dashboards had a very different look and feel (picture of carriage).

They were the wooden or leather boards on the front of the carriage that stopped the mud and stones hitting the driver..

And as the meaning of the word changed car designers worked to achieve a classic look and communicate information effectively

And of course the modern marketing dashboard is nothing if it doesn’t communicate information effectively.

Now look and feel is obviously an important contributor to that… but I’d argue that for any marketing agency your experts
are your greatest differentiator.. The source of the agency’s creativity… the major reason the client picked your agency..

Now your experts gain power from their expertise, and clients want the human connection – not least to answer questions.

So shouldn’t the marketing dashboard for your clients also share the personality and expertise of your people?

How does an Excel spreadsheet do that?

Or a web page full of pretty pie charts?

Of course an obvious answer might be – that’s why we have a monthly meeting…

But how often have you found corporate demands made it impossible for all the people interested in the report to attend.

Deprived of personality your dashboard can become another dry report circulated to the busy executive, so your visibility reduces.

So what kind of content would best share your people’s expertise and get clients excited?

Shouldn’t the meaning and information content of dashboard be changing once again! At least in part to help agencies build better relationships with their clients?