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This is an extract from a White Paper, “Top 5 best practices for creating effective campaign dashboards and the 7 mistakes you don’t want to make” by Tableau Software.

1. Starting off with too much complexity.
   It’s easy to get overly ambitious and want to provide highly detailed, real-time dashboards covering each and every marketing challenge that also allow users to customize in multiple dimensions. But instead of spending multiple weeks or even months working through your first iteration, you’ll be better off working through several short cycles of prototype, test and adjust.
2. Using metrics no one understands.
   Your marketing metrics are probably so familiar to you that even something as simple as “conversion rate” seems obvious in its definition. But the reality is, your dashboard needs to use metrics or concepts that your broader audience understands.
3. Cluttering the dashboard with unimportant graphics and unintelligible widgets.
   Keep your dashboard simple in its visual appeal. Resist the temptation to make your dashboard too flashy or over-designed, with gauge-like graphics and widgets. As pretty as those may seem, they get in the way with your dashboard’s objective: rapidly and easily informing your audience.
4. Waiting for complex technology and big BI deployment projects.
   Sure, some of traditional Business Intelligence tools provide fancy capabilities that are nice to have. But marketing departments are often on the bottom of the IT priority list so waiting for the BI project to materialize may mean months or years of delay. Fortunately, there are dashboard tools and strategies that can get you going now. Continue reading →