Rather than scurrying from place to place in the app trying to piece together the important data you need to effectively run your business, why not have it readily available each time you log in?
Your Infusionsoft dashboard can serve as your command center – a place where you view the key performance indicators (KPIs) for your business that are relative to what’s happening within your Infusionsoft app. It allows you to quickly see stats, lists and report data based on your specified criteria.
I’ve created a list of common stats and reports that my consulting clients find most useful. You can download it here and use it to set up your own dashboard and share with other users to help them set up the same stats and reports on their dashboard.
Depending on what data is important to you, you have a few options for setting up a basic dashboard in Infusionsoft:
Use the pre-built dashboard widgets to quickly take advantage of what Infusionsoft has already created for you. They include:
- All Email Stats – This widget shows you open and click rates and few other helpful stats about the emails you’re sending out. This one is a MUST HAVE.
- Recent Activity – This shows you who has recently opened an email, clicked a link, opted-out, reported spam, filled out a web form, and more. While the All Email Stats widget shows you the email statistics, the Recent Activity report shows you the names of the actual people who are opening your emails and taking action by clicking a link or filling out a form. This is another must have widget!
- Email – A similar tool, this one displays information about your last five “broadcasts” (emails). What I like about this widget is that it tells you if your open rate on a particular broadcast was above or below your average open rate. When you see that a broadcast’s open rate is 10% above your average, you have something to celebrate, and it’s worth looking at what was unique about this email so you can repeat it. The same is true if the report reveals an open rate that’s 10% below your average (just without the celebrating).
- Contacts – This widget has several advantages: 1) I like seeing the total number of my database contacts right on my dashboard. 2) You can see how many new contacts were added in the last 30 or 90 days and the past year. 3) You can filter your statistics by tag, which is how you can track database growth.
- Calendar Items – This shows you a list of your appointments and tasks for the day. You can also view appointments and tasks for other days, as well as view appointments for other users.
- Custom Statistics – I have truly saved the best for last. With this widget you can view other important stats that you would like to monitor. For example, you can see a summary of any saved search or report.
- It will display an item count, for tracking the number of orders or number of contacts with a specific tag.
- It will display a sum, for tracking the amount of revenue for a specific time period.
- It will display an average of a list of numbers.
- I don’t use these two very often, but it will also display the minimum or the maximum number in a column of numbers.
Another option is to create a saved search or saved report and then push the entire report to your dashboard. You do that using the Options button after you’ve saved the search or report.
Note: These very same saved searches and reports can be used to create the custom stats mentioned previously. Since displaying stats takes up far less room on your dashboard than displaying entire reports, I recommend you opt for the stat whenever you can. Especially since you can always click on the stat at any time to see the entire report.
Choose a layout style that meets your needs. Your layout style will be based largely on the size of your computer screen. As you can see below, wider screens can accommodate more dashboard columns. Since the more data you can see before having to scroll down the better, opt for the largest layout you can.
For new users, setting up your dashboard will be a work in progress. As you get to know the system better, you’ll discover new stats and reports you’ll want to keep track of. Have fun setting up your own dashboard. It’s truly unique to you and no other user’s dashboard will look exactly like yours, unless you set it up that way for them.
(Note: In order to completely set up another user’s dashboard, you have to be logged in as them.)
If you’d like a checklist of valuable stats to consider adding to your dashboard, click here to request your copy.
May 8th Update: Great minds really do think alike. Just a few weeks after I published this post, my friend and colleague, Jessica Maes of Maes Consulting Group, also published a blog post about Infusionsoft Dashboard reporting. She is also an Infusionsoft expert and offers some really great tips. Jessica’s article is a great follow up read for additional information on this topic. Go check it out and then get organized with a great dashboard that shows you exactly what you need to see when you need to see it!
Vania Clark-Butler is an Infusionsoft Certified Consultant (ICC) and self-proclaimed power user since 2005. Process oriented, she shares Infusionsoft best practices to help you get set up the right way to optimize your software. For fun, she enjoys cooking, Kundalini yoga, business podcasts, and spending time outdoors with her husband and their two exuberant boxers exploring the Arizona desert. - See more at: http://www.automatingsuccess.com.
[javascript][/javascript]
