• by Jess Nelson , September 13, 2017

Marketing automation company Act-On Software unveiled Engagement Insights on Wednesday, a new reporting tool that makes it easier for marketers to view and share campaign metrics.

Engagement Insights adds pre-packaged reporting templates containing real-time marketing engagement data to the Act-On platform. The new reporting tool acts in a similar manner to email newsletter templates, where Act-On has created a foundational report with pre-configured metrics that marketers can build upon and customize.

Available metrics include email opens, clicks, and click-to-open rates with weekly and monthly trend analyses, as well as top converting forms, landing pages, and content downloads. Act-On also provides recommended targets based on industry standards so marketers can benchmark their campaigns.

The marketing reports can also be easily exported to Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel, with a shareable link that automatically updates when a new report is available. This democratizes data reporting, since marketing metrics are not limited to a marketing technology platform that only a handful of employees have access to.

Karra Hendrix, product marketing manager at Act-On Software, says that Engagement Insights was developed to make “data-driven marketing easier for marketers.” Data management remains a top challenge for many B2B marketers, according to Hendrix.

“Reporting is only good if it’s actionable,” explains Hendrix. “So many customers I talk to are eager to use data, but they just don’t know where to start.”

The new tool is an extension of Act-On’s Data Studio launched in 2015. Data Studio was originally designed to make it easier for brands to combine data sources by transferring marketing engagement data from the Act-On platform to other technologies and data sources in a marketing stack. Data Studio helped marketers transfer data, but many marketers couldn’t take advantage of the application if they lacked the skills necessary to slice and dice the data.

Within Data Studio, Act-On customers can now schedule the timing of their Engagement Insights reports. For example, a marketer could view their reporting for the last week every Monday morning. A notification tool sends email alerts to users when a new report is available to view. 

Engagement Insights grants marketers “actionable metrics and data that you can quickly look at, get the insights you need to optimize your marketing, and drive those programs to drive more revenue,” says Hendrix.

The company has been beta testing the new solution over the past couple of months with 30 customers. One beta tester, Education at Work, experienced a 10% boost in email open rates after leveraging Engagement Insights to optimize its campaigns. The non-profit also increased its media and form conversion rates by 33%.