If you’re using the Inbound Marketing model - attract online visitors and transform them to leads, then customers - the right reports must be presented in a form everyone in your company can understand.

Forbes magazine names 8 reports as the ones to key in on:

1. Traffic sources – where are people coming from
2. Lead sources – which of these places generate not only the most leads, but the most good leads
3. Leads per offer – which promotions actually get people to take action
4. Revenue per source – which successful item brings in big money vs. a lot of small transactions
5. Contacts per persona – who has the actual influence in the buying decisions (it may be someone other than the buyer)
6. Investment per opportunity – this can show which leads cost a lot without worthwhile conversions
7. Revenue per opportunity – this might show where not to spend money; for example, if something generates a lot of leads, but only lower-quality ones
8. Contacts per lifecycle – if you have a lot of new leads, you might want to invest in nurturing conversions, whereas if you don’t have a lot of prospects, you would invest in a different part of the pipeline

For more information on using Inbound Marketing reports, read the complete article here.