Business owners with tools that spot performance trends can view the overall health of their business, while business owners without visual insights are essentially swimming in the dark.
That’s why dashboards are crucial.
They help businesses monitor important data to keep up with the competition, track team efforts, and boost both sales and overall team performance.
In this article, you’ll learn all about dashboards, and how to use them to keep your projects visible in marketing, sales, and customer support so that your entire business can thrive.
What is a dashboard?
Dashboards give businesses the ability to monitor the health of their organization by measuring, tracking, and displaying key performance indicators (KPIs) and other important metrics at a glance.
Dashboards are made up of 2 ‘layers’ — a back end and a front end. The back end layer connects your files, boards, columns, and APIs, and the front end layer displays this information in the form of charts, graphs, and gauges.
Picture a car dashboard. It has a data screen that displays key information about the car’s health based on what’s going on under the hood of the car.
With staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud, our dashboards can extract any kind of information you need from your boards — the back end — and display it in the form of a widget — the front end.
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Here’s an example of a staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud dashboard to show you what we mean.
What do dashboards include?
How teams use dashboards depends on their needs and goals.
Some examples of what you could include in your business’ dashboards are:
- KPIs to measure performance and effectiveness over time
- Project progress trackers to stay on top of project deadlines
- Budget trackers to stay on budget and spot ways to save costs
- Sales insights to track closed sales, profits, and leads
- Marketing insights to measure conversion rates and track campaigns
- Workload estimators to see how your team’s work is divided
For instance, here’s a look at staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud’s workload widget.
Why are dashboards valuable?
Dashboards are like little business gurus.
They give you the insights you need so you can see whether a project or initiative is likely to be a success. They eliminate guesswork so you can truly understand what in the world is happening with marketing, sales, customer support, and any other aspect of your business.
This kind of business transparency is everything.
When you have complete awareness, you know when to kill a money-draining project, make adjustments to save time, expand your team, and make any other changes you need to be successful.Next, we’ll cover how to set up marketing dashboards, sales dashboards, and customer support dashboards for your business.
Dashboards for marketing
When you’re juggling multiple marketing plans, it’s important to understand if they’re working. That’s where a marketing dashboard comes in. From tracking social media campaigns to measuring conversion rates, a marketing dashboard gives you the ability to see how all of your marketing projects are performing at a glance.
What to include in a marketing dashboard
What you’ll need to include in your marketing dashboard will depend on your marketing goals. In this section, we’ll give you some of our top recommendations and show you how to structure a marketing dashboard.
Here’s what we recommend monitoring on your marketing dashboards:
- Click-through rates on paid ads
- Creative requests statuses
- Marketing campaign spending
- Campaign tracking
- Conversion rates
How to set up your marketing dashboard with staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud
Setting up a marketing dashboard with staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud is super easy. You can have your dashboard up and running in just 6 simple steps.
Start by setting up your Marketing Campaign Tracking board using our Campaign Tracking Template.
Marketing teams love using our Marketing Strategy template to structure KPI marketing campaigns.
We also have other awesome marketing templates to manage client projects, campaign tracking, creative requests, editorial calendars, social media campaigns, email marketing, and so much more.
To set up more boards, choose a template from our staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud template page or add it straight from your workspace by clicking ‘Add’ at the top and then ‘New From Template.’
Customize the boards to match your team’s needs.
You can change, delete, or add groups, data, and columns as needed. You can also assign tasks, add budget and progress trackers, share files, and add any other kind of data you need.
To add a column, click on the ‘+’ at the far right of any group. To delete a column, click the drop-down arrow on the right side of the column you want to remove.
- Add some number columns
Next, add the following number columns to your campaign tracking board:
- Clicks
- CPC
- Conversion Rate
You can also edit the Spend column to be ‘Total Spent’ and move it next to your other number columns. That way, you have a dedicated financial section.
- Add a marketing dashboard
On the far left panel, click on the marketing workspace where your campaign tracking board is, then click ‘+Add’ and then ‘New Dashboard.’
- Add 3 numbers widgets
Monitor clicks, conversion rates, and campaign spending with our numbers widget.
To add the widget, click ‘Add widget’ at the top of your marketing dashboard and choose ‘Numbers’ from the dropdown menu.
Next, click the appropriate column checkbox to the far right and then click ‘Done.’
Repeat this process until you have 3 numbers widgets on your dashboard reflecting clicks, conversion rates, and campaign spending.
Remember, you can add more columns and widgets if you need to monitor additional numbers.
Tada! You’ll now see these data points reflected on your dashboard, as pictured below.
- Add the battery widget
Add the battery widget to stay on top of creative request statuses.
Choose the Marketing Campaign Tracking board and any other board you’d like to get information from by clicking on the boxes to the far right in the ‘Choose boards’ dropdown section.
In the next dropdown, choose the status columns you want to include.
You can customize it even further by following these instructions.
When you’re finished, click ‘Done.’ You’ll now see the new widget reflected on your dashboard.
Pretty sweet, eh?
- Add the table widget
One of our favorite widgets is the table widget.
If a board and a dashboard could get married, it’d look like the table widget.
Add the table widget to display your Marketing Campaign Tracking board on your dashboard so you can view your board and widgets all in one place.
Follow the same instructions as before to add the widget.
You can customize the widget further, by following these directions.
When you’re finished, click ‘Done.’ You’ll see the widget reflected on your dashboard.
That’s it. Your marketing dashboard is good to go.
Let’s move on to sales.
Dashboards for sales
A sales dashboard lets you see sales pipelines, closed deals, annual recurring revenue (ARR), and any other figures you need with one quick look.
Bonus: they’re perfect for sales meetings.
What to include in a sales dashboard
What you need to include in your sales dashboard depends on your sales goals. In this section, we’ll give you our recommendations and show you how to structure a sales dashboard.
Here’s what we recommend including on your sales dashboards:
- Total pipeline amount
- Negotiation statuses
- Average close probability
- Total ARR of paying accounts
- Monthly deal tracking
How to set up your sales dashboard in staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud
You can set up your sales dashboards through staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud by taking 6 steps, which we’ve outlined below.
- Set up your sales boards
Start with our Sales pipeline template and choose from our other rad sales templates, like the Sales Process, Post-Sales, and Client Relationship Management (CRM) templates.
- Add some number columns
Next, add 2 number columns to your Sales Pipeline Board: a ‘Deal Size’ column, and a ‘Close Probability’ column.
Remember, to add a column, click the ‘+’ at the far right end of a group.
- Add a sales dashboard
On the far left panel, click on the sales workspace, where your sales pipeline board is, then click ‘+Add’ and then ‘New Dashboard.’
Once we finish adding widgets, it’ll look like the image below.
- Add 3 numbers widgets
Monitor total pipeline amount, average close probability, and total ARR of paying accounts with our numbers widget.
Remember, to add the widget just click ‘Add widget’ at the top of your sales dashboard and choose ‘Numbers.’
Next, click the appropriate column checkbox to the far right and then click ‘Done.’
Repeat this process until you have 3 numbers widgets on your dashboard reflecting total pipeline amount, average close probability, and total ARR of paying accounts.
You can add more columns and widgets if you need to track additional figures.
For instance, choose the ‘Deal Size column’ to reflect the total pipeline amount.
- Add the battery widget
Add the battery widget to keep an eye on negotiation statuses by clicking ‘Add widget’ at the top of your dashboard.
When the setting pulls up, head to the right and choose the Sales Pipeline board and any other board you’d like to get information from.
In the next dropdown section, choose the negotiation status columns you want to include and click ‘Done.’
- Add the chart widget
Finally, add the chart widget to monitor monthly deals over time (we like the bar chart).
In the ‘Choose boards’ section, choose the pipeline board and any other relevant boards you’d like to monitor.
Refer to the following directions to edit your chart widget settings.
On the x-axis:
- Choose ‘Date’ for the ‘Column Type.’
- In the ‘Group By’ section, choose ‘Month.’
- In the ‘Choose X Axis by a specific column’ section, choose ‘Expected Close Date’ for each board.
On the y-axis:
- Choose ‘Numbers’ for the ‘Column Type.’
- In the ‘Choose Y Axis by a specific column’ section, choose ‘Deal Size’ for each board.
- In the ‘Choose groups’ section, select ‘Closed Won.’
When you’re finished, click ‘Done’ and you’ll see the widget on your dashboard.
Bonus: add a sales leaderboard
See how your team is performing side by side with a sales leaderboard. Talk about healthy competition, right?
Scroll to the bottom of this post to learn how.
Now, your sales dashboard is all set-up.
Next, we’ll cover customer support.
Dashboards for customer support
Customer support dashboards are great for viewing tickets, ratings, schedules, and anything else you need in one spot.
What to include in a support dashboard
In this section, we’ll recommend what to include in a support dashboard and how to structure it.
Here’s what we recommend monitoring on your customer support dashboards:
- Product and service ratings
- Overall customer satisfaction ratings
- Ticket statuses
- Weekly team schedules
- Board updates
How to set up your customer support dashboard with staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud
It’s easy to set up your customer support dashboard using staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud’s Work OS. As with our other sections, it can be broken down into 6 simple steps.
- Set up your customer support boards
Start with our Weekly Shift Schedule Template and fill in the schedule.
Next, create a customer satisfaction board with our Customer Satisfaction Template.
And finally, follow these instructions to create a board that will manage incoming tickets.
We also have a Zendesk integration if you need it.
- Add a customer support dashboard
On the far left panel, click on the customer service workspace where your customer service boards are, then click ‘+Add’ and then ‘New Dashboard.’
- Add 3 numbers widgets
Track product, service, and overall ratings with our numbers widget. To add the widget, click ‘Add widget’ at the top of the dashboard and choose ‘Numbers.’
Choose the ‘Customer Satisfaction’ board in the widget settings. Select the right column and click ‘Done.’
Below, you’ll see an example showing how to select the ‘Service’ column in the widget settings.
When you’re done adding all 3, it’ll look something like the image below.
If it’s helpful, you can create a separate Customer Satisfaction dashboard for your ratings.
- Add the battery widget and the llama farm widget
Add the battery widget and the llama farm widget to monitor the progress of reviewed tickets on your ticket managing board.
Follow these instructions to add the llama farm widget.
Each llama represents a status. So, if green means ‘done,’ you’ll have a green llama for every completed task.
Super fun, right? We think so too.
- Add the table widget
Now you’re going to add the table widget to display your Weekly Shift Schedule board so you can quickly see team availability.
- Add the inbox widget
Finally, add the inbox widget to see immediate updates to the boards you’re subscribed to. We also have one called the ‘I Was Mentioned’ widget that will help you see every update you’re mentioned in.
This is a great way to see new tickets coming in along with important client questions.
And that’s it!
Get vital insight with staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud dashboards
Congratulations, you’ve created some pretty powerful dashboards, if we do say so ourselves.
By now, you’ve learned the ins and outs, but feel free to dig deeper.
We’re excited to help you keep your projects as visible as possible, so you can run your business with maximum efficiency.
Try out staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud today, it’s free for 14 days.
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