One of the best features of Data Studio is the ability to email dashboards in PDF. Most people will be looking at dashboards on their phone, so it’s imperative that it shows up well on mobile.
I learned very early in my career that when sending anything to people that will be reading on mobile, never send a PowerPoint. There’s something about SmartArt and other PowerPoint features that just won’t show on mobile.
While Data Studio in a mobile browser shows up comparatively well, nothing beats a PDF for mobile.
So instead of sending a link for executives to save and view whenever they’d like, schedule a report to go out at whatever frequency they’d like.
How to Schedule a Data Studio Report
First go to the drop-down next to “Share” and click on “Schedule email delivery”
Next, add the email addresses of the people you want delivered to. Then at what frequency.
And you’re done! Now I wish Google would add a way to add my name in the report. This way it would serve as a reminder to everyone on how much value and insights I’m adding to the organizations. 😉
Edit: Google does now allow you to do this! Here’s how to take credit for all the value you provide!
How to customize the email subject and message
Google now defaults the from line to your first name on your Google email account followed by (via Google Data Studio). There doesn’t seem to be a way to change this without changing the name on your email account.
Google also defaults the email subject to the report name, followed by a dash, followed by the date. Something like “Emailed eCommerce Dashboard – Sep 19, 2020”.
To change this, click on the new “Customize email subject and message” block below to “To” line.
Customize the Email Subject Line and Message as you see fit. I like to update recipients on any long term trends that I’m seeing in the data that they should be paying attention to.
And you’re done! For real this time. Now sit back and wait for the requests to come for more and more people to be added to your reports!