The current climate of uncertainty, provoked by the COVID-19 pandemic, has led PR teams to rapidly respond by designing and implementing alternative strategies. While it is a time when flexibility and adaptability are essential for businesses to continue performing at its best capabilities, it is even more essential that PR teams can provide measurable results and a positive ROI.
When analysing the role of content in the decision-making process, it is common to hear in the PR industry (and backed by different studies by measurement companies like Nielsen), that PR is approximately three times more effective than advertising. Through storytelling, PR professionals engage with target audiences with relatable experiences, connecting emotionally and getting them to engage, provoking the decision-making process while also creating a memorable brand experience. Providing a strong added value to organisations, it is important that the right measurement tools are implemented for PR teams to make a case for their activity.
Why is measurement important?
Internally, measurement indicators provide a form of evaluation, which is necessary, not only to provide tangible results, but to continue to improve the work being accomplished, helping teams understand what aspects of the PR activity have worked best and which have not been as successful in order to learn ‘best practices’.
Externally, measurable, clear and relatable results will provide the board/C-level executives with a clearer picture of your business’ performance and help you prove the value of PR in reaching business objectives, more likely leading to a greater strategic involvement.
How to measure your success?
PR professionals often struggle to track the impact of their work. However, there are plenty of measurement tools to calculate return on investment and therefore prove the success of the PR activity undergone.
Press Coverage
Quantity
One way to keep track of the impact of your news stories is by monitoring the amount of press clippings that mention your company or products and services. A high volume of coverage in target media outlets will suggest that your PR activity is successfully raising awareness around your brand and messaging shared. Your success here can be measured by comparing coverage figures from the previous month and to compare yourself with the coverage volume generated by your competition
Quality
Whilst volume is important, quality matters. To be able to provide an objective measurement of success, it will be essential to analyse how effective the coverage is in terms of whether the outlet that has picked up your news is reaching the right target audience, the size of the coverage piece in contrast to the other articles on the same publication, whether the piece is sharing the right key messages as well as its sentiment (i.e. Is your company being portrayed in a positive light?). Whether the piece has a cover mention or if it has been sold as an exclusive, will also be worth accounting for to show the efforts put into obtaining the piece and increasing its relevance
Social Media
Press coverage impact
With the rise of social media, it is common to see press articles being picked up on social media where users share and react to the information. There are several ways to measure these reactions, including the number of influencers mentioning your brand; the sentiment of the messages being shared and their tone of voice
Brand engagement
A rise in positive social media conversations and engagement with users will reflect a successful PR strategy. In the case for social, often quality comes before quantity and this comes in the form of the right community picking up on the conversation around your brand. Are the influencers picking up the conversation the right brand ambassadors? Is the conversation engaging with the right community? Is the conversation driving your social media presence? All of this will have an impact on your following and engagement figures
Lead Generation
Website traffic
PR activity will often include calls-to-action and possible link-building in copywriting. As a result, an easy way to measure the effectiveness of your work is the traffic your website receives. You can measure the traffic before and after launching your company’s news and track the results.
Collect Sales Leads
To learn if your PR efforts have influenced your clients’ decision-making and triggered a sale, pick up the phone to ask new customers how they heard about your company and its offerings and engage in a conversation.
Customer feedback
Surveys
For product launches or bigger brand awareness work, it can be interesting to have metrics around the awareness of your brand/product before and after your PR activity has been implemented. These can include both qualitative and/or quantitative analysis and will both help you obtain measurable results.
For any PR activity to be effective, a combination of clear objectives, achievable goals and measurable results is essential. The role of a good PR agency is to guide you through the journey by helping you define what it is that you want to obtain, keep your feet in the ground in terms of what can be done and what cannot, as well as suggest the best solutions to reach your goals, and provide a strong set of results, being transparent enough to raise their hand when they do not anticipate a story will get the expected coverage volume. Bubble Agency is made up by results-oriented professionals that will provide the right advise and strategy to help you implement and measure your PR activity.
If you are interested in learning more about measuring your PR and Marketing results and about how Bubble Agency can assist in driving successful results, please email: hello@bubbleagency.com