As the old saying goes, if you can't measure it, you can't manage it. And as all managers will tell you, Boards like to see return on investment (ROI), whether it is advertising, marketing or PR. But how can the return on PR be measured?
There are a variety of ways available. Some are easy and cost effective, and provide a general idea of the success or otherwise of a campaign. Others are more expensive and time consuming, but deliver a better idea of the effectiveness and reach.
A brief overview of some tools and methods available include:
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Focus groups - Used to measure awareness and see where your product / service / brand sits in the target market's mind before and after a campaign. Also used to measure changes in the behaviour of your market.
These are expensive, as you need representative samples across a wide geographic area and are generally only feasible if you are running a significant, national campaign.
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Share of media - Analyse your target media to see what is being said about your industry and where you and your competitors fit. Things to look at include:
- Percentage of space the topic receives in the media
- Percentage of space you receive
- Percentage of space your competitors receive
- Tone of voice - what the media says about you and your competitors - good, bad or otherwise
Again, this can be expensive and is generally used for a large campaign.
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More prospects and more sales - A result for most products and services is the bottom line. Are you getting more enquiries and / or more sales after your PR campaign? Easy and cost effective to measure, just ask your customers where they heard about you.
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Ad values - This is one the most common ways PR is measured, as it is easy and doesn't cost anything. The equivalent ad rate of the size of an article written about a product or service is multiplied by a factor designed to reflect the editorial value and the total is the PR value of the piece. (Normally 3-5 times the ad value).
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Positioning - As well as ad values, positioning can also increase the value of coverage. If your article is on the top right hand page or leads the news, more people are likely to see, read or hear it.
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Eye and ears - Similar to ad rates, uses circulation and / or readership, viewer, listener and unique monthly visitor numbers to get an idea of the number of people that can potentially see or hear the results of a PR push.
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Eyes and ears of a specific target market - To further determine the effectiveness of this measure, it can be useful to see which of the media outlets really hits the target market as this is more valuable than general exposure.
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Key messages - Campaigns can be measured in terms of the key messages conveyed. Getting your key messages in print or mentioned in an interview - especially for educational or campaigns designed to change behaviour - is critical to success.
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Attendance - Events are measured by the numbers who roll up on the day as well as media exposure.
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Number of articles - The success of a campaign is sometimes determined by the number of articles it generates in a given amount of time. Again, if these are specifically reaching the target market, all the better.
One issue most measurement needs to take into account, is the amount of marketing activity going on at the same time. You may have more traffic on your web site or walking in your front door, but was it your monthly newsletter that drove it, your advertising, or your PR efforts?
If you are offering specials, running competitions or managing other promotions, these need unique codes to track response rates so they can be sifted from PR driven results.
Specialist companies monitor the media on a daily basis and can be contracted to collect media coverage of your company, competitors and issues relevant to your industry or any combination of topics you need to know. There is no excuse not to keep up to date with what is going on in your world.
All PR is good PR - or is it? At a simple level, if a new release film gets a bad rap from a reviewer, is it good PR? Logic would tell you no, so how do you value this coverage?
There are no hard and fast rules, but it doesn't seem appropriate to calculate the equivalent ad value of a negative editorial piece when compared to a review that is positive.
A more thorough method of measurement, such as focus groups or share of media, can take into account the good with the bad and give a more effective measure of the overall campaign.
At the end of the day, PR is a valuable tool for your business. Just how valuable it is needs to be determined to fine tune future campaigns and make sure you are reaching your target market with your key messages and contributing to your businesses growth and profitability.