PR analytics. B2B marketing, PR & digital content

Transcription

1 PR analytics

2 Valuing PR with analytics The world of public relations (PR) has experienced a huge industry-wide evolution over the last ten years Despite the positive change that has resulted from the Internet and social media, measuring and analysing the impact of PR and its value to a company has failed to progress as quickly. Proving the value of PR is increasing in importance. The global recession put budgets firmly in the spotlight and as such, companies are ever seeking evidence of a return on investment. Measuring and reporting the impact of PR, however, is much easier said than done. Gone are the days when gut feeling was an acceptable justification for labelling a campaign as a success or failure. So how can effective measurement of a PR campaign be achieved?

3 The Barcelona Principles Having acknowledged how challenging a task measuring the value of PR can be, the PR industry produced seven voluntary guidelines to measure the effectiveness of campaigns. These guidelines are called the Barcelona Principles and they break down into: Goal setting and measurement is important Measuring the effect on outcomes is preferred to measuring outputs The effect on business results can and should be measured Media measurements require quantity and quality Advertising Value Equivalency (AVEs) are not the value of public relations Social media can and should be measured Transparency and replicability are paramount to sound measurement Implementing the Barcelona principles has a number of benefits and makes measurement of PR more straight forward than ever before. In an ideal world all seven of the voluntary principles would be implemented, however it is often not possible to do so especially when measuring the effects of PR on business results.

4 Plan and measure what you can Effective planning and deciding on a clear set of goals are key components in a successful PR campaign Outlining where and what to measure is an essential part of this plan. In the B2B market especially, where long sales processes can confuse the source of and reason for customer enquiries, identifying and measuring predetermined key performance indicators (KPI) is a valuable method of quantifying the effects of PR. KPIs come in many shapes and sizes, from website views, to generated leads - and everything in between. However, it may not be possible to extensively measure certain KPIs due to economic and time constraints, but in many cases there is something that can be measured, even on a small scale. For example, when launching a product or service it would not be cost-effective to poll the target audience to learn if they ve heard of the new product or service in question. Instead, a simple option in this scenario is for PR practitioners to analyse website and product webpage views in a specific timeframe following the publication of a press release or article. The number of views can be compared with previous months and the average number of product webpage views - with the difference between the two sets of data evidence of the PR influence.

5 Context is everything Once the measurement goals have been set and measured data is being analysed, it s important to keep the results in context This is especially true in the world of B2B PR. While B2C may see an extremely high number of click-throughs on an newsletter, B2B is likely to have fewer in comparison. This doesn t represent an unsuccessful campaign, as long as the click-throughs are high quality leads and from the predetermined target audience.

6 Review analytics to improve performance Measuring the effects of a PR campaign is primarily done to prove the campaign s success or failure and therefore its value Measurement can however, also serve a secondary purpose, which is to enable analysis of a campaign to be conducted with the intention of improving future performance. Data from previous campaigns can be used to determine: the questions that practitioners should be asking in future campaigns; and the methods by which a message is communicated to an audience. Essentially, this trial and error approach enables improved output and measuring based on objective quantifiable statistics, as opposed to a bias gut feeling.

7 Conclusion The reality is that despite the best efforts of the PR industry, there will never be one single quantitative method for proving the effectiveness and monetary value of public relations campaigns That doesn t mean that PR practitioners cannot prove a campaign has succeeded or positively impacted a company. Instead, outsourced consultancies and in-house teams must focus on and invest in measuring what they can and then reporting that information back to a company in a clear and honest manner.

8 Get in touch If you re short of time or resources then we can help. If you d like to learn more about our B2B marketing, PR and digital content services then please give our Managing Director, Nick Brooks, a call on or nick.brooks@4cm.co.uk. CONNECT WITH US ABOUT THE AUTHOR Tim Williams is a consultant at 4CM helping to ensure the objectives of clients are met through effective and engaging marketing and PR strategies. Tim has previously worked for a leading UK not-for-profit political advocacy group, a market research consultancy operating in the medical industry and in the offices of two Members of Parliament. A graduate from Loughborough University, he has also led a number of community volunteering and development schemes and written political and current affairs articles for online magazines.