PR MEASUREMENT: SEEING THE FOREST FOR … MEASUREMENT: SEEING THE FOREST FOR THE TREES An exploration of our industry’s endless quest to prove it’s value, ... it was just clip
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PR MEASUREMENT: SEEING THE FOREST FOR THE TREES An exploration of our industry’s endless quest to prove it’s value, a few clichés, an analogy or two and a whole lot of dramatic stock photography.
An exploration of our industry’s endless quest to prove it’s value, a few clichés, an analogy or two and a whole lot of dramatic stock photography.
CFO CEO
You
Presenter
Presentation Notes
I think that everyone is probably in this room today…because they’ve been in THIS room too many times. Of course the faces have been blurred so they can get extra shots out of the CEO and CFO models…but you know exactly what’s happening here. You’re in a meeting sitting across the table from your company’s C-suite and both of them are asking some form of the question: “What kind of ROI are we getting out of our PR efforts?”
Advertising – Lead Generation – Technology – Sales
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Of course, if you were in Advertising, lead generation, technology of sales the answer to that questions would be pretty simple. You’d be able to dig up some data and put together a nice little report to share with everyone. What’s more, there would be measurable things that people can understand. Advertising…this is the place where this ad ran. Lead generation, we captured 25 new leads through the latest email campaign. Technology, the average time spent on our app is X. Sales…we sold X amount of widgets this month. There’s really very little grey area.
Advertising
Technology
Sales
Lead Generation
Buy Ad Make Ad Run Ad
Find lead Qualify lead Hand lead to sales
Make App Market App Measure downloads
Sell product Measure Sales
BUT WE ARE IN PUBLIC RELATIONS!
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Part of that clarity comes from some relatively simple steps. (walk through steps) But, things are always that cut and dry in PR.
Positioning
Crafting Story
Researching Outlets
Pitching
Media Relations
Promotion
Presenter
Presentation Notes
These are just some of the components that make up our day-to-day. And, we are juggling these for multiple pitches, multiple stories, multiple clients if you are agency-side. And, that take a lot of effort and energy. It also takes a ton of TIME. But, how do we measure our efforts and our results?
Advertising Value Equivalency
Impressions
Clip Books Look at me!
Look at me compared to her!
Look at everyone looking at me!
Presenter
Presentation Notes
For years, we have reported a few different ways. And, none of these are perfect. First, it was just clip books. Which is really just showing your completed homework. Here you go….this is the tangible representation of what I’ve been doing. Then, we decided to get into AVEs. I think we all know this. If this piece were to take up this much real estate in this edition it would have cost us $XXUSD to run. And, of course impressions are a way too. How many eyeballs did we draw? But, the problem with impressions – in my mind – is that they are hard to truly understand. How can we have thousands and thousands of new impressions but our sales remained flat? How did we get a million clicks, but our event had the same capacity as last year? I mean, does anyone know the ideal amount of impressions for a campaign? Show of hands? No? Well, that’s probably not going to be great for your CEO or CFO either.
Share of Voice
Quantitative
Qualitative
Tonal
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Share of Voice can be relatively effective. And, I think the lesson to learn about its effectiveness is that it’s pretty easy to explain to your C-suite. They are generally a pretty competitive group. So, speaking in a language of how our brand is doing in relation to our competition makes sense. You have a few different ways to measure. Quantitative – i.e. how many placements did we have over our competition? Qualitative, did we deliver the right messages? And, tonal…was the overall feeling after consuming the piece positive, negative or neutral? Obviously, as you move down the list, the objectivity decreases and the subjectivity increases. And, that’s a challenge. It’s also worth noting that SOV is expensive. Think about it. You have to monitor not only your brand…but other brands in your competitive set? There’s a ton of software solutions out there to help with this…but expect to pay for that too.
Framing the Conversation
Awareness
Understanding
Attitudes
Behaviors
Engagement
Sales
• Placements • Clicks • New Visits
• Decrease in questions • Less customer service calls • Shift in online conversation
• Increase in shares / likes • New partnerships
formed • Positive comments
• Surveys • Attendance • Points of action
• Conversations • Shares • Positive mentions
• Product sold during campaign
• Success of new product launches
Presenter
Presentation Notes
I think the key to PR measurement is to start by framing the conversation. What is the story we are trying to tell? What do we hope to accomplish by telling this story? What is the right metric to measure our campaign? And, these may vary! (give examples in each of the six.
Develop a Measurement Approach
Term
What does it tell us?
Why do we care?
What does success look like?
Definition in simple terms.
If we know ___, we get a better understanding of ___.
Quick check – is this right metric?
Goal in numbers.
It’s a long day if you’re only taking orders.
It’s not a perfect science..
But, remember we’re not splitting the atom.
"We are America, second to none, and we own the finish line."
