There is more to generating publicity for your business than the media coverage you receive. Like all marketing, there is no point investing in PR unless you measure the results.
I’ve written a lot about putting together a PR strategy, creating an editorial calendar and the importance of telling your story, but all this effort isn’t worth anything unless you can quantify what works, what doesn’t and what needs to be improved.
And herein lies the problem. It’s hard to measure PR because it’s not always tangible. This is not like starting the day with 20 boxed products and finishing with three or knowing you’ve sold 17 in the past eight hours.
Measuring PR is about reputation, influence, social media reach, mentions in the media and, sometimes, avoiding a crisis.
Here are five ways you can measure your PR success without turning the task into a philosophical debate:
- Sales/clients – have they increased or decreased since your PR campaign started?
- Leads – how many enquiries/follow ups have been turned into sales or new clients?
- Influence – are you considered as a thought leader in your industry, i.e., does the media contact you for comment, does your social media following grow after you post certain content, or have your newsletter subscriber numbers grown?
- Website hits – does your business website attract more traffic now?
- Brand awareness – is your business the first one that comes to mind when people need the product or service you offer?
Once you have a benchmark to start from, set some goals around these five reference points so you can really see how your PR efforts are tracking.
Start with figures for the next three months, six months and then a year and quantify your results. For example, how many new clients are you aiming for in the next quarter, which industry or business awards are on your radar, or how many speaking engagements would you like to add to your year?
If you’re able to measure exactly what works in your PR, it is so much easier to see promoting yourself and your business as an investment, rather than a chore than goes to the bottom of the to do list.
