PR Metrics That Matter: Why Making PR Measurable Will Make Your Business Better

24 PR Metrics That Matter: WHY MAKING PR MEASURABLE WILL MAKE YOUR BUSINESS BETTER. PR at a glance THE TWO MAIN REASONS FOR PR: Y CUSTOMER ACQUISITION & F0 VISIBILITY. The power of earned media Earned media is synonymous with "traditional" public relations. The most trusted source of information about your company comes not from you, but from your highly OWNED MEDIA satisfied customers in the form of the content they create E.G. EBOOKS, such as reviews, recommendations, ratings and stories COMPANY BLOGS about their experiences. 1% 5% + EARNED MEDIA E.G. CUSTOMER-WRITTEN Traditional paid media Earned media yields ARTICLES, REVIEWS (advertisements) yields conversion rates of 5%+. conversion rates of 1% or less. PAID MEDIA E.G. BANNER ADS, RADIO ADS Globally, 92% of consumers indicate that they trust earned media above all other forms of advertising. Earned media has: WHY DOES PR PACK SUCH A POWERFUL PUNCH? INCREASED HIGHER STAYING TRUST & CONVERSION POWER Customer opinion can't be CREDIBILITY RATES AND ROI bought, which translates into a credibility that exists in no other way. BUT MOST OF ALL, OWNED/EARNED MEDIA IS VERY MEASURABLE. Advanced analytics enable brands to go beyond measuring buzz to measuring business and marketing results from word-of-mouth. Steps to success It used to be you'd have to wait a full year to gain any metrics on whether or not your marketing and communications worked. Now you can know almost instantly. Before you start to measure your PR efforts' success, follow these steps: Your Google Alerts DEVELOP CAMPAIGNS THAT WILL SUPPORT THESE GOALS DETERMINE YOUR GOALS MONITOR MEASURE Whether it is increased During a campaign, you Use tools like Google Alerts Without data, how can "go live" with your PR plan leads, improved margins, or increased fundraising, to observe the interaction you prove your campaign is a success? Below are of action, like press consumers have with your know what you want to releases, news stories, brand, campaigns, and three things you should accomplish first. and other strategies. marketing initiatives. start measuring today. What should I measure? However you measure success, you should be able to learn something from every pitch email, every media mention, and every fan interaction. It's important to not only measure vanity metrics, like increased traffic or your amount of Facebook likes. Instead, measure: 2 3 COVERAGE OF YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA. WEB, AND PRINT OUTREACH THE LONG-TERM EFFECT OF YOUR COVERAGE INTERACTIONS WITH YOUR PITCH Keeping track of interactions will Measuring social media and other online While interactions and coverage tell you which messages resonate mentions takes a little more planning. help measure short-term boosts in best with your media contacts (as Thankfully, there are tools out there to campaigns, you'll also need to well as which ones fall flat), helping help track mentions and conversations. measure their long-term effectiveness. you refine your pitches over time. Measuring metrics like traffic, pagerank, and authority over time will help you USE: determine your long-term effect. USE: Tools like Mention and Tools like Yesware and MailChimp a basic CRM system to track open rates, etc. USE: Tools like Google Analytics Use these PR metrics to determine ROI Measuring your media coverage is just the start. What you really must know is whether that coverage has resulted in dollars and cents, increased brand awareness, or new leads. A few common Key Performance Indicators many companies use to measure the success of their PR initiatives are: NEW REFERRAL INCREASED ORGANIC NEW LEADS OR LINKS WEBSITE TRAFFIC SIGNUPS HOW TO SEGMENT PR DATA FROM OTHER DATA Analytically, you have to sort your traffic from other referral sources like ads, content marketing and social media. Using tools like Google Analytics or Hubspot, you can see just what percentage of your audience came from your PR efforts vs. paid ads, social media, etc. CHECK OUT THESE EXAMPLES OF ONBOARDLY CLIENT SUCCESS Short-term vs. long-term success PR efforts can lead to both short-term and long- term success. But do you know the difference? EXAMPLE OF SHORT-TERM EFFECT: EXAMPLE OFA LONG-TERM EFFECT: 8. 8. With one e-book launch, 15Five's top two media mentions account for Contactzilla's email leads increased over 22% of the referral traffic and 26% of all by 1,227% in under new referral visitors they've received in the last TWO WEEKS. 2.5 YEARS. WHATEVER YOU DO, BE SURE TO UNDERSTAND WHAT RESONATED SO MUCH WITH PEOPLE THEN CONTINUE TO DO SO TO HELP REPLICATE THIS IN THE FUTURE. Does your startup need PR? To fast-track visibility, brand awareness and lead generation, look at using PR as a large part of your strategy. Why? Startups need to establish their credibility and increase their valuation to improve their chance for a great exit. SUCCESS BY SEEING THE POWER OF PR AND KNOWING WHAT TO MEASURE, THE ROAD TO SUCCESS JUST BECAME MUCH EASIER. SOURCES: onboardly.com/case-studies/ • adage.com/article/digitalnext/reasons-focus-earned-media/227586/ mashable.com/2014/08/21/pr-vanity-metrics/ • spinsucks.com/communication/roi-of-pr-measurement/ onboardly prdaily.com/Main/Articles/Four_PR_metrics_you_can_start_using_today_16237.aspx ipra.org/itl/12/2012/pr-measurement-the-pursuit-of-consistent-and-credible-metrics spinsucks.com/communication/the-complete-marketing-communications-measurement-guide/ prdaily.com/Main/Articles/Advertising_vs_PR_How_to_measure_the_value_of_edit_7787.aspx nielsen.com/content/corporate/us/en/press-room/2012/nielsen-global-consumers-trust-in-earned-advertising-grows.html ***......