Key metrics to measure the contribution that PR makes to the ROI
Companies operate with the goal of making a return on investment (ROI). All departments within a company share this main objective, especially sales and marketing. The once neatly drawn lines between marketing and PR have become somewhat blurred. While PR was traditionally tasked with raising awareness and visibility, it now also needs to significantly drive revenue. Companies which have a public relations team or specialist, whether on staff or as a consultant, expect that their PR activity yield a ROI.
However, most shareholders are skeptical as to how this is achieved since the contribution PR makes to the ROI are usually non-financial, i:e- not a direct monetary return. The PR specialist must then demonstrate to shareholders, the link between PR tactics and the ROI. It is important for companies to remember that unlike advertising or marketing, many of the benefits of PR are intangible, therefore more than financial metrics need to be evaluated to determine the contribution that PR makes to the ROI. There are a few metrics used to evaluate the contribution of PR to the ROI.
The principle of micro-measuring and macro-measuring should be applied in establishing ROI. Macro-measuring refers to the overall determination of return on investment for the company or organisation. Micro-measuring refers to the determination of the results of specific activities such as events, product launches, media publicity, analyst briefings, etc. While ROI at the macro level is the desirable goal of evaluation, micro-measuring is used to establish the return from specific communication activities and their success, and whether they should be continued.
One measure of PR success is to track the amount of press coverage your company receives over a determined period through press clippings. This will show you whether your campaign is generating a good ROI. Examine the clippings which your company appears in and decide whether you were successful in getting your message to the masses. If you’ve received positive coverage of your company, then your PR efforts are working. Keep in mind that you should focus on measuring outcomes rather than short-term activities.
Another way is to assess new audience. PR’s must assess how many unique new users the campaign has driven. This is done by tracking page views and unique new users, by using techniques like trackable links, as well as the time they spent on the page and bounce rate. The information gathered will illustrate the volume of high-quality leads that you are bringing to clients.
Conversion Rates is another method. Tracking the rates at which prospects and customers convert as a result of the campaign is one of the most important metrics to track. When someone downloads an app or fills out a landing form or even make a purchase due to your PR efforts, that actions has contributed to the ROI.
Social Media should not only be used as a platform to get your message across to as many people as possible but as a metric to measure how effective your PR approach was by how many referrals were driven back to specific websites.
Measuring ROI should become a part of your ‘to-do-list’ so that you are able to distribute reports to your clients on a monthly or even a bi-weekly basis. Doing so will have far more value—and allow you to demonstrate the impact PR has on revenue.
