A recent report from Muckrack on PR measurement stated that more than 94% of PR Pros agree that media placements were a top priority in 2021—and that will remain largely unchanged in 2022
The report from the global media platform unveils how PR pros measured success in 2021, plus their plans and predictions for 2022. Disappointingly, for me, there is a huge focus on media placements. Those of you that have listened to the podcast before will know this, but PR is not all about media placements!
So today I wanted to share with you how you can measure the success, or failure, of your PR plan so you can invest in the right team, activities and resources to reach your business goals and not be fixed in the groove of placing media stories. Spoiler alert – it’s not all about getting in the press.
You will learn:
Three reasons why you should measure your PR activity, top tips for getting started and why quality, not quantity, should be your driver.
Links mentioned in the episode:
My Activity Tracker: https://bit.ly/TrackActivity
MucRack’s report: https://info.muckrack.com/state-of-pr-measurement-2021-research
Further listening: Episode 05 https://henbe.co.uk/2020/12/17/ep-05-how-and-when-to-use-public-relations-in-your-business/
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PS – Did you know? Communication Strategy That Works is in the top 90 UK Small Business Podcasts you must listen to in 2021, by Feedspot.
Full transcript (unedited)
A recent report from Muckrack stated that more than 94% of PR Pros agree that media placements were a top priority in 2021—and that will remain largely unchanged in 2022
The report from the global media platform unveils how PR pros measured success in 2021, plus their plans and predictions for 2022. Disappointingly, for me, there is a huge focus on media placements. Those of you that have listened to the podcast before will know this but PR is not all about media placements!
So today I wanted to share with you how you can measure the success, or failure, of your PR plan so you can invest in the right team, activities and resources to reach your business goals, and not be fixed in the groove of placing media stories. Spoiler alert – it’s not all about getting in the press.
You will learn:
Three reasons why you should measure your PR activity, top tips for getting started and why quality, not quantity, should be your driver.
Let’s dive in!
There’s some context here this was mostly US respondents and from agencies serving small to medium sized businesses but all the same it appears that things haven’t changed much and although I, and many others, continue to bang the drum that media coverage is largely unmeasurable against business goals and also not a long-term strategy it continues to get the prominence as a go-to for companies wanting brand awareness when the goal is getting more customers.
This is not surprising and a common misunderstanding in business. Lots of people make good money from it tho, some of them friends of mine, so good for them, and it’s a fantastic strategy when done well.
However, today I am here to say there is another way. Getting in the press as I said is a fantastic way to raise your profile, with the added bonus of the associated spike in website traffic. So it can be a really good way of boosting awareness and getting people to your website. But when then and this is acommone mistake. Huge bounce rates and non-returning visitors is more damaging and overrides the good news.
So how to make an effective plan?
How do you know what works for you and what doesn’t?
Well firstly it has to be right for you, you have to have a plan that suits your business, your budget and your offer and that starts with trying things out.
Here are three reasons why you shoudl measure your PR plan
The first one is really simple. How the heck will you know if you’ve succeeded or not?
Success in business is all different things from being really successful in selling lots of products or services, attracting more staff as you’re growing, through to attracting funding maybe, and setting effective goals is a really important part of understanding what the destination is and what success looks like, but the reason you should measure what you’re doing is you’re not going to know if you’ve reached your goal unless you are actually tracking what you’re doing, so that’s the first one.
The second one is it’s just more cost-effective in the long run and helps you budget effectively.
If you think about it, if you put your money into activities that you know are working into areas where you know you’re getting the return, then you know you’re spending your money wisely. If you’re not really tracking what you’re doing, you don’t really have any idea if that money you’re spending is giving you any return at all.
The third one is you can hire the right team to support you with the right skills to support your business.
Here are some top tips for getting started wih measuring your PR plan
I use a really simple model that’s been adapted over the years from one that I’ve used when I worked in UK government communications. There are lots of tools out there, but I’m all about making it simple for you and not academic. And I’ve personally used this adapted model and it works for me. I’ve put a link in the show notes to a really simple template that you can download. And if you look in the show notes, there should be a link there for you.
It’s a really simple method that involves logging the work that you did to produce an activity like an a press release, let’s say, so that’s the work we did to prepare, and I call that inputs.
Then you look at the work you produced. That’s an output, so that’s the actual activities so sending out the press release and getting some coverage.
And then we look at the impact that it had, so that’s the outcomes.
This is where media coverage gets tricky. As unless you can attribute the activity that someone took after reading the article, like an increase in website visits that led to more customer enquiries via the website, as it coincided with when the article was published, then the outcome is unknown. The output is clear = media coverage, but going back to my opening gambit earlier point 94% of PR pros still think media coverage will be a number one priority in terms of measurement in 2022, I would like to think there’s context there that means – as part of an integrated campaign that attributes outcomes to the coverage.
It’s really important that you measure the outcomes as well as outputs because this is the crucial bit that means you were measuring the activity; blood sweat and cost that goes into it against your business goals – in this case an increase in customer enquiries via the website. And you are not just shouting about something in the press for the sake of it. Obviously you can still do that and get some great coverage, my point here is specific and about how it actually helps you.
Finally,
PR stands for Public Relations and that means or stands for everything you do and say as a business. This includes how you and your employees act as a brand, how your projects and your business are perceived to the outside world and how you are perceived by your audience. It encompasses everything you promote, everything you say and all the content you put out. It’s arguably at the very heart of your business.
The word public in public relations, in that sense, is everybody from people in your supply chain to your customers, to your staff, funders and shareholders.
Press releases on the other hand are one tool in the wider PR tool kit. And they’re aimed at informing journalists about news regarding your company, product or service. That is the sole purpose they serve. It is to connect with and inform journalists of your company news. They are an excellent tool when written and executed well.
But public relations is not something you only do when you have something newsworthy you want to share with the media. If you want help to build your brand’s reputation, get in touch with me.
So to recap today, size isn’t everything and keeping a track of what activity you undertake, and what impact it is having means that you can streamline your workload with activities that matter, hire the right resources and spend mone more wisely. What’s not to like?
Don’t forget to download my tracker in the show notes today and I will just say bye for now and see you next time. Get in touch if you want to find out how to crate the right communication strategy to grow your business.