How do you measure and evaluate PR across departments?

I have been often asked this question on how you measure the efficacy of PR. How did that press release, or the opinion blog for your CEO help business? To understand PR one must understand what PR does. It is not a sales or marketing tool but a communication tool. It is about leveraging PR for creating the right surround sound; a drumbeat of powerful and relevant messaging, a surgical strike of narrative for your targeted stakeholders. But PR alone is not enough. Bolster your PR efforts by adding other channels and tools. Social media, direct mailers, website promotion et al should be part of the 360 degree strategy. And then measure it against agreed business outcomes. Periodically conduct NPS to gauge effectiveness of your programme.

Getting coverage for the sake of it is not a goal. Think beyond the coverage: why are you doing PR? That will define your strategy. Here are some of the reasons why our clients decide to embark on the PR journey: - Fundraising and building trust amongst investors - Supporting their SEO strategy with 3rd party endorsements - Expanding into new markets - Lead-gen - Rebranding - Launching new business lines and products

Set SMART goals based upon stakeholder group's key objectives. Each department in your organization may have different objectives.

To have maximum impact, public relations must not be an afterthought. While PR is often a shared or central resource, to be truly effective, it should be figuratively "embedded" in the business units to get a complete picture of what the business needs. --Each unit should have its own PR plan that includes SMART objectives that ladder up to the unit's business plan: one that attacks organizational objectives and priorities. --There must be strong integration of PR plans across the organization to avoid conflicts and confusion. --Planning and executing in a silo is a recipe for disaster.

Effective PR measurement involves a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods, with key performance indicators (KPIs) and ROI models tailored to the specific goals of each PR campaign: 1. Media Impressions 2. Media Sentiment Analysis 3. Earned Media Value 4. Website Traffic and Engagement 5. Social Media Metrics 6. Lead Generation and Conversion 7. Surveys and Market Research 8. Customer Lifetime Value. Using a combination of these metrics will provide a comprehensive view of the added value brought by PR campaigns and their impact on the company's bottom line and reputation.

As mentioned above: Define the goal of your comms. Define your intended audience. Define how you will measure effort. Define how you will measure results. Identify channels. Create messaging. Set deadlines, milestones and checkpoints. Assign the work, execute and manage it. Once you've done that, assign the work

Your stakeholers are defined by the goal/s of your PR campaign. Are you after media coverage? Brand awareness? Thought leadership? Industry positioning? Investor appeal? Sales leads? Customer satisfaction? Each department in your organization may very well have its own set of goals attached any single PR campaign.

3 years ago, when I was a part of a State Emergency service, I planned a campaign for the rollout of 'Animal Rescue Volunteer' programme, which basically aimed at extending immediate help to animals in distress through the collaboration of police/emergency officers and animal rescue volunteers. We identified different public- paravets, vets, volunteers, NGOs (external) and dispatch officers, field officers (internal). Accordingly, we created PR plans to reach out to external public across the state geography and also educate and train our internal public regarding new dispatch procedures and field actions.

Identifying your stakeholders includes knowing how you will engage with them. Your PR objectives should include setting goals for building and nurturing these relationships.

Identifying PR stakeholders involves recognizing the diverse groups and individuals with a vested interest in or impact on an organization's reputation and actions. These stakeholders encompass internal groups such as employees, management, and investors, as well as external entities like customers, media, government, communities, industry associations, competitors, online communities, and influential figures. Special interest groups, allies, partners, and non-profit organizations can also play roles. Understanding and categorizing these stakeholders is essential for tailoring communication strategies, managing reputational risks, and fostering positive relationships to meet the specific needs and expectations of each group.

Output, outcome, and impact metrics are all important, but for various reasons. In my experience, output metrics like how many pitches were delivered or how many blogs were posted only work to prove that work was done and contracts were met. Output metrics = We made the effort. Outcome metrics track results and are most useful in comparison to similar/competitive programs for optimization and improvement. Their audience should primarily be the communications team itself. Outcome metrics = We communicated stuff Impact metrics focus on the change in behavior or belief that your comms efforts provoked and are best for merchandising PR value to the rest of the organization. Impact metrics = We added value to the business

Use a variety of metrics to get a comprehensive picture of the effectiveness of your PR efforts. No single metric can tell the whole story. Track your progress over time to identify areas where you can improve. Make adjustments as needed.

A big part of metric selection is educating leadership on why the metrics matter. Helping them understand that sentiment is helpful in gauging public perception, and spokesperson inclusion helps build reputation, etc. When you share metrics, be sure to include WHY they matter.

An interesting but more nebulous metric to take a look at is key message pull through, or key message resonance. - Collectively, are media commentary, interviews, and opinion editorials from spokespeople accurately conveying key product and/or corporate messages? - Are we consistently mentioning key words associated with our industry and do interview sound bites reflect expertise and authority? - How are our competitors faring with this metric? This will help PR teams to decide if they need to tighten media training or come up with key messaging that better resonates with media and reporters.

The metrics should be clearly established when setting objectives. As I said before: Every communication action impacts: Brand image Brand awareness Product awareness Sales Any objective should consider these and also the message to be conveyed.

Management teams typically use dashboards to express the value of an organisational function. In public relations, these can take the form of a stakeholder scorecard or outcome metrics based on a framework such as the AMEC Integrated Evaluation Framework. It is unusual for the public relations function to have such a mature approach for measurement or to be able to explain its value in this way.

PR dashboards not only gives a clear picture of various metrics, but also help in quick decision making. During COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown in 2020, when I was with the State Emergency Control Room, we were heavily tasked with a lot of responsibilities- creating awareness offline and online; handling requests for medicines, food, rations; protecting our technical staff and police personnel; sending out real-time situation updates to Government and media; - apart from handling emergencies. PR dashboard helped us. Multi-agency role and coordination emerged strong. Monitoring & quick decision l-making controlled situations from going haywire. Media was getting factual and quick updates. Overall, things went pretty smooth.

When you look at a dashboard, you want to be able to tell a story of what occurred during that time period. One way to do this is to include unique metrics that give context to volume. For example, what percentage of coverage include a thought leader/spokesperson? Other metrics could be sentiment, or percentage of articles that include competitor mentions alongside your brand. Each one will demonstrate why the month/time frame was a win, or what challenges the team faced, ultimately, asking questions before they're asked.

Use YouScan to analyze sentiment not only in media, but also in social media, especially among influencers. Also make strategic plans according your brand health metrics.

Apart from keeping track of and reporting feedback involving PR across departments (or the entire organisation for that matter), I can't express the 'unseen' value of PR in any organisation - the importance of sharing the win/insight of PR (an educational opportunity) internally while keeping relationships and connections strong - whether internal or external is beyond valuable. Keep informing, and keep trying to get your message across... Staying consistent (who you are as a brand), just a 'Happy Monday check-in' / follow-up / perhaps saying the same thing differently by using multiple platforms. There is always an opportunity to communicate and build a message effectively; if you look innovatively. So try and try again!

Invite PR teams to review and discuss results with executives. This helps everyone get on the same page with how PR campaigns, thought leadership efforts, and other brand awareness opportunities are supporting overall corporate objectives.

When you are reviewing your results, Don't just look at your own results—look at competitor activity, too. Understanding where they're being mentioned, placing thought leadership, etc. can help you be more strategic in your own PR efforts, as well as equip you to have more strategic conversations with management. Go beyond simple share of voice and look to understand what the drivers of any competitor's share is, and it will improve your own strategy and results.

Ideally, we need to put an iterative process in place designed to improve our practices incrementally. This could take the form of a loop which begins with objective setting, and then returns to objective setting after our activities, output, outcome measurement and analysis.

Set up monthly, quarterly and yearly reviews of your strategy and key goals and metrics with the relevant departments and stakeholders. Use quarterly especially to change or tweak strategies and refresh on goals to make sure you're all moving in the same direction still.

Consider adopting a continuous feedback loop approach. This entails collecting feedback not only from within the organization but also from external stakeholders such as customers, media, and partners. This external perspective can uncover blind spots and provide valuable input for refining PR strategies. Moreover, embracing an agile mindset within PR processes can be transformative. Just as agile methodology promotes iterative development in software, it can be applied to PR. Break down PR campaigns into smaller, manageable components, and regularly assess their effectiveness. This allows for quick adjustments and optimizations, ensuring that PR efforts stay aligned with evolving organizational goals and market dynamics.

Public relations will never be taken seriously outside the communications and marketing departments if it is not tied into business results. The user journey needs to be fully analysed and understood. PR is the top of the funnel, the other departments will need to be aligned to bring that traffic down to a conversion. After securing coverage, the marketing team need to best capture leads on the site, communications can nurture leads them with sustained thought leadership, the sales team should be alerted to qualified leads to engage. Finally, comes the call-to-action to deliver results. Every department need to get the bandwagon so the company can succeed from their media initiative.

Forming public relations is always about influence and strategy. Otherwise, it will be a waste of resources and tools. And these communications should always be two-way: - towards society - always strategic and visionary, - and in the opposite direction and interaction - always tactical and humanity.

PR often defaults to ‘big number battle shields’ to show value. Millions reached or x numbers of coverage hits. To truly create value and measure success, it’s about defining if your brand awareness increased with your target audience or whether the places you’re getting coverage in are media or podcasts your audience actually reads. Relevancy is critical and creating a context built around the audience can help connect to marketing and the wider business. Strategic spear > big number battle shields.

If you do not have a full-fledged PR team, build one using your own people who have a fair idea and knack for communications. PR is a crucial function and should not be avoided. But, at the same time, it should be an afterthought when your competitor uses PR. PR is a well-thought-out process; not a one-size-fits-all thing. Don't rush. Know your needs. Know your public. Plan well, plan ahead. Take an expert's opinion.

If your company is reluctant to hire a PR strategist, consider developing a PR team of other individuals in the organization with communications backgrounds. Collectiely dedicating a percentage of their weekly time to matters that influence company-wide PR may also be a strong excercise for business cohesiveness.