5 key components to assess your communication effectiveness and ROI

Done an internal?event or communication program? Excellent! Did it meet your goals? Has it led to your business being better perceived as a brand internally and externally? Do stakeholders view your team as more productive, effective and efficient? Do you staff feel energized and equipped to be their best??

As communicators live in a supercharged environment churning out town halls, webinars, leader meets, and staff connect sessions amongst others,?the focus is on completing tasks and less on measuring the value of the effort and the outcomes, especially when they are event based.?

Internal communicators are expected to guide and coach stakeholders on measuring communication effectiveness. However, internal communicators need to?set their house in order before expecting stakeholders to measure their outcomes. Where do you start? How do you define what makes sense for an event or communication initiative's ROI??

Benchmark: measuring ROI begins with reviewing investments of time, effort and resources. It is helpful to understand the audiences and look for outcome measures – from engagement to action taken by stakeholders. Gain understanding of the objectives and if it met or exceeded expectations. Are there industry benchmarks which you can refer to? If not, you may need to build your internal dashboard with data points such as NPS scores, internal?social media outcomes etc.

Ownership: Every event or communication program ideally has?an owner or a set of owners. Measuring effectiveness and ROI needs to factor in if the initiative is owned, shared or paid. If the event is owned, there are more factors in your control compared to the other formats. Multiple ownership also means increased complexity and fragmentation of outcomes.?Gauge how ownership can determine outcomes.

Investments: There are various forms of investments related to communication events and initiatives. It is important to consider the following aspects:?

• Cost of sponsorship (what your organization has invested to get a presence online or in person. What does it cost to access an audience and in the specific locations you need)?
• Cost of FTE involvement (often a group of employees pitch in to make the event or inititive a success. Their time and effort are a valuable input to consider)?
• Cost of promotion including digital marketing (making events visible helps to amplify and garner participation)?
• Cost of agency design and event logistics (often, managing events at scale needs the involvement of specialist agencies. The costs vary based on how extensively you want to engage them)?
• Travel and other expenses (depending on where the event is hosted, there are travel, accommodation and stay expenses)?

Returns: while preparing for the event, it helps to consider potential return on investment. This is tricky considering the ambiguity of identifying what constitutes ‘real’ returns. Organizations go with ‘gut’ feeling and that isn’t tenable. Some returns to consider include:

• cost per contact as a starting point. From a business standpoint, getting hold of the database, # of CVs received, # of relevant profiles and # of conversions etc matters in the beginning. In real terms, it is about the value of the contact. If it is an employee event, you can gauge the value through the attendance, post event survey that polls awareness, understanding and propensity to take action. Adding an NPS score?can help appreciate the engagement levels.?
• the current hiring rate and costs involves; and how does it compare with say, other ways the organization hires talent?

Brand: From a reputation perspective, the following can be considered:?

• ?Internal social media reach (reach, impact, engaged participants etc)?
• Social earned media (voice, shares, likes, comments, subscribers etc)?
• Advocacy by staff (how many promoted the event or plan to be actively engaged in the future etc)?

Having a clear measurement approach can ensure the communication team is valued for leading organizational performance. Having conversion rates, share of voice, engagement or retention insights are central to justifying budget and investment. These standards are crucial for the future success of the function and the business. As more and more complex tools and techniques get introduced at the workplace and for communication teams, getting a grip on communication effectiveness and ROI can elevate your organization’s image within and beyond.?

?Liked the article? Share your thoughts. Have other ideas? Interested to know what you think.?

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·???????Learn: Internal Communications Fundamentals Course ?on Thinkific??

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·???????Internal Communications workshops:?https://bit.ly/2zdBRl1 ??

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