How does public relations compute the value of a PR campaign? We use a proven mix of KPIs, including website hits, brand impressions, sales, investor sentiment, ad equivalency and share of voice to establish the short-term and long-term profitability of a campaign.
OWC was founded on the belief that the metric that resonates most for high-growth tech and financial services companies is customer growth and engagement. Today, 13 years later, how customers feel about and engage with your brand is still what matters most.
Accurate measurement is knowing what to measure, and every PR campaign has its own goals and targeted outcomes. For example, an initiative to educate the market and build brand awareness has a different target than one focused on crisis communication designed to diffuse an issue. Here are three simple ways to measure ROI of a PR initiative:
Improved Sentiment – PR should set out to build a reservoir of goodwill and positive response from media, customers and the community. Sentiment directly translates to how the brand is perceived and supported by its audience when reputations get bruised or an industry-wide shake-up causes collateral damage. As an example, one client (see story here) donated its air purification systems to a local charter school, and OWC created a demonstration event for media, building goodwill within a highly influential market.
Quality of Leads – The best testament to a successful PR campaign is that one call from the next big client, customer or partner. In some cases, the call changes the trajectory of the business. One New York Times story (case study here) brought a young start-up company its largest customer, tripling its business. Successful public relations translates into increased sales, new business opportunities and easier recruitment of top-tier talent.
Quantifiable Results – Numbers matter. A couple of news articles are good, but a creative campaign generates dozens, and this heightened interest is used to secure top-tier speaking opportunities, podcast invites and coverage resulting from that. It becomes a virtuous cycle of opportunity. For instance (case study here), creative pitch angles generated 200 stories in two weeks for an innovator in videogame technology. The news angles made them relevant to the TEDx Manhattan Beach producer, leading to a well-viewed talk by the company CEO, further solidifying the company as an innovator in the market.
Everything a company is doing, from new hires and product launches to its research and analysis of a market, is fodder for an ongoing public relations campaign. Each campaign should start by tying public relations results to business lead generation, high bar opportunities like a prime speaking opportunity and overall improved sentiment among its customers, community and media.
Being held to measurement criteria isn’t a hardship, it makes PR more relevant and exciting.
All the best at 5’4”,
Tracy
Olmstead Williams Communications
CEO and Founder
w 310.824.9000, c 310.387.7738
