The Public Relations Blog

Beyond impressions, use these success factors to calculate the value of earned media coverage

Earned media coverage is a way to reach audiences and share your company’s message. A common way to make an announcement is to distribute a news release on a newswire. What does this actually do to reach audiences?

Axia PR helps you measure the ROI of your public relations efforts

While it might seem difficult to measure public relations, it’s not impossible. When you measure PR, you document the return on investment of your public relations campaign. Great PR improves an audience’s awareness, trust, understanding, and consideration of the topic, and it ultimately causes the audience to act.

Busy work doesn't generate results. Outstanding work leads to the bigger impact

It happens every time. When explaining the nuances of our office culture, especially in regard to tracking hours, people are shocked to hear that as an agency, we don’t clock in, clock out, or keep personal time sheets. Sounds crazy, right? (There’s a method to the madness.)

Blogging is a great way to attract visitors to your website and convert them into customers. It’s also great for SEO and positions your company as a thought-leader in its industry. How do you know your blogging efforts are working? Hopefully, you’re measuring certain figures, like blog views and blog subscribers.

At Axia Public Relations, we have seven principles for how we measure PR and a four-level measurement approach that provides the true impact to your organization. This approach includes setting SMART objectives and using communication methods to move your target audiences down the PR measurement funnel to the impacts stage where they’ll take action.

4 ways to measure the success of your public relations messages

Public relations professionals craft messages for audiences, which we call outputs. Outputs are what a company releases and communicates to its target audiences. News releases, social media posts, email blasts, blog posts, and events are among the many ways PR professionals create outputs that appeal to target audiences.

And what you should ask your PR firm before finalizing your PR plan

If you’re new to using public relations to build your brand, then starting a PR program can seem daunting. Luckily, it’s easier with the help of a trusted PR firm and a PR plan. A PR plan should be the road map that your PR firm (and your team) uses to create a successful PR program. If your firm doesn’t utilize a PR plan, it’s difficult to evaluate its success and to know that your company and your PR partner are on the same page. Don’t blindly follow your PR firm. Educate yourself on the elements of a PR plan and know the questions that you should be asking to create a successful PR program.

It’s not good enough to have a public relations campaign. You must have a goal for your campaign and metrics to prove how it will benefit your bottom line. Measuring the success of your PR campaign proves the worth of the campaign and why it matters. However, measuring incorrectly could really do some damage, so make sure to avoid the three biggest measurement mistakes made in the PR industry.

Public relations, like anything else, has its own vocabulary. When you’re working with your PR team to plan a successful campaign, it helps to know the meaning of terms that PR professionals use. The terms outputs, outtakes, outcomes, and impacts are important elements of a PR campaign that you should know.

When designing a public relations plan for your company, Axia Public Relations starts with your goals and objectives. Then, we break them down further into inputs and activities. This is the first part of creating an effective PR program for you. We’ve created a scenario around Twidget, a fictional company, to illustrate how this process works and to help you understand what we mean by inputs and activities.