The Public Relations Blog

How you can properly vet a company before doing business with them

We were in the final in-person pitch with a prospective client. The client was a tech company that had developed a negative reputation online for its fast-paced growth because it had hurt some feelings along the way. While the company earned this reputation, the managers saw the errors of their ways and wanted to get a better handle on the company’s reputation after improving its operations and culture.

You do have the time, money, and data to measure public relations

The reasons for incorporating measurement and evaluation into your company’s public relations strategy are many:

• You know actual metrics behind reach, impressions, items, mentions, and engagement to understand the effectiveness of campaigns.
• You see which media channels certain audiences are most responsive to.
• You can predict future trends for better planning and agile response.

Applying the PDCA/Deming Cycle to public relations for strategic growth and improvement

Using measurement and evaluation (M&E) is a process that takes deliberate planning to thoroughly implement. It’s more than lifting some data from your analytics software and hoping to do better next month. Our previous blog posts discussed the difference between measurement and evaluation, the importance of knowing your purpose in this process, what kind of measurement data to collect and how to create SMART goals.

4 tips to be sure you’re measuring your social media efforts correctly

Just because everyone is doing something wrong doesn’t make it right. This is especially true when it comes to measuring social media efforts for your company. With these tips, you can learn the correct way to measure and get the most out of your social media.

With the increased emphasis on quantifying the results of public relations actions, having a solid grasp of the fundamentals of measurement and evaluation is essential in making wise decisions around the use of data. Although many people put them together, measurement and evaluation are separate concepts. To be most effective, you must remember that they’re distinct tasks at different places within the framework of data collection and analysis. 

Advertising Value Equivalency is an outdated PR measurement

Earned media coverage is a terrific way to get your organization in front of audiences that may want to purchase your products and services. Unlike advertising, earned media is an unpaid, third-party mention – that may be a quote, an endorsement or interview. How do you measure earned media coverage and prove its value to executives? Make sure you discuss measurement with your public relations agency early in the relationship so you have shared objectives for communication efforts.

5 questions to ask your PR firm to initiate a measurement conversation

When you bring on a public relations firm, one of your first conversations should be about measurement. This helps both parties identify the need for a PR campaign and the overall goal for your organization. In order to establish collaborative goals and a shared vision for your campaign, you need measurable objectives in your communication plan.

Axia Public Relations covers 15 mistakes companies make when hiring a PR firm, and not having a measurement conversation is mistake #14. It’s important to have the measurement conversation with your PR firm in the initial steps of planning your PR campaign.

Creating specific and measurable goals is vital to establishing a foundation for successful integration of data analysis to business strategy. Without a goal, the time, energy and money you spend on acquiring and aggregating data will leave you directionless. So, which analytics matter most in public relations?

Typical key performance indicators (KPIs) include marketing campaign ROI; profits analyzed for variables, such as product, region, salesperson, etc.; and monthly projections/reality and month/month change amounts. Those are hopefully all numbers already in your data toolbox. You also must include metrics particular to PR.

Which analytics matter most in PR? How do I know what to measure?

Within the business world, the volume and velocity of data continues to command attention. In the public relations sphere, knowing what to focus on, given the data analysis capabilities available in the crowd of business software applications, can be overwhelming.

Begin your PR campaign the right way: Allow resources for measurement.

Most likely, your company measures sales, employee retention, and NPS scores. It’s also important to measure your marketing department's work along with your public relations agency of record.

Measurement must be a consistent process once you identify your key performance indicators. That’s easy if what you’re measuring is in-house and completely accessible. Hopefully, you already have the spreadsheets in place, so all you have to do is pull the sum at the bottom each week.

Companies should set aside resources for measuring their vendors' outputs, including their public relations agency. Being unwilling to spend the time and money upfront for proper PR measurement is one of the 15 mistakes companies make when hiring a PR firm. Read on to find out why you should include measurement in your PR budget.