What is an impression and can it help your company?

Use PR to find the best measurement methods for improved visibility and success

You may hear your marketing, public relations or social media teams talk about impressions, but what exactly are they? More importantly, how can they affect your company’s strategic plan and bottom line?

To be successful, you know you have to attract, engage and move your target audience through the sales cycle. You do this with content; but first your information must be seen. Some companies use impressions to try and calculate how many times their target audience might see their earned, paid, shared or owned media (your website, blog, online news room, ebooks and other premium content). Experienced public relations professionals can help your company determine where you should place messages, what kind of information will encourage visitors to act and how to make the right impressions.

How do you count impressions?

Think about the last time you read a newspaper. Every article or ad your eyes came into contact with counts as an impression. The same goes for driving past a billboard on the highway, ads you see while scrolling through Facebook news feeds and anytime a user views your Tweet. It is a metric to measure how many times a member of your target audience could potentially see your content.

The downside is that measuring impressions is not always reliable. Since one visitor viewing your content multiple times or customers seeing the page without really seeing the ad can skew your results, the potential for inaccuracy can be high.

It is important to remember that impressions should not encompass your entire measurement efforts. They can, however, be one component of your overall measurement toolbox.

How to take advantage of impressions

Use key performance indicators for your brand messaging. Do prospects recognize your name? If asked, would they know anything about your brand and what it stands for? Measuring impressions and then conducting surveys could be a good way to discover whether your messages are getting through.

Increase recognition in the attraction stage of the sales funnel. To get prospects to respond to a call to action or measure its effectiveness, you first need to get your prospects to see your messages. For instance, a piece of content can get plenty of views, but cannot be considered successful unless those views lead to a significant number of conversions.

Use tactical planning. Counting the highs and lows for impressions can help you notice trends and determine which campaigns are working.

Hire a PR firm to help. It is vital to have the right content on the right platforms at the right time to convert more leads. Using PR measurement tools and methods, you can get closer to finding the correct combination to boost your reach, engagement and relevance with your target audience.

At Axia Public Relations, we understand the importance of getting your money’s worth when it comes to PR and marketing efforts. Therefore, we use the most consistent, reliable and effective data in helping you measure and evaluate your content management and campaign initiatives, such as our seven-step PR PRoof approach. To learn more, contact us or download our e-book Maximizing Your Public Relations Investment.

Lisa Goldsberry is a blogger for Axia Public Relations with more than 15 years of public relations experience. She specializes in business and technology PR. Lisa has worked for Axia since December 2013. Learn more about Lisa Goldsberry. Connect with Axia on Twitter @axiapr or tell us what you think in the comments below.