Why you need to spend time and money upfront to measure public relations properly

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.

PR and measurement go hand in hand.

So you hired a PR firm; that’s great! You’re excited to hit the ground running and start seeing results. As a PR firm, Axia Public Relations is eager to get right to work doing what we do best: public relations.

Before the campaign begins, we need to dedicate time for research and establishing baseline numbers. Expect this initial phase to last around 30 days. We’ll research your current web traffic, inbound leads, social media following, and sales.

How do we obtain these key numbers? We need access and your assistance in pulling the figures. This way, throughout the campaign, both parties can check on progress and see the top-performing activities as well as any underperforming activities. At the end of the PR campaign, we’ll be able to clearly identify the success of our efforts together.

Spending the time and money upfront on research and measurement is good for both parties in the long run because it establishes a baseline and defines your success at the end of the PR campaign.

Each company has different goals for a PR campaign. We discover your specific needs and develop a strategic PR plan. Using research, we identify the best methods to reach your target audiences. In order to do this successfully, it’s important for your company to spend the time and money on research and measurement methods.

How we measure PR results.

It can be overwhelming hiring a PR partner for your company. On average, large companies spend $250,000 per year on public relations as well as spending time and money to make sure the research and measurement processes are correct. If you’d like additional data on what other companies are spending on public relations, download Axia Public Relations’ intelligence report today.

Clients love Katie’s energy and enthusiasm. She works with local, regional and national clients coordinating their PR campaigns. Katie has worked with Axia Public Relations since September 2015. Learn more about Katie.