Effective Ways to Measure the Impact of PR
A decade back, when the focus of public relations (PR) professionals was on traditional media, it had been really difficult to monitor and gauge the effectiveness and impact of PR campaigns. Today, PR professionals interact with journalists and influencers through social media, they also discuss things with marketing team to ensure successful launches of products and services. In addition, they develop blogs and manage social media channels to enhance the visibility and image of a brand. In the present era, it can be easily checked that how long is the list of people talking about a particular program, these discussions and comments can be further segregated in two separate categories – positive and negative. If a company finds that its social media mentions have increased after launching PR program, it means, the campaign is going on a right track.
Businesses can estimate the success of a PR campaign by tracking the newspapers, magazines, TV channels and of course the digital media. Also, it is vital to ensure that the information shared by the marketer is viewed and responded by the target audience. Through clip counting, one can calculate media impressions to know the number of people who may have seen the article, or read something about the campaign on a web page or blog. It is assumed that an article in a newspaper or magazine will be read by the number of people equivalent to the readership of a particular vehicle.
Apart from the measurable quantity of the articles in several publications and impressions or “eyeballs”, companies should monitor the quality of content that gets published. Measuring their publications or mentions against how often or where your rivals get placed can help distinguish the PR firm’s efforts. Companies should analyse that the published content beautifully conveys the key message.
Another way to decide that the PR is raising the brand awareness is to evaluate the traffic your website receives before and after launching the PR campaign. An increase in new visits further justifies the effectiveness of media-driving efforts. To measure what influenced people to visit your site and make purchases, you can ask them how they heard about you and your offerings.
Awareness, attitude and action, these 3As should be the prime objectives of every PR team. Therefore, a comprehensive market research before making a PR plan should be the foremost priority of the top management. Better the research, easier would be to assess the impact of PR.
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