Demonstrating PR ROI in a Weak Economy

With marketing budgets under threat of downsizing because of the economy and a rapidly changing media environment, it’s important for public relations practitioners to show solid return on investment (ROI) for dollars spent promoting products or programs. That means talking in numbers for left-brained folks.

Obviously, one of the strategies involved in every PR campaign is media relations, where showing ROI can be difficult. For years PR professionals chafed at the idea of quantifying the value of their effort, especially when accurately measuring outcomes was elusive. Simply showing advertising value of media clips is not enough for clients looking for solid, demonstrable returns.

So what does solid ROI mean in PR?

The ultimate goal is to track and measure whether key messages reach target audiences, producing results such as increased sales, greater brand awareness or more political support for a candidate or issue. Online data systems are an increasingly important and powerful tool for demonstrating PR results. They help demystify the story-pitching process. For corporate or marketing execs holding power over budgets, good data can help justify choices made about outreach tactics.

At first, just a list-building tool

In the past, creation of custom-made reporter lists was the primary product of early online database services such as MediaMap and Bacons. Several years ago, CFM used MediaMap for building client-specific databases of media contacts. It also used Cision, because of its ability to show equivalent advertising value for news coverage garnered. (Since then, in light of the faltering economy, the two companies have merged.)

Now there are many more providers and services at various price levels. What's most important is the end product – effective measurement tools to demonstrate the value of PR outreach.

Tracking stories

To track results of its PR and media outreach efforts, CFM now uses a system called Vocus, a suite of on-demand tools for PR management. There are other online services, but CFM finds that its client’s like the robust data available through Vocus.

Vocus primarily is a media monitoring service, documenting news coverage and demonstrating the success of our PR efforts with measurable results. Just as important, CFM uses Vocus’ analytics charts. We’re lucky because we’re one of the few firms in Oregon that has this capability through the online service.

Trend analytics

CFM uses Vocus because of its valuable analytics that easily allow us to show results of our PR programs, in any way that we wish. The analysis tools are important because they provide several different ways of measuring trends, such as whether a story was positive, neutral or negative. Placement of key messages may be tracked. As a result, CFM is able to show easy-to-read charts and graphs that dissect news coverage and activities, giving a comprehensive picture of our PR programs to clients.

(See links below to PDFs of examples for different analytics reports.)

CFM can research what news beats a particular journalist covers and pitch a story accordingly. The Vocus database shows reporters’ preferences for communicating with PR people, as well as other detailed contact information not easily available on the Internet.

We also may send a PR Web release – news release with social media embedding capabilities – that offers the option of embedding videos, hyperlinks to clients’ Web sites or podcasts. The PR Web release service also allows CFM to track readership interaction with each email campaign, as well as other statistics.

For PR campaigns with several target markets included for media outreach, Vocus offers analytics charts that we may used to show news coverage successes garnered in dominant market area (DMA) – main cities in each state. DMA data is important because it allows users to show measurable results of geo-targeted campaigns.

Tracking bloggers

Another important measurement capability that Vocus offers is its ability to track bloggers. CFM started tracking blogs last year for several clients, which is important with mainstream media’s increasing use of online communication tools. Last year, Vocus started to track blogs in a similar way it tracks news clips.

(See the Tip “What's Ahead for PR When Traditional Media is in Decline”)

The ability to track blogs is valuable for CFM clients because we can monitor and analyze interactive conversations about clients on the Web. In addition, we also may categorize conversations and demonstrate the news garnered from our blogger relations, which most likely will become a PR best practice in the future, if it is not already. It’s also a useful tool that helps us engage with important potential stakeholders for our clients.

There are several media monitoring services available. Vocus has proven to be a vitally important tool in communicating the value of news garnered and of CFM’s PR programs because of the flexibility of the software.

How are you showing tangible ROI and benefits of your PR programs/campaigns?

Links:

Vocus

PDF download: Analytics charts