Calculating AVE, reach and circulation to prove PR’s value was last decade. The digital media landscape is rapidly emerging and providing PR agencies with plenty of metrics to justify the importance of PR and measure its value. Let’s have a look at how to measure the effectiveness and impact of PR:

  1. Quality over quantity: We are here to tell you that more clippings does not necessarily equal more exposure. Quality content builds trust and a following. To measure the success of your press release, we suggest you have a scale to rate the quality of each publication. Then, work toward a number goal, either annually or quarterly. More importantly, assign quality scores based on article content with the highest scores reserved for articles that deliver key corporate messages. This approach will allow you to build your dashboard for media coverage based on factors that are most important to your brand.
  2. Mentions monitoring: It is important to monitor what people are saying about your brand. Social media measurements focus on discussions about your brand, as well as social communities in your industry. However, social media engagement does not account for outlets like television, radio, newspapers and magazines. By having a subscription to a media monitoring tool, you can get to know which publication and social media users mention your brand and products. Additionally, you can also track the names of your organization’s top executives, competitors, industry keywords to get a more detailed result. Discover which PR campaign brought you the most mentions. It will help you to know what works well for your brand and audience.
  3. Website Traffic: Keeping a record of visitors and pageviews on your website is an efficient way to determine the success of your PR efforts. We recommend doing this by arranging your website visitors into three groups: owned content, earned content and social content. Remember to measure the volume of website traffic before and after the PR campaign. This analysis will allow you to get a better picture of whether your campaign is working or not.
  4. Evaluation research: Research in both qualitative (in-depth interview, focus groups, ethnographic research, content analysis, case study research)  and quantitative methods (polls, questionnaires and surveys)  is highly recommended for tracking a PR campaign’s success. PR experts conduct research both before and after launching the PR campaign. Conducting thorough research is important for various reasons. For example, campaigns where the objective is to bring change in the opinion of the target audience, primary research should be conducted before and after a campaign. This can show how opinion has shifted or after an organizational crisis, research can present a useful guideline to define how badly the reputation has been damaged, and what steps are needed to begin rebuilding trust among the public.

We understand that reports alone cannot convince clients the value of public relations. As a leading integrated communications agency, we work with advanced media monitoring tools to show how PR works. Visit our website www.midas-pr.com today for more information or get in touch with us by email.