Why it happens
A study shows that communications specialists often do not even know the company's turnover, let alone specific business goals.We understand that business goals are all about making a profit. Communication must raise awareness, build trust, and change behavior to support business objectives. It is difficult to work towards achieving the goals you are not aware of existing.
Approaches to measuring communication
Effectiveness goals are gaining increasing popularity. Technically, they are part of the recognition and trust goals, but because of their specifics, we will look at them separately.The overall logic of any measurement of communications is that we have two components:
The measurement system must include both components.We can see this approach in modern customer roadmaps and within AMEC (International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication). AMEC is the first entity to incorporate planning and measurement of both our actions and stakeholder responses into a single system.We need to set goals to measure effectiveness. The purposes of communications are to:
● Increase awareness
● Build trust
● Change behavior
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Awareness
Awareness is what we can influence the most. Building confidence and changing behavior involve many emotional factors, experiences, and outcomes of working with awareness. It is obvious that awareness is the most common purpose of communication and we can measure it in many ways.
Awareness: We want as many target customers as possible to learn about our offer.We use:
We measure:- Simple approach:coverage/viewsmentions/appealsSoV- Integrated approach:speed of awarenessfocus groupsmessage frequencyquantitative analysis- The best approachSoV + reactions + awareness rate (if available)We get:
How AMEC works
AMEC approach in measuring PR effectiveness includes:
The outputs include:- Relevant advertising data- Advertising information- Websites, blogs, partnerships, or own media- Social networks- Conducted events- Launching of sponsorship- Direct mailing, e-mail, e-marketing, etc.
This is the initial reaction of the audience to your communications. These may be just some of the steps towards your goals, not necessarily their immediate achievement.
The outtakes include:
The impact of your communications on the target audience that meets your goals.
The outcomes include:
Metrics: what, how, and why
The selected metrics determine the ways to achieve the desired performance. Therefore, it is necessary to determine them at the planning stage.Example:When we want to get relevant potential customers, we need to integrate the mechanism of accomplishing our objective in the whole strategy. It will ultimately affect which channels, messages, and tools we will use.
Let us take a more detailed look at the metrics.
SOV, Reach, Sentiment These are the most popular and straightforward metrics. Their careful use leads to better allocation of resources and budget savings.
Important: Establish how you can meet your audience’s expectations with what you want to say.
Share of voice:
Reach:
Sentiment:
With an understanding of metrics, we move on to discerning the components for achieving communication goals.
Target Awareness: We want a specific target audience to know about our particular offers/benefits or/and be motivated to act.
We use:
The same as for awareness + concrete actions:
Trust, reputation: we want a specific target audience to choose us from among competitors.
We use:
LOOQME uses the R-index — a combined metric supplemented by sociological research to assess the level of trust. It helps to understand the impact of media activity on changing people's consciousness, shows the quality of the media field, and the real level of trust/recognition.Insight: Trust equals reputation and cannot exist without awareness. It is built long-term based on experience.
Brand loyalty, behavior change, activity: we want a specific target audience to become our ambassadors.We use:- personalized approach- email marketing/messengers- microbloggers- community management- internal PR- referral programs
We measure/apply:
Insight: Just like reputation, you cannot achieve loyalty, behavior change, and activity through PR alone. They depend heavily on corporate values, team culture, and the product itself.
Objectives: usually involve lead generation.
We use:
We measure:
Classic sales funnel with conversions from coverage to leads by channels/campaigns.
Insight: You should not measure the results based on concluded agreements.
Measuring the effectiveness of PR is a multi-component activity. It is necessary to approach it comprehensively and program the result before beginning the work. You do not need all the available metrics. Identify the ones that truly reflect the effectiveness of your actions. Make measurement a part of your organization's culture, and remember: not only PR is responsible for the overall success or failure.
