According to a recent Gallup Poll, executives spent 24% of their time on "plan measurement and monitoring." This was second to strategic thinking/planning. These results prove that Board members are more likely than others to say, "measurement is an integral part of PR." If you're not measuring the right activities and then translating the results into the bottom-line, you're missing the main road to credibility.
While Board members have valid points, there are the views of those involved with creating PR materials still to consider. Whereas a CFO most likely ties his team's success to operating income, a Marketing Director most likely ties the team's success to sales revenues, and a PR practitioner may cite the number of media clips, impressions, and press releases as the results of their efforts. PR professionals assign monetary value to their work by calculating the advertising value equivalency (AVE), and while this calculation provides a financial interpretation, it means very little to an executive—this may show productivity, but it demonstrates nothing in relation to the bottom line. Since it doesn't imply financial gain, it can be interpreted as the difference between the PR and marketing team's being busy and being indispensable.
In several selective studies, results show PR professionals and executives seemingly speak two different languages. They're uncomfortable with communicating their values in ways each can understand and demonstrate.
The following eight points outline ways for PR professionals (and some marketing gurus) to demonstrate the value of their efforts in clear and measurable terms to ensure that executives understand their contributions.
1. Be proactive. Don't wait for someone else to measure your successes—record your goals and your accomplishments and don't be hesitant in sharing them.
2. Speak the universal language of business. In order to set professional goals for yourself, you'll need to start by knowing your school's overall strategic objectives. These should be used to define your communications performance indicators, or CPIs.
3. Use several angles. If you only measure one form of marketing/PR efforts—print for example—you're not giving your company a comprehensive view of your strategy. You want to show the impact of all your efforts.
4. Design a forward-looking strategy. By tracking your multifaceted tactics, you can start to identify the trends in coverage, sentiment, and favorability. With such information at your disposal, you can then start to anticipate the outcome of your next moves.
5. Offer strategic advice. Now with a forward strategy, you can begin to identify the risks and opportunities for your school. You'll need to understand any cause and effect relationships that may result from your communications plan.
6. Measure the quality of media relationships. Your team works hard to educate the media about your school and the issues it's concerned with. That constant effort not only ensures good coverage, but also prevents you from being linked to unfavorable issues. So in addition to providing a balanced view, consider developing a way to measure the process of educating the media.
7. Build and measure strategic relationships. Since PR is primarily concerned with managing perception and building strategic relationships, this should be one of the key matters you report to leadership.
8. Presentation is important. Recognize that the presentation of your reports is important. They don't have to be flashy, animated, and sing to your audience, but they do need to be clear, clean, and direct. Incorporating buzzwords your target will understand is vital.
