2012

This post is somewhat of a follow-up to my last post. At AHA, we have had several meetings with potential new clients that required an explanation of the process of public relations and what they might expect when it comes to return-on-investment.

Even with a range of variables, depending on the organization and the objectives, there are clear components to a PR campaign. They are:

Exposure

People learn about your organization and its products and services through a range of mediums: traditional media, online (websites, SEO, etc.), social media, community events, etc.

Engagement

People sign up for information, they visit your website, they post comments on your blog, they join the social media conversation, they read/watch/listen to media coverage, they tell their friends and colleagues, they share information, they search for information online, they attend events, they recall and retain the messages you are sharing, they are interested in what your organization is doing, etc.

Influence

People consider participating, purchasing or connecting with your organization; they recommend it to family, friends, colleagues; a relationship is beginning (or continuing).

Action

People actively participate, purchase or connect; they contact your organization; they attend an event as a supporter; they sign petitions; they write letters to the editor; they show their support for what your organization stands for; they are connected to your brand and actively participate.

Each of these components is like a building block. They support and leverage each other and they build momentum. There are times (for which we are always grateful) that you can make an announcement and it happens to hit a trend or immediately fill a need and people jump from discovery (awareness) to action. However, this is a rare occurrence. And it is not sustainable unless you continue public relations in a consistent and strategic manner.

One of the challenges of explaining what is needed to develop, execute and measure a successful PR campaign is that many people don’t realize that it takes time and ongoing effort. Often, people see a campaign and it looks a little like an overnight success – when, in reality, it took weeks, months or even years to get to that point.

Public relations is an important and valuable component of an organization’s marketing efforts and it can create exceptional results – with adequate resources and effort.

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I had a discussion with a potential client recently that got me thinking about the value of PR, how to measure it and how to explain what it takes to get results – especially to someone who isn’t familiar with public relations strategy or tactics. In the conversation with the potential client, his focus was on what the measurable results would be from a public relations campaign. It’s a fair question, but I think it’s one that needs to be put into context. It isn’t necessarily a straightforward answer.

Public relations, publicity, media relations, communications – whatever you call it – we’ve always had a challenge in defining its value, specific to measurement. The online world has forced an evolution in how the work we do is measured. The shift in traditional media has created the need to redefine what we measure and how we report out. And the blurring of lines between sales, marketing and public relations has created a demand that what we do be linked back to return-on-investment. None of this is impossible; it just all needs to be put into context and objectives need to be clearly defined at the start – relevant to organizational goals, campaign goals and impact, value and return-on-investment benchmarks.

The potential client I spoke with asked specific questions such as: “How many leads will a public relations campaign provide?” I couldn’t answer that question for him because I didn’t have all the information. The fact is, no matter how effective a PR campaign or initiative is, without creating a strategic PR plan, defining the budget, tactics and timeline, setting the objectives and goals and defining the criteria for success, it’s almost impossible to answer that.

The questions I had in return were:

  • How many leads do you get a day/week/month now?
  • What are the budget, length and approach of the PR campaign?
  • Who is the campaign targeting – what is their natural lifecycle of action or influence?
  • What are the metrics that can be used to understand the impact of the PR campaign? (Website visits, social media engagement/conversation, sharing with friends and colleagues, calls to the office, behaviour/action benchmarks, increase in awareness, message recall & retention, and purchase consideration.)

However well-defined the components are, they take time, energy and budget. An organization with a limited budget that sends out one news release or editorial style article once every year isn’t going to generate the same results as an organization that has a consistent focus on sharing information and on creating opportunities for exposure and engagement. Exposure and engagement lead to influence and action. For most organizations, that takes a commitment to PR beyond one short campaign.

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