Six steps to set PR objectives and measure results

Throughout my career as a PR professional I have seen many, many ways in which companies are measuring the results and successes of public relations activities. Most of them focus on the quantity and / or quality of coverage they have achieved. Some of the clients I have worked for also measure the ad value of articles or use some kind of formula to calculate the PR value. And some companies work with tier one media lists, tier two, etc. You can go all the way and also give a rate to whether a photo is included, if there is a quote from a spokesperson in the article, if the company is only mentioned, if it's an in-depth product review, if the tone of voice is positive, etc. etc. And then put everything in a fancy looking spreadsheet including nice visuals overviews.

Obviously the more you want to quantify the PR results, the more work it takes to analyse coverage. If you are working with a PR agency, they will most probably be able to provide you with this kind of information. But as most agencies charge by the hour, it is obvious as well that the more detail you require, the higher the invoice will be at the end of the month.

After a year or so, most companies raise the bar, adding let's say a 25 per cent increase to the objectives for the coming year. While I have no real problem in working this way, it does not take into account any changes in the media landscape, the way competitors are increasing their share of voice, any changes within the company itself and so on. Just like shareholders' value, PR targets just seem to go up every year, often lacking clear tactics to achieve these targets.

When we start working for a new client, I often get asked to provide them with a coverage target that is realistic yet ambitious. My first counter question then is to tell me more about their overall business and marketing objectives. After all, PR should be contributing to those objectives. It's nice to be featured in the eight o'clock news, but if your objective is to penetrate a very niche B2B market of 100 accounts, is it worth the effort to reach millions of consumers?

Here are six steps to help you define the right objectives and the way to realise them:

1. Objectives for PR should always support business objectives. So make clear what your business objectives are and ask your PR agency or staff to think how PR can support these. Don't be afraid to share confidential information, your agency should be used to dealing with this.

2. Step two is to define PR objectives. Often these are derived from marketing objectives, which is fine in most cases. Make sure you define clear PR objectives. Start with defining your audiences, then work out why these audiences would be interested in your message and what you would want them to hear, feel or do. Adapt your message to make it more relevant, but don't go into topics that are totally irrelevant to your company. Your agency should be able to help you with this and then come up with strategic PR targets. Don't just think coverage, because some messages can take a while to resonate. Specifically if your company is new to the market, some journalists may say they have heard your message before from a competitor. So it may happen that you will need to talk to a journalist several times to build some kind of relationship.

3. Define your tactical approach. How do we want to realise the PR objectives, and what do we need for it to work in terms of people, messaging and budgets. What kind of media are relevant to reach your audiences, and are you likely to find an angle that is in line with what those media write about. There are several ways that will get you there, but as long as you know where you're going you won't get lost. If budgets are lacking and there is no way to realise your PR objectives with a smaller budget, then revisit your objectives.

4. Set up a workable PR measurement tool, that has the right balance of the amount of time it takes to manage, and provides you with just enough information to see if you are on track. How much information do you really need to measure results? Take into consideration that time that goes into PR measurement, cannot go into the actual tactical work. Make sure you measure your results at least once per quarter and also include important milestones from your PR tactics.

5. Build in moments of evaluation, taking the time to analyse what did and what did not work. Especially things that did not work are valuable learning material.

6. Set new PR targets, not just based on results from the past but also on your future plans and budgets.

Hope this is usefull for now, we will follow up on this topic in the future on a more tactical level.

Richard