By Danny Sullivan
In the world of the PR agency, you can never really achieve enough. The nature of the client-agency relationship dictates that clients will always demand more of their PR firm, even if it outperforms all expectations. And why not? It certainly keeps the agency on its toes and companies need to ensure that they continue to generate high value from their PR program. Still, for the PR practitioners working diligently day in and day out, it can sometimes feel like a lot of effort for little thanks. So how do PR folk stay positive in the face of seemingly insurmountable expectation?
For a start, good communication with clients is an important step. Even if the expectation remains tough, ongoing feedback, both positive and otherwise, ensures that the relationship is about more than just the results and helps the PR function to become a more integrated part of the client’s marketing mix. This is beneficial to both sides.
But in addition, PR agencies need to become internally aware of the value of what they are delivering for their clients, and it may require elements other than feedback to bring this perspective to bear.
Probably the most effective way to do this is through the setting of objectives. By establishing in advance with a client what kinds of results would constitute success, it is a simple process to then determine if what is being delivered meets those criteria. Even with set objectives, the client’s appetite for greater and improved results is likely to be undiminished, but the achievement of such objectives offers the PR worker an element of satisfaction that is as vital in this profession as it is in any other.
By Francis Moran
As part of my continuing series of Francis’s favourite PR fictions, subtitled “Everything I know that’s wrong about PR I learned from technology company executives,” I have written a couple of posts on PR measurement addressing the common myth that straight lines can’t be drawn between a company’s PR efforts and any kind of real evaluative yardsticks. I return to the topic today because I am getting some interesting comments on the subject. Clearly, it’s something that people are keen to explore.
Our approach here at inmedia is to measure outputs, outcomes and impact. In my first post, I described what we mean by outputs, which are little more than the critical path, or a list of how much PR stuff the client is buying. While most PR agencies and practitioners will set clear parameters for their outputs, too few are prepared to go any further than that.
We insist that every program go at least one step beyond this minimal evaluation to set, and measure performance against, objectives for outcomes, or the amount, nature and content of the media and analyst coverage our efforts are expected to generate. In my more than 20 years as a communications practitioner, I have found distressingly few others who will commit to being held accountable for the actual results of their programs in clear, unambiguous terms that allow the client to make a rational ROI analysis about whether the promised level of media and analyst engagement is worth the cost of the program.
Fortunately, there is a growing and increasingly sophisticated audience of both practitioners and clients insisting on this. Many are deploying simple yardsticks that go well beyond what I call “thud value,” or the noise the clippings book makes when you drop it on the boardroom table in the hopes the client will be impressed by the sheer number of column inches. These yardsticks, which we commonly use, include determining which media outlets and analyst firms are the most influential — we designate them Tier 1 — and then telling the client exactly how well the program is expected to do in terms of percentage of Tier 1 targets engaged, types of stories, the nature of the messaging, numbers of analyst briefings, speaking engagements, and so on.
Many practitioners go well beyond this to provide granular analysis of the actual content of the media coverage. Although few of our B2B technology clients generate the volumes of media coverage that make such a statistical exercise either practical or meaningful, I am a huge advocate of media content analysis as both a strategic research and a program evaluation tool. I will write more about this topic in a future post on PR measurement because it deserves fuller treatment.
My second post described how even measuring outcomes often falls short of meaningful evaluation, especially in cases, admittedly rare but real nonetheless, where there is masses of coverage but no persistent impact on the client’s business objectives.
Which brings me to the final, most critical, hardest to implement and most elusive category of objectives we strive to track, impact. I will present case studies over my next several posts to illustrate how many of these have been used to help our clients calculate a reliable and meaningful ROI on their PR spend, but here is a range of common metrics that can be used to measure the impact a program has on everyday business objectives:
- Web traffic, measured in hits to a company site, Google mentions, search engine rankings, and so on.
- Demand creation, or what used to be known as lead generation. I like the newer term because it distinguishes between mere enquiries and actual demand for the product or service.
- Sales cycle acceleration.
- Customer interest in the media coverage.
- Investment secured.
- Increased sales, revenues and profit. (Now THAT is what we’re really talkin’ about!)
I’d be intrigued to hear from others as to what they think of these metrics, and also to hear about other yardsticks that are used. Subsequent posts will deal with how the data required to deploy these metrics can be gathered, as well as presenting, as mentioned, specific case study examples.
By Linda Forrest
This blog post is part of a series on integrated PR programs. Last week, I wrote about bylined articles. Today, I would like to address speaking opportunities.
Why should company representatives do speaking engagements? There are a number of good reasons for your company’s representatives to speak publicly – chief of which is to build the company’s reputation as a leader in its space and for the executive speaking to build their profile amongst stakeholders, peers, competitors, potential customers and the general public. Public speaking can support business objectives like recruitment, increasing market awareness and seeking potential partners. Like the other tactics this series addresses, speaking opportunities is but one of a number of public relations activities that make up a complete program that supports your business objectives as a whole.
In what venues can our company speak? Trade organizations, associations and special interest groups have regular meetings that may be suitable for your company to speak at. Speaking at community events, such as awards shows affiliated with your company’s corporate social responsibility program or personal charitable endeavours can be advantageous as it helps to build both personal and corporate goodwill. Conferences and trade shows that speak directly to your particular market are probably the events that have the highest value as the audience is made up of your peers and prospects.
What kinds of speaking opportunities exist? A distinction should be made between types of speaking engagements, those that the speaker pays for and those that are earned based on reputation, expertise and strength and appropriateness of the proposed speaking topic. In our opinion, the former, like their print “editorial” counterpart, can be devalued by the audience as not being worthy of their attention because it is implied that it will be little more than a commercial for the company. This sort of speaking engagement, in my opinion, would be more considered advertising than a true PR opportunity. That said, many reputable conferences and events only allow paying exhibitors the opportunity to present to their audiences. Other events have a broad spectrum of opportunities based on the subject matter, the technical detail of and the expected audience of the event. For example, a biotechnology-focused conference may offer scientific symposia as well as technology demonstrations and expert panels.
What formats are typically used? The format of a speaking opportunity varies widely from event to event. Sometimes, participation in a panel enables the speaker to take part in a conversation with multiple experts and acts as a dialog between leaders in a chosen field. Some speaking opportunities may be brief introductions about your company or technology while others present the chance to host a workshop that demonstrates your technology to potential partners and customers. Speeches can be an hour or more long, or last just 15 minutes or so; they can be interactive or a monologue only. Whatever the format, be sure that it enables you to get your key messages across and that it well positions the speaker and the company.
By Jill Pyle
This morning, I attended CNW Group’s Breakfast and media event, The Changing Landscape of Canadian Media and the Increasing Role of the Web in News Reporting. During the one- hour session, David Akin, Parliamentary correspondent for CTV National News Ottawa, shared four complaints about the way he sees public relations being practiced as means to help the audience avoid making some classic mistakes.
David’s first complaint was that many companies don’t make it easy enough for the media to locate their online media center and get in touch with public relations contacts. He showed us several web sites, both government and corporate, noting the many clicks required to find each media centre, and the varying levels of contact detail they provided.
As a broadcast reporter who often works outside regular business hours and is subject to strict deadlines, he stressed the importance of making detailed contact information available. He recommended providing contact names rather than general numbers, direct phone numbers rather than those that go straight to voicemail, mobile numbers and contacts who also can be reached outside business hours. When multiple public relations contacts are listed, he also advised identifying each person’s responsibilities and areas of expertise.
Like many people working in the media business, David uses a BlackBerry to read many of his emails. He reminded us that on mobile devices and in Microsoft Outlook, email subject lines are often cut short. With only a few characters to catch a journalists’ attention, we have to use them wisely. “Company name news release” doesn’t cut it. To illustrate, he shared an email sent to him by the public relations team representing the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics which used a similar subject line and, in the body of the email, provided nothing more than a note directing media to a URL where they could sign in to view press release. Ouch.
David’s final two complaints were that many public relations professionals don’t use enough links in their press releases and often don’t make photos and videos easily accessible. He suggested using links throughout news releases to point to background information about products or partners that are mentioned but not described in detail. When it came time to discuss the availability of photos and videos, he reminded the audience that making broadcast-quality videos and print-quality photos available online simplifies the work of journalists and can sometimes be the defining factor in a story being covered.
David shared some great advice, much of which coincides with our best practices approach. For anyone who needed reminding, this was a great wake up call. We can’t forget that one of our major roles is to make the media’s job as easy as possible.
By Danny Sullivan
If you are working in PR in today’s high-buzz technology media market, then you will be very aware of the requirement for proof points in order to secure quality media coverage. Gone are the days when an unproven company could announce a new product months or even years before it was available and yet still generate plenty column inches. And that’s a good thing for everyone.
However, it’s still refreshing to see news like yesterday’s story about the $195 laptop, which, despite the company not revealing much detail about the technology specifics, still generated a lot of press interest. It shows that the right kind of content can still elevate your news beyond those editor-imposed rules of “no proof, no story”.
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