It’s no surprise that when budgets get tight marketing is the first to get the axe.   The biggest reason for this comes down to the data:  Decision makers in the C-suite justify spending with hard numbers and most public relations campaigns fail to produce anything more than clipbooks, social media activity and advertising value equivalency.  What your public relations firm should be providing are outcome measures demonstrating that effective public relations programs drive business performance. 

This may seem like a great idea in theory, but is it a reasonable request of your PR firm? Of course it is.  Public relations has the ability to generate revenue, enhance efficiency, identify and avoid potential crises, increase the likelihood to purchase your brand, reinforce organizational values, establish credibility, increase customer loyalty, influence customer and employee behavior and so much more.  The key to measuring these results? Establishing clear, measurable goals, creating an open dialogue between client and agency, and yes, some of the budget allotted specifically to the task of measurement.

Share Information
Inherently measurement is a comparative tool.  To determine whether a campaign is successful or not, the results need a benchmark from which to compare the results.  Depending on the goals established, the benchmark can be company performance over time, traffic to the company website, number of mentions in the press vs. the competition, etc.  Most companies have done some sort of analysis (as basic as it may have been) on their employees, customers, competition, sales, or any other aspect of the company.  This information can be invaluable for a new PR campaign and can serve as a benchmark to measure business outcomes against.  Providing this information to your PR firm is also a quick way to save some upfront costs.

Think Beyond the Marketing Department
The objectives of a public relations campaign should tie into the overall business objectives of the company.  More often than not a client will share with us their marketing objectives, but give no detail on the overall objectives and goals of the company.  For a campaign to be successful and provide results that influence business outcomes, every business objective needs to be taken into consideration, even if it’s not immediately apparent that it relates to marketing.  Don’t be afraid to tell your PR firm the full story.  The more information we have the better we will be able create a campaign that marries your communications and business objectives.   

Hard Number Cost, Well, Hard Numbers
There are many ways to analyze the results of a public relations campaign, ranging from free web tools like Google Analytics to more expensive software applications that can track and analyze media relations results.   According to USC Annenberg, a general rule of thumb is that the cost of measurement should average 3-7 percent of the total public relations budget.    The more detailed the analysis, the more time and resources necessary to be dedicated to the project. 

Determining the results of a PR campaign is no longer a guessing game. With a dedicated PR team, a well thought-out strategy and plenty of planning, PR programs can drive business performance, which should make everyone happy.