How do you know if a PR campaign has been successful? How do you know what to tweak if it hasn’t? It all comes down to metrics and how you use them to your advantage. The thing is, there are so many platforms and companies out there who are willing to offer and sell packages that let you know how many emails have been opened internally, or how big a reach your press release got, but which one is right for you? Where do you even start and what metrics should you be monitoring? This week, we explore what analytics you should be reviewing and which tools can help you deliver them.
Email Measuring Tools
Incredible pieces of software, like Bananatag or Yesware, help you to track email opens and read times, along with other email metrics. These platforms can easily integrate with email tools like Gmail and Outlook and are ideal for public relations, as well as internal communications, campaigns. They allow you to measure how many employees read your new HR policy or find out if a journalist opened your press release. Whilst these metrics are great to have, especially from an internal communications perspective, many PR professionals argue that having ‘read receipts’ seems forced in such a modern age, and they come at quite a cost to have installed and then managed monthly, so may not be worth the investment if you don’t have the resources behind it.
Media Monitoring Tools
Working in PR, you’ll know that building brand reputation is very important, so utilising a platform that tracks mentions of your company or client is important. Google Alerts are not always reliable or get to you as quickly as you might need them (especially for crisis communications) so investing in a platform such as Gorkanna, or Roxhill is going to give you that extra edge over competitors. These tools also allow you to create bespoke media lists, research journalists before sending emails or attending meetings, and have the option of making notes on publications or writers so that you can remember what you sent or said. The con of using these kinds of platforms is the finance side, and are only really worth it if you have the resources to invest.
Message Resonance Tools
Message resonance allow you to choose one or two key messages in a campaign or a press release and then monitor how effective they were, usually by showing how many articles repeated the message, or how many times the message was used online. Using these metrics is really important because it shows you, your team, your client, or your board, how well the media understood the message you were trying to get across. If the metric comes back with a small figure, then you can adapt and change the message accordingly. Companies, such as Glean, offer packages that allow you to measure your message and how well it resonated with your targeted audience, along with the media.
It’s really important to show that you have a return on investment, especially if you have spent a lot of money on analytical tools and platforms, but just as equally, shows what went well in your campaign, and what didn’t go so well. The things that don’t go as well as you had hoped still work in your favour; they tell you what you need to work on next time to get your campaign where it needs to be.
