Measuring the Value of PR
The benefits of PR are often clear, yet usually hard to quantify. You can recognize that your company’s visibility is increasing, and customer comments may show that they are responding to that visibility. Your sales may be rising. But how can you measure these improvements and prove that your PR program is paying off?
Dux offers a number of ways to gauge the effectiveness of a PR program. Briefly, here are some we recommend:
- Basic tracking of “clippings” and online references to and articles about your company
- Translating the financial value of that publicity into an equivalent advertising value, showing the cost-effectiveness of PR
- Analyzing articles and news items to see how favorably your company is represented and how well your key messages are conveyed
- Tracking traffic on your website to gauge increased interest in your company
- Analyzing sales contacts and correlating them with PR activities
- Tallying the number of times your company representatives speak at conferences and other events
- Comparing sales forecasts at the beginning of a PR program and then measuring progress on a regular basis
- An image survey to see what key opinion leaders think about your company. A pre-PR program survey establishes a baseline, with regular surveys over time to see how your image is improving