In today’s digital age, we’re constantly bombarded with information. If you’re online and logged into social media for most of the day, you’ll have been fed information thousands of times from multiple sources by day’s end. News, ads, posts from KOLs, celebrities, netizens and friends are constantly streaming information to us. This content, however, is often scattered and disorganised.
As communicators, our role is to convert dispersed facts, data and statistics into brand stories and effective narratives that catch the attention of audiences in this increasingly busy space. Quality content is an increasingly critical part of the communications and marketing toolkit.
It’s important that we create meaningful stories that resonate intellectually and emotionally with audiences. Let’s imagine that there are two brands selling the same product. Brand A reaches the consumer by showcasing the same product that they’ve been selling for years and Brand B reaches the consumer by sharing strong narratives that communicate the brand’s history, quality and how products relate to your current circumstances. Brand B is likely to be more persuasive, right? Interesting storytelling is a powerful bridge to communicate with as people prefer engaging with a brand’s story and understanding how it’s relevant to them, rather than receiving hard sell product messaging.
Once a narrative has been built and an integrated PR strategy executed, it’s time to assess the effectiveness of the strategy and measure the campaign outputs.
Metrics for evaluating PR
If you still believe that AVE (advertising value equivalency) is the best metric for measuring the effectiveness of PR, it is time for an update. Advertising expense, which is based on the size of the ad and the reach of the medium it was placed in, was easy to measure. Nevertheless, this value is not actually garnering valid insights into the impact of integrated PR campaigns. Also, AVEs have not been adapted to align with today’s online society. Nowadays, communications professionals are being asked to work and measure across not just print and broadcast media, but also online publications and social media channels.
To prove the impact and value of our work, we turn to AMEC – the world’s leading media intelligence and insights professional organisation. The AMEC Integrated Evaluation Framework is a tool made for PR professionals to measure and prove the real impact of their work. It helps ‘operationalise’ the Barcelona Principles and demonstrates how to turn Principles into Action.
Source: AMEC
Include measurement as part of strategy and timeline
Measuring PR effort is important for demonstrating the value of PR. As a first step, communicators should understand their goals, set objectives and targets, and define the purpose of the narrative. To accurately track PR effort, it’s important to understand the difference between what we are measuring, namely outputs, outtakes, outcomes and impact.
Never underestimate the value of continuously evaluating your work. It’s the only way to assess what is working and what is not, identify what needs to be adjusted to reach the desired outcomes, and prove the value of the investment and work put into it. At the end of the project, the results should be analysed according to whether the objectives were met and the impact on the business.
If you’d like to speak to us about strategy development, measurements and insights, please get in touch with us here.
