With any aspect of business building, it’s important to know whether you’re getting a good return on your investment. But measuring the value of PR can sometimes be harder than other forms of investment as it’s not simply about looking at raw numbers and is often difficult to quantify.

Frankly, there is no good reason to measure PR results or your agency’s work just by counting the column inches or EAVs. This simple measure does have value in giving an overview of the strength of your media relations, but will only provide one indicator of the effectiveness of your PR and marketing strategy.

Firstly, it’s important to understand the PR results in terms of your business and marketing objectives. Why did you hire an agency or embark on a PR campaign? To increase website traffic? To increase the number of visitors at an event? Expanding your client base? Only when results are measured against objectives can the delivery be properly assessed.

Then there’s the importance of audience and influence. Where are the column inches appearing? Is the publication relevant for your target market? Is there an endless stream of articles in small publications or have the agency managed to get a great piece in a national? Is the tone of the piece positive?

Then there are the more opaque type of results, brand image and doors that have been opened, or relationships that have been strengthened. This type of ‘soft’ publicity is vital to building the business over the long term, and any good agency should be able to nurture and grow this aspect of the PR and marketing campaign.

But in today’s increasingly digital media landscape it is easier than ever to measure how successful PR activities are. There are endless metrics to assess when looking at social media platforms and you should regularly review the results of e-newsletter campaigns and tweak the delivery or content accordingly.

So don’t look at the success of you PR in isolation. Ensure your team is assessing a wide variety of ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ results, regularly reporting back to you, and communicating how your money is being spent.

Need more advice?

If you need agency support in understanding the effectiveness of your PR activities why not get in touch with us and see how we could help your business. You can call us on 01926 832395, email hello@redmarlin.co.uk or tweet to @redmarlinpr.