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When Does Public Relations Measure Up?

by Kathy Keenan

Unfortunately for public relations people, the effectiveness of public relations is difficult to measure empirically. This is partly because it’s a subtle process and people often don’t remember how they receive information. Companies with an active PR program but doping no advertising will frequently get calls from interested prospects who say that they learned about the company, product or service from an ad.

Methods of Measurement

The impact of public relations, in isolation from other communications and sales efforts, can be measured. This involves performing a statistically valid benchmark study, with a follow-up study performed at a later date.

If the studies were properly prepared and implemented, comparing the results of the studies measures the target audience’s change in attitude, perception or behavior. Regrettably for public relations people, there are few organizations – other than large consumer-oriented firms and government agencies – that are willing to spend the money to perform such studies.

If extensive research is not an option, firms can use the following methods of understanding public relations effectiveness:

Lead tracking: By carefully tracking leads at every point of reception (telephone inquiries, letters, coupons, etc.), it’s possible to track how many sales leads are generated by Pr versus other methods of promotion. This is helpful, but not very accurate because:

• People often don’t remember where they saw the mention.
• Sales leads don’t indicate whether there’s a quantifiable change in perception or image, although they are certainly an indication of behavioral change.
• Coupons aren’t always handled promptly, leaving the potential customer with a poor impression of the firm’s responsiveness. A serious buyer will push to make a decision quickly and will not wait to hear from you.

Number of impressions: This is a method borrowed from the advertising world. It’s calculated by tracking media coverage by publication and factoring in the publication’s circulation. This looks very impressive in a clip report, but not every one of those subscribers read the story, and there’s no economical way to determine how many of them did see it, or remembered it.

Column inches: This is a traditional way of measuring public relations results, and it’s more ridiculous than most. Using column inches, you literally measure how many inches of copy your coverage took up in a publication. Some PR agencies convert column inches into the equivalent of advertising space, demonstrating that it would have cost much more to purchase the same space with an ad.

But column inches don’t tell you whether the coverage was accurate, favorable or appropriate. All column inches can tell you is the quantity of printer’s ink expended on your behalf (this must be where the expression “getting ink” comes from).

Clip reports: Clip reports list in which media your coverage appeared, the topic of the coverage, when it appeared, and usually the circulation of the media. Clip reports are useful. They provide a summary of what’s happening as a result of he PR program, and whether or not the program is well targeted. They don’t evaluate the accuracy f the media coverage, nor do they measure any change in perception or behavior on the part of the target audiences.

How Should It Work?

Skipping over communications theory, we know that public relations works well in the following areas:

• Formulation of attitudes or opinions (education)
• Persuasion (changing perception or opinion)
• Changing behavior

Will you be able to accurately track the impact of our public relations program? No, because the chain of events is subtle and complex. Public relations is usually only one way in which a company communicates — advertising, direct mail, and the efforts of sales people, customer support people and other factors play important roles. It’s probably not possible to isolate the effects of public relations from the effects of a company’s total communications.

The true success of a public relations program is best measured on two levels:

1. Management by Objectives. Plan your public relations effort carefully, and set measurable objectives. For instance, if you want to place more articles written by your firm’s staff, decide how many articles the staff can reasonably be expected to write. Create a list of appropriate publications. The goal is to place X number of articles in these within Y number of months.

At the end of the time set for the program, review the objectives. Your plan will tell you whether or not the program is on track. It will not, of course, tell you if you have sold the requisite number of widgets because you published X articles. Sorry, but you will never know that.

2. Intuition. Listen to customers. Are customers aware of new products or services? Are inquiries following on the heels of a new product announcement in the press? Is the marketplace mirroring your company’s desired image and position through the comments you hear about the firm? What are the competitors saying? If your competitors are complaining that the media is giving your company undue attention, you can be sure the program is working!