From http://online-behavior.com/cartoons/accurate-measurement

The PR budget is based on what is often an unspoken assumption: that getting the word ‘out there’ through web content and the media will help sell whatever it is you have to sell.  But does it? Now that I’ve seen it from both the agency and corporate side, here’s what I’ve learned.

The good news is that it really does seem like PR works.  More and more, I’m hearing anecdotes about sales that resulted from PR placements and campaigns.  This is really cool – that is to say, it’s gratifying that my work and the work of our agency is paying off. But those are just anecdotes, after all.  The measurement that really gets me excited is…

You can correlate PR campaigns with web traffic.  I’ve had the opportunity lately see something simple that not many PR folks do: correlate web traffic data to press releases.  For the most part, PR works – you actually do see a spike in web traffic when you put out a press release.  But what you don’t necessarily see is a big spike that you can attribute directly to what we spend the most time seeking: feature placement in a major medi a outlet.  What’s the deal with that? Should we not bother?  Um, no… because when you think about it, you realize that…

Your goal is more than web traffic.  Or maybe it wasn’t web traffic at all.  Maybe it was awareness. A VP of Marketing at a startup once told a colleague of mine that his goal for PR was knowing recognition of the new company by whoever sat next to him on the airplane. Perhaps fortunes are made of such awareness. Another tech executive recounted that it was always clear to prospects that their technology was a superior solution – but only after an hour-long PowerPoint.  How do you measure when PR raises awareness, or tells a story that accelerates time to sale?

Unfortunately, measurement tends to be expensive and time consuming.  You’ve got so much time in the day, only so many people to do the work. You have to make choices: should I do the work, or measure it?

Here’s my Ideal World PR measurement program:

Audience target and reach: I hate PR measurement that simply counts clips — which really only measures your success at generating clips … extent of reach into target market audience is much, much better.

Awareness: aided and unaided awareness of PR-driven messages, pre-and post campaign, or simply 2X per year. Answer is based on direct surveys of selected target market.

Web traffic:  If the web traffic increases following an announcement or campaign, it means something in the message caused someone to take action.  Action is good.

Inquiries: Correlate number of sales inquiries to PR campaigns, however those inquiries arrive.

Time to sale: OK, so it’d be hard for PR to take credit for this, but what if you could measure average time to sale across the business, then up the ante on your awareness and thought leadership campaigns, and then see if you had an impact on time to sale. Wouldn’t that be cool…as in really, really valuable?

Sales: Maybe you can only measure this by anecdote. Maybe there’s a way code PR related referrals that lead to sales into salesforce automation systems.

Let’s discuss:

We don’t live in an ideal world, of course, so here’s the study question:

What should you measure to get the most bang for the buck – to know the program is working and help you make better decisions for next time?

So if everyone wants to buy from a leader, every business wants to be a leader. So what kind of leader is your company? What kind of leader should you be? The answer can go a long way toward focusing your public relations and marketing efforts in the right direction.

Consider these five leadership styles:

1. The Visionary Leader: The company that looks ahead. Keeps the customers at the state of the art, and guides them to the future. Visionary leaders think beyond their own product, shape industries, and tell us which way the world is headed.

2. The Market Leader: The one that dominates market share because they sell the most. They are the leader because they make good products, sell them well, and at some point “everyone else” buys their stuff, so it’s a safe choice. Not the flashiest or the coolest, but solid and reliable. Many Market Leaders  are content to continue as Market Leaders; others look to extend themselves into the role of visionary.

3. The Technology Leader: The geeks and the nerds.  The ones who get known for making the best products, with the most elegant feature sets or innovative designs. As leaders, the team’s experts explain technology and advocate for better solutions. They quickly integrate ‘what’s next’. They position their team as the smartest guys in the room who can solve their customers’ problems with their smart thinking.

4. The Best Practices Leader: These are the process experts. They know what’s going on in the customer’s world, and are always thinking about how to solve problems and make things better. They’re team has typically been there, done that, and can send you a whitepaper on how to implement best practices that enable customers to lower costs and improve speed and efficiency.  The Best Practices Leader wants to sell their solution, of course, but doesn’t mind sharing their broader knowledge of how to do things right.

5. The Customer Service Leader: These are the customer advocates. They are there for their customers. They differentiate on service – fast response, easy to reach, easy to do business. Go the extra mile to ensure customer satisfaction. It’s a positioning that works in industries where most products are largely the same – what the customer needs is to know that their vendor will take good care of them.

Every company uses different styles, often more than one at once.  Choosing a primary leadership positioning style focuses public relations and marketing strategy. The key is to choose a strategy that fits, that amplifies the existing products, brand, and company culture.

For further discussion:

• Agree or disagree with these leadership positioning types?

• What other categories would you add?

• What style does your company use?

• What well-known companies would you attach to each of these leadership positioning styles?

If it were truly of interest, couldn’t we find a better word, like “Intriguing”, “Fascinating”, “Spellbinding”, “Educational”, “Enlightening”, “Hilarious”, “Gut-busting”, “Wrong-headed”, “Spot-on”…need I go on?

Better yet, doesn’t the fact that you posted it presume that you found something of interest in it? That you thought we, your audience, would react to it? If so, could you not  simply describe it, and let your audience decide if it’s interesting?

The good writing principle is “Show, Don’t Tell.” Calling something “interesting” should live in the category of phrases where, “if you have to say it, it’s probably not.”

Don’t take this the wrong way, but people who post daily Facebook updates fascinate me. I don’t know how you do it. Maybe I’m jealous. As a lifelong writer-who-doesn’t-write (much…for himself, anyway), I’m impressed by those whose random thoughts that don’t simply flit across the brain like waterbugs to be eaten up by passing fish before they ever get where they’re going, but instead are netted and captured, or, perhaps, pinned, to find an odd sort of permanence on The Wall.

Or does your far-different-than-mine-brain captures it like lightning in a bottle, turning observation, musing, idea, complaint or bon mot into digital text in seconds? Is it a workplace diversion to post your latest photo? Is Facebook part of the daily checklist…where each day, along with getting dressed, shuttling the kids to and fro, working, making sure there’s food in the house and knowing where your next meal is coming from you fit in answering the question, “What will I share today?”

When you incorporate social media into your life – or into your business – what do you drop? Knowing there are only so many hours in the day, what doesn’t get done?

And why do we share? I’ll tell you why I do. It’s for the comments. And the likes. I admit it. (Is that OK to admit?) I want them at work, too. In public relations, we’re still judged on the media hit, sure, but what really matters is the response. When people post our story or write about us or link to us…what happens next? What do they think now… how have they changed… what are they telling their friends… what did they do?

[My kids just charged downstairs to play their latest obsession – the new Lego Batman game for the Wii. I thought you should know. Gotta go! But...hey...comments?]

“Agency versus Corporate” is a common topic among us PR folks — what’s the difference, which is better, which one is more “going to the dark side” than other…?

I’m just over a year into my first corporate stint after 15 years at agencies and three years as a freelancer. Without offending, hopefully, my colleagues on either side of this fence, a few points that may offer some clarity to anyone looking toward one side or the other.

1. There is a difference. Yeah, PR is PR. But, working at an agency and working within an organization are different jobs requiring different skills mindsets. Look at it this way: The same person can play baseball and football, and if you’re a good athlete, you can play either at a very high level. But you’ve got to work different sets of muscles to be successful. Agency folks have to work their ‘what should they do muscles.’  Corporate flexes their ‘what can we do’ muscles.

2. Agency Pros are External Catalysts. In the best view of yourself,the external agency is a catalyst for change with clients. You bring in strategy, focus, an outside point of view. You bring in insight from your interactions with influencers, and your work with other clients. You share best practices. You add focused skill and expertise to the client’s world. And your ideas and strategies provide a spark that might just generate sales, change perceptions and drive change. While on the inside…

3. Corporate PR Pros are Internal Agents. You’re representing your organization and your function. You’re deploying your strategic skills in messaging, positioning, writing and communicating that, in most cases, few others in the organization possess. And in the best view of yourself, you’reeffecting change in the organization…not by fanning the flames of change but by channeling creative energy into operational reality.  

4. Corporate PR has no idea how frustrating it is to be their PR agency.The very first time I worked with our agency after joining my company, I felt like a complete idiot. I didn’t have the information he needed, I didn’t have time to offer a proper explanation. I fired off short, probably cryptic emails just to keep things moving. I was acting, in short, just like the most frustrating clients I’d ever had. The challenge for the agency is to respect the client. To be a true partner, while standing outside of the day to day work of the client, helping the client to be  their best self while never really knowing the whole story of how things are actually getting done on the inside.

5. Agency PR Pros have not idea how to effect change inside a client’s organization. Even the best agencies with the closest client relationships don’t really know what it’s like for their clients day to day. There’s the meetings.  There are the multiple functions involved….organizational alignment needed…the moving parts necessary to turn a creative program into an operational success…From the outside, it might look dysfunctional…and sometimes it is….look at even the most effective organization from the inside and it’ll seem like chaos. But at their best, corporate pros are smarter than anyone about their business, effectively experimental, and cheerful agents of change.