Monday, July 21, 2008

Marketing/PR measurement

I'm looking for a best practices plan for measuring marketing and public relations efforts. For me, it seems like the success of the product and/or event is the only indicator of a job well done. One idea tossed around in the office is that we put on communication or online forms folks complete to include the "how did you hear about this?" There are so many factors... how do you measure your efforts at your organization or company?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Wendy,

I guess it all depends on where the feedback could end up being communicated. If you think some of that feedback might end up on blogs, in Twitter, as pictures of the event on Flickr, etc... you potentially could measure the buzz and viral uptake within social media. From a qualitative perspective reading and scoring the posts/tweets etc.. could also provide a measure of feedback.

Cheers.

David

City Sights and Observations said...

Those are great ideas, David. I'll try it, especially in my next PR report. Thank you! I'm so excited to have your expertise on my blog. :)

Anonymous said...

Hi Wendy,

There are a host of companies and resources that can help you to decide how best to measure your marketing and PR efforts.

In the US, you could contact the Institute of Public Relations who have a specialised 'Measurement Commission'.

Alternatively you could reach out directly to some of the members of the commission who are active bloggers - Don Bartholomew at his blog 'Proving the Value of Public Relations' (http://metricsman.wordpress.com/) and Katie Paine at www.kdpaine.blogs.com are both very knowledgeable, full of good advice and would I am sure be happy to help you.

Another option would be to contact AMEC (the international association for the measurement and evaluation of communications). Their website is at www.amecorg.com and, along with my own media evaluation and PR Measurement agency Metrica, lists many of the world's leading specialists.

In David's comment, he takes very much a social media angle. In this space, Nathan Gilliatt is a wonderful resource of ideas, suggestions and links at his blog 'the Net-Savvy Executive' (net-savvy.com/executive/). Nathan also compiles and sells 'The Guide to Social Media analysis' - more info here: www.socialtarget.com/research

Finally, you may find our own site and blog useful - Metrica can be found at metrica.net and our blog Measurement Matters is at www.metrica.net/measurementmatters

Hope that gives you plenty of ideas.

Warm regards from the UK,

Richard

Ed Jones said...

We measure return on marketing events. The quick overview of the event equation is impact on 1) business development, 2) customer and partner relationship management, 3) cost savings/ expense avoidance, 4) Promotion value and Media Value of resulting PR. We often work in concert with the PR team who are tracking hits associated with an event. Of course each of these components of value require specific measurement.

If you are interested in more about this approach to the event side of the equation visit http://constellationcc.com and check out the solutions section, What is an event, and Understanding ROI. I post to a blog about once a week at http://constellationcc.blogspot.com. Feel free to contact me with questions or to discuss.

Ed Jones edjones@constellationcc.com, 770-391-0015

Ed Jones said...

Wendy,

We measure return on marketing events. The quick overview of the event equation is impact on 1) business development, 2) customer and partner relationship management, 3) cost savings/ expense avoidance, 4) Promotion value and Media Value of resulting PR. We often work in concert with the PR team who are tracking hits associated with an event. Of course each of these components of value require specific measurement.

If you are interested in more about this approach to the event side of the equation visit http://constellationcc.com and check out the solutions section, What is an event, and Understanding ROI. I post to a blog about once a week at http://constellationcc.blogspot.com. Feel free to contact me with questions or to discuss.

Ed Jones edjones@constellationcc.com, 770-391-0015

City Sights and Observations said...

Thanks Richard and Ed for all of those helpful Web sites and your blog Ed. Since I work for a nonprofit, I'll definitely check out the Web sites and see what I can learn first.;)