04 Mar Five Powerful Indicators that You’re Doing Public Relations Right

Spring is nearly here, and you can see the signs all around you. Flowers are starting to bloom, trees are budding with new life, and first quarter reports are coming due.

Some reports are easy to write, easy to understand. Sales figures. Profit and loss. Fundraising totals.

These reports are generated quarter after quarter, year after year, by businesses and non-profits all around the globe. They are a language unto themselves and provide key insights into the health of the organizations they represent.

But how do you measure your public relations and marketing efforts? Are you even doing so in a meaningful way?

A robust public relations program has several components, but there are five key indicators you should be measuring to know if your work in the public sphere is effective.

1. In earned media, quantity is wonderful, but quality matters most. Do you know your target audiences? Are you reaching them with your media relations efforts? If the answer to the first question is “no,” you’ll never know the answer to the second. Without affirmative answers to both questions, any media relations reporting you undertake will be completely without meaning.
2. Are you using social media to expand your base of support? Much of the chatter around social media is focused on finding the right influencer to make a big impact, but for most businesses and non-profits, social media serves more as an effective way to have a real conversation with the people you need the most – your clients, customers, donors, and prospects. Great public relations reporting will help you understand where you stand with these key audiences.
3. Is your paid advertising and marketing efforts moving the needle? Are you truly measuring the effectiveness of that paid social post, billboard, or television commercial? Do you know if your paid media efforts are driving traffic to your website, your storefront or your home on Amazon? If you don’t know the answers to these questions, you won’t have a report that is measuring the effectiveness of your efforts, and you may well be spending good money after bad.
4. What are you doing to make a difference in the communities you serve? Does anyone know you’re doing it? Corporate Social Responsibility programs continue to be a critical part of any effective public relations plan. Great CSR programs make a difference for both charitable organizations and your business, and they do so in ways you can measure. Are you measuring them?
5. How often do you talk to your own employees? Do they know your mission? Are they driven to work each and every day by the same things that drive you? If you don’t know the answers to these questions, or if the answers are negative, you’re missing an opportunity to shape public perception through your most important ambassadors.

If you can’t answer these questions or don’t like the answers you’re getting, it’s time to invest in your public relations and marketing program. At NSPR, we work with organizations just like yours to grow in the public arena and get the answers they need to all of these questions and more. To learn more, give us a call or drop us a line today.