MEDIA DATA & DASHBOARDS M E A S U R I N G TH E VA LU E O F YO U R PR & M A R K E TI N G

If we want a seat at the ‘grown-ups table’ we have to earn it via metrics.1 David Rockland Partner & Managing Director Ketchum

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MEASURING THE VALUE OF YOUR PR & MARKETING

These days, PR and marketing professionals face increasing pressure to prove themselves as profit centers—rather than cost centers—within their organizations or to their clients. A past measurement approach, like calculating advertising value equivalents (AVEs), has a fatal flaw in today’s always-on, media landscape. Unlike ads, which are shown repeatedly to a targeted demographic, column inches disappear from view as the next big story comes along. And these days, the next big story comes along 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. So how do you go about measuring the value of your PR and marketing?

Experts Weigh In on Measuring Value

Recently, we shared a table with experts on using media data and dashboards to not only assess the value of PR and marketing efforts, but also to share those insights with the C-suite, clients or other stakeholders. Here’s what we learned:

MEASURING THE VALUE OF YOUR PR & MARKETING

Tie Your Metrics to Business Goals

Thanks to the digital revolution, you can count clicks, likes and more, but as Sean Swentek, vice president of social media at Opus Bank, notes “If you don’t know which metrics matter before you start measuring, you will get lost in a mountain of data.” His recommendation? Tie your metrics to clear business goals that impact the bottom line. It’s not enough to measure media coverage (those dreaded AVEs). You need to tie that coverage to results that increase brand awareness, generate new leads and ultimately grow profit. Those metrics may vary, of course, depending on your organization’s or client’s goals.

• If you want to increase brand awareness, then your metric might be to grow organic social impressions by a certain percentage.

• If you want to enhance customer service and support, then your metric might be to reply to all social customer service requests within a specific number of hours.

Notice, that these metrics are framed to eliminate ambiguity. Sean recommends using a simple acronym as a reminder of what metrics need to entail to optimize their usefulness: SMART.

Too often, metrics lack clarity. By leveraging a SMART approach to determining your metrics, you ensure they demonstrate real value—not just numbers—and provide the insights needed to optimize your PR and marketing plans with greater agility.

“If you don’t know which metrics matter before you start measuring, you will get lost in a mountain of data.”Sean Swentek, @swiz Vice President, Social Media Opus Bank

SPECIFIC ME ASUR ABLE ATTAINABLE RELE VANT TIME-BASED

S M A R T

MEASURING THE VALUE OF YOUR PR & MARKETING

Is Your C-Suite Interested in What You’re Reporting?

When it comes to reporting on the metrics you’re tracking, Hill+Knowlton’s senior vice president of global measurement, Research+Data Insights, Margot Sinclair Savell, says, “You know your communications and business goals; you have your measurable objectives. You know your audiences. You used that knowledge to choose your metrics. Now, how do you build a dashboard that will capture and maintain the attention of your C-suite?” While a granular level of detail helps your PR and marketing teams make better decisions, extremely detailed reports or overly complex dashboards will fail to capture the attention of your senior leadership.

Lisa Adams, PR and digital communications manager at FMC Technologies also recommends focusing on simplicity, while still telling a story. “Numbers without context are very difficult to process,” she says. Conduct deep analysis, but then summarize the results in a compelling, easy-to-consume way.

Data visualizations enable senior leadership to view reports at their convenience on a train, with their morning coffee, in between meetings, at lunch or while home on the couch.

“Numbers without context are very difficult to process.” Lisa Adams, @LisaAdams08 PR and Digital Communications Manager FMC Technologies

Moreover, in order to grab their attention immediately, you need to highlight the wins and the metrics that matter most to them. What if—and it does happen—members of the C-suite remain fixated on metrics that were meaningful in the past but aren’t as relevant in the digital age? Old habits sometimes die hard.

Eventually, the C-suite will come around, especially when the metrics you use demonstrate a positive financial impact. After all, that’s what the C-suite is looking for, first and foremost.

3 STEPS FOR CHANGING THE C-SUITE’S FOCUS

1Keep the old metrics, but include new ones tied directly to the bottom line.

2Over time, move the new metrics into more prominent positions (or bigger visualizations).

3At the same time, minimize the placement and size of those old ones.

MEASURING THE VALUE OF YOUR PR & MARKETING

What’s the Best Way to Present Your Data?

The answer depends on your needs. Margot asks, “Does your C-suite want an online, real-time dashboard or just a data visualization on a slide or two in an executive summary of your monthly report?” Let’s look at the advantages and disadvantages of each option.

An online dashboard offers real-time information—anytime, anywhere—which can be particularly valuable for crisis communications. In addition, Margot says, “The best online dashboards let you slice and dice data to your heart’s content.”

• Make comparisons against competitor media coverage.

• See if your coverage is trending—positive or negative.

• Uncover if your company or a competitor ‘owns’ a topic in the media.

• Identify the influencers and conversations that are most important to your company.

• Determine what words are closely associated with your brand.

• View coverage across media channels to understand the most effective channels for outreach and PR efforts.

• Showcase your brand’s media success in real-time.

Having helped many clients put real-time dashboards in place, she notes that the cost can range from $1,000 a month to $25,000 a month. While users always love “shiny new toys,” the dashboard is worth the cost only when PR professionals spend time viewing and analyzing the data frequently and consistently, and the C-suite can easily see the KPIs they value most.

On the other hand, reporting via an executive summary—just one or two slides—quickly shows monthly performance success, economically. Charts and other data visualizations provide the business metrics your C-suite wants to see, offering high-level insights into changes month over month for metrics such as revenue, profit, costs, customer satisfaction or purchase interest. However, this static visualization of your KPIs fails to capture trends in real time and lacks convenience if the C-suite wants to understand performance on an ongoing basis rather than the historical view.

“The best online dashboards let you slice and dice data to your heart’s content.”Margot Sinclair Savell, @margotsavell Senior Vice President, Global Measurement, Research+Data Insights Hill+Knowlton

“Information is constantly created and consumed. Media monitoring and analysis breaks through the noise.Jim Collishaw, @jimcollish Director of U.S. Sales—Media Intelligence LexisNexis®

TOP FEATURES TO LOOK FOR IN A REAL-TIME DASHBOARD TOOL

1 BROAD MEDIA-MONITORING COVERAGE. Choose a solution that spans newswires and press releases, print and broadcast media, open Web and social media content.

2 CONTENT ENRICHMENT TO IMPROVE SEARCH RELEVANCE. The best dashboards enable you to cut through the media clutter by leveraging rich, semantic metadata tags, text normalization, superior indexing, geo-data and sentiment scores.

3 BUILT-IN ANALYTICS TOOLS. Nothing can replace human insights into the media you monitor, but easy-to-use analytics tools enable you to analyze unstructured data more quickly and move from information to insight in just a few clicks.

4 FLEXIBLE SHARING PLATFORM. A dashboard represents just one way to share business intelligence. Look for solutions that allow you to set up alerts and RSS feeds, generate newsletters, and build custom dashboards to deliver real-time insights where and when they’re needed to support greater collaboration across your organization.

MEASURING THE VALUE OF YOUR PR & MARKETING

MEASURING THE VALUE OF YOUR PR & MARKETING

LexisNexis and the Knowledge Burst logo are registered trademarks and LexisNexis Newsdesk is a trademark of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc., used under license. Other products or services may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. © 2016 LexisNexis. All rights reserved. NBI01420-0 0516

1 https://www.prezly.com/public-relations-quotes2 http://www.bobparsons.me/bp_16_rules.php

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The world has evolved with the rise of digital technology—and your role as a PR or marketing professional has changed as a result. With downward pressure on budgets and upward pressure on results, you need to have the right tools in place to prove the effectiveness of your strategies for boosting your brand and connecting with customers. Are you—and the tools you rely on—up to the challenge?

LexisNexis Newsdesk™ brings together a comprehensive, global content collection with powerful media monitoring, analysis and sharing tools. Offering both licensed and open Web content—from print, online and broadcast news to blogs and social media channels—LexisNexis Newsdesk enables near real-time monitoring of your brand voice and helps you identify trends sooner. In addition, LexisNexis Newsdesk allows you to analyze mountains of media data in just a few clicks and generate data visualizations that can be shared organization-wide via alerts and newsletters.

After nearly 40 years providing solutions that help organizations harness the power of information, LexisNexis® remains dedicated to developing innovative tools to support data-driven decision-making. Our commitment extends beyond comprehensive content and outstanding search technology to world-class client service support, ensuring that our clients gain maximum insights—and value—from LexisNexis solutions.

Conclusion “Anything that is measured and watched, improves.” 2

Bob Parsons Executive Chairman and Founder GoDaddy.com