How do I measure the effectiveness of PR?
How to measure the effectiveness of PR is a question that we often get asked by clients. What most clients need to know, really, is; does PR work? Whilst it’s true that the benefits of PR or public relations can be more difficult to measure it is generally accepted that it is more effective than other marketing activities, such as advertising or direct mail. The traditional method of assessing the impact of PR, and in a round-about way, answering the question about its effectiveness, was to look at press clippings, web traffic or social media mentions. Useful that these are in giving you an idea of the interest that your PR strategy is generating, they don’t necessarily provide your commercial team with warm sales leads.
Demand for a better way of quantifying the results from PR was one of the reasons why we set about creating a more transparent method of measuring the effectiveness of our PR strategy for each client.
The start point had to be sales leads because we know that is what all businesses need if they are looking to grow. We also knew that if we could provide warm sales leads to our clients it would not only show the tangible results of PR, but would be really valued by their sales force. Following a considerable amount of software development we have created a system that now provides our clients with valuable, warm sales leads.
Here’s what one of our clients said about this new service we now offer; “We won a significant new customer thanks to the lead generation service offered by Dragonfly. PR is now a central part of our communication strategy and we are impressed with the tangible and measureable results that we get from it.”
Our lead generation service, which we now offer to all clients, begins with us devising a PR strategy. Because we specialise in the building and manufacturing sector, giving us an excellent understanding of routes to market, we can put together some really creative ideas that we know will generate sales leads. Following presentation of the PR strategy to the client it is then a process of implementation, and this usually involves a mix of press releases, case studies, magazine articles and blogs.
The really useful thing about our sales lead generation service is that it tells you exactly which PR activities are generating the most sales enquiries. That’s invaluable information for our clients because it means we can make sure we do more of the activities that get them the best leads. This may vary month by month, so we’re constantly updating and refining the plan to get the best results for our clients.
If you are looking to grow your business in 2019 by creating targeted, warm sales leads for your commercial teams we’re happy to show how a carefully thought-out PR strategy can be part of that. We are a Sheffield based PR and digital marketing company that specialises in the construction and manufacturing sectors. If you would like to speak to one of our team, call 0114 349 5345 or email hello@dragonflypr.co.uk.
To view our latest case studies, click here.