The All-Purpose, One-Size-Fits-All Public Relations Measurement Program Checklist

Measurement Tools 101

 

Everything you need to know before you start any public relations measurement program. Don't leave home without it.

This basic information checklist could be the handiest, most convenient, and most valuable tool in your public relations measurement quiver. No matter what project or media you are working with, these are all the things you should know -- all the ducks to get in a row -- before you jump in the water.

Some of these are easy, some are hard, and for some you've got to think, maybe make some tough decisions. But, by the time you're done your brain -- and your project -- will be up to speed. Plus -- Bonus! -- it will be obvious to your client or your boss that you've not only got a clue, you've got the measurement bull by the horns. And, yes, you can download the Checklist here as a pdf.

The Measurement Program Checklist

Step 1: What are your objectives?

1. What are your organization's key goals for this year?

2. What are your department's key goals for this year?

3. What do you hope to accomplish with your measurement report?

• Get budget approved
• Increase budget
• Increase head count
• Get more internal support
• Get more external support
• Justify my existence
• Get a raise
• Get promoted
• Change the world

Step 2: What audiences are you targeting?

List all that apply, not just the following common ones. (If in doubt, put all the communications people in your organization in a room and ask them.)

• media
• prospects
• customers
• partners
• employees
• governments
• NGOs
• communities
• investors
• thought leaders
• international community
• other

How does a good relationship with your various target audiences benefit your organization?

1. Increases sales

2. Increases attendance

3. Increases donations

4. Increases likelihood of desirable legislation passing

5. Increase preference

6. Gets messages out

7. Improves employee retention

8. Improves employee loyalty

9. Improves customer retention

10. Improves customer loyalty

11. Improves likelihood of purchase

12. Attracts new customers

13. Attracts new prospects

14. Attracts new donors/potential donors

15. Increases amount of purchase

16. Increases frequency of purchase

17. Boosts stock price

18. Increases profitability

19. Reduces turnover

20. Decreases time to market

21. Decreases number of complaints

22. Decreases absenteeism

Step 3: Set priorities

Prioritize your audiences with this exercise: You have a total of 100 points to allocate. Award those points to the audiences that you have identified in order of their importance to your organization, based on your answers to questions in Step 2.

Step 4: Determine a benchmark

Who or what keeps your boss/client up at night? In other words, what are the competitive threats or perceived competitive threats to your organization? Select from the following lists to determine what you will be comparing your results to:

• Competitor(s) / Peer companies
• Industry benchmarks
• Yourself over time
• Last year's results

Step 5: Select the right measurement tool

If your objectives (Step 1 above) include increase awareness, attitude change or education, you will need to conduct a survey. Do you have email addresses for all those you want to survey? Do you have telephone numbers for all those you want to survey?

If you are seeking to measure sales and leads, you should be tracking web site traffic. If you are measuring media relations you will need to consider the following criteria in your measurement efforts:

• Tone of coverage
• Share of voice vs. the competition
• Share of discussion vs. the competition
• Share of spokesperson visibility
• Degree to which you have communicated key messages
• Degree to which you are favorably or unfavorably positioned on key issues
• Audience reached
• Prominence of coverage – the visibility of your brand within the story
• Dominance of coverage – the extent to which your brand dominates the coverage or is subservient to another brand
• Proactive vs. reactive media
• Key analysts quoted
• Type of analyst quoted
• Key reporters
• Key publications
• Key topics or subjects
• Type of article (check all that apply)
  • ____Letter to the editor
  • ____Editorial
  • ____Product review
  • ____Product brief
  • ____Industry round up
  • ____Application article
  • ____Article about the competition
  • Other _____________________________________
• Key messages, list below:

  1._________________________________________________________

  2. _________________________________________________________

  3. _________________________________________________________

  4.__________________________________________________________

5. __________________________________________________________

• Industry issues:

• __Employer of choice
• __Investment of choice (financial strength)
• __Vendor of choice (good/best value for the money)
• __Good corporate citizen
• __Environmentally responsible
• __Global leadership
• __Other: _______________________________________________________
• Prominence
  • Organization is mentioned in the headline, photograph or caption
  • Organization is mentioned in the top 20% of the article
  • Organization is mentioned in the bottom 80% of the article
• Dominance
• Organization is the focal point
• Organization is one of several mentioned
• Organization is only mentioned in passing
• Other _________________________________________
• Subjects (note all that apply)
  • Financials
  • Management changes
  • New product launch (specify product names)____________________________
  • Coverage of crisis or scandal (specify) ________________________________
  • Merger or acquisition
  • Customer
  • Corporate philanthropy
  • Industry
  • Other _________________________________________
• Influencers and key spokespeople
  • Company spokespeople (provide names)

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

• Competitors' spokespeople (provide names if available)

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

• Industry analysts
• Financial analysts
• Government officials
• Educators
• Other

Other considerations:

• Approximately how many clips a month appear about you and the competition? (If you are currently receiving more than 250 articles per month you may want to consider computer-aided content analysis.)
• How frequently do others in your company report results?
• How often would you/your boss/your client like to see a PR measurement report?

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Comments

[Anna Miotk]

Hello, I'm Anna Miotk from Poland. I read your blog nearly every day and sometimes I translate some pieces of your texts to Polish to my own weblog to provide my readers with the latest PR measurement trends. I am also writing doctor's thesis on PR measurement so I am very interested in all issues connected with it. The second field of my interest are new media as tool of PR communication. I am very interested in way in which these two indexes - share of voice and share of discussion - are count. Could you provide me with more detailed information? Thank you in advance.