Evaluating the success of your marketing and PR tactics is the first step in improving your marketing and PR programs. But to evaluate, you must be able to measure, and measuring begins with identifying what you want to measure, which in marketing speak is referred to as a key performance indicator (KPI).
While measuring marketing KPIs has its challenges, identifying PR KPIs and measuring these can be even more difficult. That’s because PR is often less about concrete data and more about subjective perceptions. (That said, there is software out there that can quantify public perception of a brand based on mentions in various forms of media.) Still, firms can take some objective measurements to gauge the impact of their PR efforts.
One example of a useful PR KPI is the correlation between media mentions and fluctuations in website visitors. Ideally, although not always, a media mention can generate a noticeable increase in website traffic. For example, an attorney at your firm is quoted in a news article. Monitor your website analytics to see if that mention resulted in a temporary increase in visitors to the attorney’s bio.
Another useful PR KPI is search engine results page rankings. The goal here is for a news article an attorney is quoted in to rank high in search results for certain keywords. To illustrate, a firm attorney is quoted in a story about a new regulation going into effect in your jurisdiction. When someone types in search terms related to the new regulation, the article quoting the attorney will show up prominently in the search results, which further increases the visibility and credibility of that attorney.
How Can Jaffe Help You Evaluate Your PR
Jaffe’s experienced team of publicists and digital strategists can work together to help you evaluate your media relations efforts. We are experienced at helping law firms identify their KPIs and developing a methodology for measuring progress. Our digital consultants can interpret Google Analytics data and analyze SEO data to see how media mentions are influencing your firm’s website traffic and search engine rankings. Meanwhile, our social media experts can review firm mentions in various social platforms to identify both negative and positive sentiments, while our publicists keep close tabs on every bylined article published and media mention obtained.
To learn how Jaffe can help you evaluate your PR efforts, contact Melanie Trudeau at mtrudeau@jaffepr.com.