Category: Development

For the layman, ROI (Return on investment) is a way to measure and evaluate the efficiency of an investment. However, it is not used to measure any form on investment on a small scale, it is looking at an investment’s and company’s long-term gains. It can be difficult to calculate ROI on that scale, so this guide will show the best ways to measure it and how to use it in your digital PR strategy.

What is ROI in PR?

It is important to understand that ROI is generally split into two categories; monetary gains like sales revenue increases and earned media gains that increase a startup’s reputation and credibility. Businesses are quite familiar with a company’s monetary gains because it has existed before social media and technology. However, nowadays it is important not to neglect earned media gains if you want your startup to be successful. If you want to achieve an accurate ROI for your PR strategy, it is important to understand both.

ROI for PR today

What is a press release and what’s its purpose?

In order to understand press releases, you can take a look at the Media Coverage press kit to get a detailed understanding and step-by-step guide to write a press release. Basically, the goal of a press release is to gain media coverage by sending it to media outlets. It is one of the main components to a well-balanced PR and media strategy. Take a more detailed look by looking at “How to pitch to journalists”. 

ROI’s can be a bit difficult to measure and while impressions and media mentions can provide a sense of efficiency in a PR campaign. However, they can be meaningless if you can’t contextualize the numbers around well-defined strategy goals. 

It is important to understand that you need to constantly be checking your metrics because things are constantly changing whether in a negative or positive way. Just judging and analyzing your initial PR gains can be a big mistake if you are only considering site sessions or publication appearances. Metrics could lead you to believe that the PR campaign is going better or worse than it actually is. 

If your site creates content designed to build social proof, looking at the metrics and amount of content impressions would be pointless because there would be another way to measure its industry credibility by lead conversion rates. 

In order to correctly use metric, you would need to give the data obtained a framework that describes your PR strategies’ purpose. Here are some that you may use to measure the ROI of your PR campaigns: 

• Page Impressions – Every time a page on your site appears on a Google ad or SERP. 
• Page Views – Every time a page on your site is clicked on a Google ad or SERP.
• Page Click Through Rate – The ratio of page impressions to page views
• Social Media Likes/Shares – The amount of interactions visitors have with one of your social media posts.
• Bounce Rate – The ratio of single-page sessions on your site to multiple page sessions.
• Average Page View Duration – The average time visitors spent on a particular page.
• Goal Conversions – The number of measurable goals completed, such as scheduled calls.

USE S.M.A.R.T GOALS!

How to measure PR ROI

At the moment, there are two strategies to measure ROI in PR

Barcelona Declaration of Measurement Principles

The Barcelona Declaration of Measurement Principles has shown the importance of measurable goals and places emphasis on achievements and it does it without letting go of the less attainable metrics because there are many components of success. 

It also takes into account new technology such as social media and understands its role in ROI PR and it deserves the same attention as any type of monetary ROI for PR strategy. 

However, what the principles lack is that they do not make perfect and concrete steps towards a framework for ROI calculations

In spite of their clear support for quantifying returns on PR in a meaningful way, the principles don’t enable startups with a mathematical formula to draw objective conclusions from their PR efforts.

Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE)

A more simple way to measuring all ROI activity, it multiplies the amount of ad space or “seconds” mentioned on a broadcast network by a medium’s advertising rate. 

The only problem is that it can be considered to be an outdated system of measuring ROI 

How are we measuring PR ROI?

Here are some of the factors that people use to measure ROI in their PR campaigns, You can also get a detail look at this at “The Ultimate Guide to Paid, Earned, and Owned Media” where I discuss the important types of media and how using the combined PESO model to create a successful PR campaign. 

Social Media Posts

Social media PR is key when it comes to creating a buzz around your startup.

In addition to being key to any PR campaign, social media platforms give startups: 

• Increased organic visibility
• Improved traffic to the website
• Heightened brand awareness
• Faster and easier communication

For a more detailed look at how social media can be a great help, make sure to check out “The Ultimate Guide to Social Media PR” where I discuss how important it is and how to measure it through earned media. 

How do we measure social media posts’ ROI?

If you’re posting to encourage people to sign up to a newsletter or webinar, then consider the following metrics your key indicators of success:

• Signup conversions
• Impression of signup conversion rate

If your posts are more focused around increasing your site’s reach and increasing your brand awareness: 

• Impressions 
• Click-through rate 
• Estimated Reach
• Social Media Mentions

How to track PR ROI long term?

There are individual measures of ROI in your PR strategy, but how does it work in the long run? 

There are three fields that can indicate real ROI in a PR campaign:

Brand awareness and loyalty

A continuous look at metrics like traffic and social media shares can show long-term increases and improvements in new business opportunities. It also shows the possibility of securing additional business.

It can also see the sales activities like blog posts, guest articles, social media interactions, and other forms of media outreach through the process of site engagement, becoming leads, and converting. 

Industry credibility

You need to be seen as somewhat of an industry expert so that consumers of your startup believe that you are reliable and trustworthy. Trying winning earned media because it will build social proof and attract new business. 

Increasingly positive reputation

Increasing your positive reputation relies on good customer experience and how that’s transmitted to the world. Getting good feedback from existing customers, for example.

You might make some short-term gains in traffic and bringing in leads, but this doesn’t necessarily convert into long-term startup prosperity. 

In terms of PR ROI, we look at the social media shares/likes on positive customer experience stories and audience engagement in press release announcements regarding customer milestones.

Conclusion

It is important to see the ROI of your startup frequently so that you know where your company stands.  Whether you are using the 2 strategies listed above or using social media and earned media, monitoring your business not only shows that you know what you are doing, but that you are interested to see what the future holds for your business. 

We at Pressfarm pride ourselves in having the ability to create an effective PR strategy and provide people with additional knowledge of the world of PR. If you are interested in having one of our PR professionals create something that can get you business visibility, check out our pricing and packages to take the headache out of something great.

If you’re getting a business up and running, you know how many tasks are involved. You have to secure funding, create a reliable system to track revenue and expenses, hire good talent, and line up help with software development (see https://www.bairesdev.com/insights/python-development-services).

At the same time, you need to immediately start building brand awareness to stand out from the competition. One of the most powerful and cost-effective ways to accomplish this task is to use content marketing.

What Is Content Marketing?

Content marketing involves publishing valuable, high-quality content pieces, like blog posts, videos, and podcasts, that offer solutions to your target audience’s problems. Unlike traditional marketing plan, this method doesn’t focus on selling products or services to customers, but instead builds brand awareness and develops trust, which can result in loyal customers.

This cost-effective approach can work well for many types of business but is especially useful for startups. While it costs 62% less than traditional marketing methods, it can yield three times the leads per dollar spent. It can also help attract and retain good talent.

You Need a Content Marketing Strategy

Before you start producing content, you need to develop a solid strategy using the following steps:

1. Research target audience

Identify and learn about your target audience, since you will build content around how you can help them:

• What are their demographics (age, gender, location, income)?
• What are their interests and hobbies?
• What are the problems they face that your products or services can solve?

2. Determine content type

Use surveys, interviews, and analytics to discover what types of content your target audience prefers to consume. If they like to read about solutions, focus on creating blog posts, articles, newsletters, and case study reports. If your audience is more visually oriented, consider infographics, videos, and images. For those who want to listen to information, there are webinars and podcasts. Keep in mind that the best choice for your audience might be a combination of different types.

3. Develop objectives

It’s essential to know up front what you want to accomplish. Your objectives should be specific, measurable, and realistic and relate directly to your general business goals.

Some common content marketing objectives include:

• Brand awareness, which can be measured by assessing changes in website traffic
• Customer education and engagement, revealed by the number of shares and comments on social media
• Brand loyalty, which shows up in the form of repeat purchases and referrals 

Build a Content Marketing Plan

Once you know your objectives, you need a plan for how to achieve them. The following are possible plan components:

Keyword research

Identify a set of terms that your target audience is searching for. Aim for three to five core keywords, along with a longer secondary list. You’ll expand these keywords into topics to cover in your content pieces.

Make sure to include relevant SEO terms so your audience can find your content through organic search. Ideally, the keywords should be high traffic and low competition.

Content calendar

Scheduling content helps maintain consistency in quantity and quality, which is key to good results. Use a tool, such as Google Calendar or a project management app, to create and manage a content calendar. Ideally, you should plan out content for the coming year, but even a few months at a time can be helpful.

Assign each content piece a target keyword, topic and title, creator, completion deadline, publishing date, and where it will be published.

Where to publish

Where you publish content should be based on where your target audience goes for information. Some options include:

• Your website, perhaps in a special content section
• Relevant social media platforms and groups
• Email newsletters with exclusive content for subscribers
• YouTube, where users perform 50 million searches a day and there is less competition for keywords than on the Google search engine
• Third-party sites relevant for your niche and audience

Gather Resources to Create Content

Someone will need to create your content pieces. While you can try to do it yourself, you’ll likely need to outsource some or all of it or build a dedicated in-house team. Typical roles you’ll need, depending on the type of content, include writer, editor, graphic designer, and videographer.

Develop guidelines for your creators to follow, including a chronological checklist with specific deadlines, design standards to promote a consistent look, and an editorial process.

Some affordable content production tools can help, including Google Docs for collaborating, Google Keyword Planner to find the best keywords, Mail Chimp for targeted emails and newsletters, and Grammarly to correct errors.

Measure Your Success

To accurately measure success, you’ll need key performance indicators (KPIs) based on your objectives. Make sure to include incremental milestones to assess progress along the way. You can create a “scorecard” with performance benchmarks for each content piece.

Examples of KPIs include:

• Lead generation
• Traffic to website
• Increase in money spent per sale
• Social media follower growth and engagement
• Search engine rankings

Check regularly how your content performs related to the KPIs, then promote what does well and adjust what doesn’t. You can use your best performing topics for new posts by creating a different type of content (such as making an instructional video based on a successful blog post topic).

Periodically review your overall strategy to make sure you’re still using the right message in the right places to reach the right audience.

In Summary

Content marketing is a smart approach for startups who want to build visibility and promote brand awareness on a limited budget. Successful content marketing is a slow and steady process, but if you maintain consistency and quality, you’ll see success over time.