In an ideal world, a public relations team will have all the information they require to be successful. Everyone has clear PR goals – and understands them – with set timeframes on when to achieve them. KPIs are tracked to calculate, quantify and optimise their success and measure PR to prove its ROI. 

Everyone knows exactly where everything fits in. 

Unfortunately, more often than not, this isn’t the case. 

Other disciplines are sometimes seen as more valuable than public relations, meaning their effectiveness is often overlooked or not measured, or, much worse, not considered at all. However, since the world is now data-fueled, there are many ways to effectively measure and evaluate the success of your PR work while aligning it with overall business objectives.

First things first…

It can be a tad overwhelming to decide on the right KPIs and understand what needs to be done to track and measure how they contribute to a company’s goals. Begin by looking at the business objectives and breaking down what needs to happen to get there. As things progress, combined with the ability to compare these metrics over time, it will deliver significant insights into what’s working and what needs refining. 

In both of these areas – elements that are both successful and need improvement – is where PR activity can actively help. 

Before you start hankering after getting as much media coverage as possible, you need to plan out what you want to achieve with this coverage and how it aligns with your broader company goals.

Below, we’ve outlined five key steps to measuring success in aligning PR KPIs to business objectives with specific questions that need to be asked along the way to align them with public relations metrics. Basically, the surefire way to measure PR success.

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1. Identify business goals.

You’re probably familiar with the phrase, ‘you can’t manage what you can’t measure’. In this case, it couldn’t be more true. It’s crucial to link public relations goals back to the wider business objectives to ensure control over strategic elements that affect the direction of the general business. Perhaps more importantly, aligning efforts to that of the C-suite will help get buy-in. 

When going through this stage, it’s key to identify what measurable outcomes the PR efforts are designed to influence and increase. Web traffic? Positive brand sentiment? Brand awareness? Market share? Customer leads? Customer retention? 

Once the broader goals are established, the next step is to identify specific targets that the PR program can support, such as increasing brand visibility, enhancing reputation, launching a new product, or expanding into new markets. These goals should be measurable and realistic to ensure effective tracking and evaluation of the campaign’s success.

Additionally, it is vital to consider the target audience and tailor the publication’s media kit and PR outreach strategies accordingly, aligning them with the organisation’s values and messaging. By aligning business objectives with a well-defined PR campaign, companies can enhance their communication efforts, build a positive brand image, and achieve their desired outcomes.

2. Define a PR strategy

Next, it’s time to create and define a strategy that will help meet business objectives, and understand t what point the PR measurement comes into play. At this point, a decision needs to be made on what is the top measurable priority. Whilst there’s an opportunity to hit multiple elements, it’s sometimes best to target one and focus all efforts on that. 

A strong strategy plays a vital role in aligning a PR campaign with business goals, serving as a blueprint for success in the dynamic world of communications. Defining a robust PR strategy allows organisations to effectively manage their reputation, enhance brand visibility, and ultimately drive business growth.

A well-defined strategy for digital publications enables the organisation to craft compelling narratives that highlight its unique value proposition, differentiating it from competitors and attracting the attention of its target audience.

Some areas that might be considered are: 

• Increase brand awareness 
• Manage brand reputation 
• Establish thought leadership
• Change perception.

There are many more areas, but these are some of the top priorities we hear from our clients regarding their PR strategies. Not only do they align properly with business objectives, but they are also measurable and quantifiable.

Additionally, a well-defined PR strategy allows organisations to effectively respond to challenges and crises that may arise. By anticipating potential issues and developing proactive crisis communication plans, companies can minimise reputational damage, maintain stakeholder trust, and safeguard their business interests.

Within this part of the journey, companies should also be considering what PR metrics they will be monitoring (more on this further down), as well as “what PR success looks like…”.

3. Focus on your efforts.

Focusing efforts when aligning a PR campaign with business goals is of paramount importance for several reasons.

Firstly, it ensures that the efforts and resources invested in their digital marketing and public relations activities are directed towards achieving specific outcomes that are aligned with the overall business objectives. By defining clear goals and aligning PR strategies accordingly, companies can maximise the impact of their digital channels and public relations campaigns and generate tangible results.

Secondly, focusing efforts enables a more targeted and effective approach to communication. By identifying the key messages and target audience that will contribute directly to business success, PR professionals can craft tailored messages and select appropriate channels to reach the intended recipients. This strategic alignment increases the likelihood of engaging the right stakeholders, building brand reputation, and driving desired actions such as increased sales, referral traffic, or customer loyalty.

4. Align accomplishments to business value.

How can what we’ve outlined above be connected and calculated towards business value? 

Profit. 

In business, every discipline should be able directly to directly correlate sales data and to showcase how it impacts the bottom line. As discussed at the beginning of this post, PR sometimes isn’t recognised as having a direct correlation with business objectives and success. But if the PR efforts are aligned with a specific target – say, increasing web traffic and conversions from online advertising – then that can be monitored, tracked and measured.

The true value of these campaigns lies in their ability to directly impact the organisation’s bottom line. By aligning their PR campaign objectives with broader business goals, such as increasing sales, attracting investors, or launching new products, companies ensure that their PR efforts contribute directly to measurable outcomes.

Connecting PR campaigns to ad value and business value fosters better resource allocation, ensuring that time, effort, and budget are invested in activities that generate tangible returns.

Best PR metrics

• Brand impact – this impacts how the public views a company/brand. This can be tracked using social media tracking, media monitoring and web analytics. 
• Media coverage – this looks at where PR efforts can work well. This can be tracked by monitoring the outlets featuring a company/brand story, finding press clippings and digital media mentions.
• Media reach – this looks at how many potential people can hear about a company/brand. This can be tracked by media monitoring systems to calculate coverage’s impact. 
• Share of voice – this looks at how a company/brand mentions in relevant media outlets – and potentially across social media channels – compared to their competitors. 
• Sentiment analysis – this looks at how the public perceives a company/brand. This can be measured by a media monitoring system to evaluate a PR campaign’s success.

5. Adapt and optimise.

By tracking PR metrics, it offers a chance to continuously assess and refine your PR campaigns based on the measurement results. Identify areas that require improvement and make data-driven decisions to optimize future campaigns. By adapting and iterating pr measurement itself, you can align PR metrics with the relevant evolving business goals effectively.

Optimising PR campaigns ensures that efforts are focused on the right target audience. By clearly defining business goals, such as increasing sales, expanding the market or share of voice, or launching a new product, PR professionals can tailor their messages and strategies to resonate with the intended audience.

This alignment not only enhances the effectiveness of PR activities and other media channels, but also helps drive meaningful engagement, leading to increased brand recognition, customer loyalty, and ultimately, business growth.

Moreover, optimising PR campaigns allows for effective measurement and evaluation of results. By setting specific, measurable goals that align with broader business objectives, organisations can track KPIs and gauge the impact of their PR campaign. Whether it’s monitoring media coverage, using press releases, analysing website traffic, using sales figures or assessing social media engagement, this data-driven approach enables businesses to refine their strategies, make informed decisions, and adapt their campaigns for optimal results.

Essentially, it’s at this stage you’ll be able to understand the true scale success of PR impact and see the media value that the activity has helped to achieve.

A well-executed PR campaign ends with the chance to adapt and optimise, potentially helping to pave the way for the same success in future PR campaigns.

Final thoughts

Once PR metrics are outlined, aligning these with business objectives is simple. The hardest part is understanding the metrics and how they can be transformed into specific KPIs that impact overall business success. 

At Monumental, we help businesses align these elements and execute a campaign that creates real, tangible results. We take a holistic approach to media impressions and ensure that the performance of PR content makes a true impact on the bottom line. 

Get in touch to find out more about aligning PR with business objectives.