How to Quantify PR Impact Through Custom Scoring

This insight post is a summary of the original blog post published by Alannah Dragonetti of The Bliss Group. View the original, full-length blog post: How to Quantify PR Impact through Custom Scoring.

When companies talk about the impact of marketing efforts, they are quick to point to sales metrics like deal volume and quarterly earnings. Sales is a critical component of marketing, but oft-overlooked PR efforts are equally critical to customer attraction and retention. Keep reading to see how PR teams can quantify their efforts and demystify their work while commanding the respect and room in the budget they deserve.

Stepping Out of the Sales Team’s Shadow

PR’s domain is at the top of the funnel. Earned media campaigns plant the seed of the product or service in customers’ heads, sometimes years before they ever need to make a purchase. Sales works its magic at the bottom of the funnel. The average B2B customer is 70% of the way through the decision-making process by the time they interact with a sales representative. The average B2C customer is even further through the funnel by the time they connect with Sales. Data suggests that 81% of retail shoppers research a product or service online before making a purchase.
Though both Sales and PR serve important and often complementary roles in a company’s overall marketing strategy, the comparatively nebulous nature of earned media initiatives makes it difficult to pin down the exact value of PR efforts. Communications professionals know that Sales and PR are key components of marketing that depend on one another for success. To convince the rest of the company, they have to speak the same language as Sales. Custom scoring—the practice of assigning numbers to various elements of a PR strategy—can help prove the concrete value of earned media contributions. 

Tools and Metrics to Quantify PR Impact 

Custom scoring is just that, custom. Numeric values assigned to different campaign elements vary according to goals, budget size, and other factors unique to the specific company or campaign. PR teams are encouraged to select relevant tools and metrics, then adjust values accordingly.

Below are a few tools and metrics to help PR teams begin to measure their impact through custom scoring:

• Backlink Tracking – Note who is linking to your website and how. What’s the reputation of the referring domain? When was the link published? What’s the anchor text used? These are all important questions to ask when tracking and assigning value to backlinks.
• Media Coverage – Media coverage is every PR team’s goal, but things like publication and content type (is it a byline or one of many expert quotes in a larger article?) matter. Assign values according to publication profile, audience and content type for an accurate assessment of media coverage.

Want to learn about three more tools and metrics you can use to quantify your PR efforts? Head over to the full blog post: How to Quantify PR Impact through Custom Scoring or other insights on  PR Strategy from our partners.

Bliss Integrated Communication 

An award-winning strategic marketing and communication firm based out of New York. They have expertise in public relations and marketing strategy and execution, social media management, and content development.