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The last step in the public relations campaign process is evaluation. Evaluating the success of a PR campaign “goes beyond typical marketing metrics” (Nigmatulin, 2023). While marketing metrics can simply include how many times someone clicked on a digital advertisement, PR activities “should focus on establishing a brand reputation in addition to growing brand awareness” (Nigmatulin, 2023). These can be more difficult to put on paper. During the planning process, the plan for the evaluation process should have been defined. Specifically, it defines exactly what will be measured, how that will be measured, and when that will take place. Today, we are going to talk about each of these points in the evaluation process.
First, you must decide what will be measured. Do you remember those objectives we set earlier in the campaign process? Those are a great starting point to the evaluation process. Every public relations campaign is different. Thus, the “types of methods you use will entirely depend on the goals of your business or client and will vary between campaigns” (Sortino, 2023). Those objectives you defined in the planning process should be measurable. The objectives include the awareness, action, and acceptance. Each of these three types of objectives are measured using different metrics described below (Smith, 2021, p. 441):
Awareness objectives: metrics include media coverage, calculation of media impressions, and post-campaign awareness survey
Action objectives: metrics include tabulation of requisitions for information, post-campaign attitude/opinion survey, tabulation of letters, emails, and phone calls expressing interest or support, and post-event audience evaluation.
Acceptance objectives: metrics include measures of results (ticket sales, attendance, memberships, donations), measures of improvement, and organizational or environmental change.
These metrics are extremely important because they measure how effective the campaign was, and they help the organization see what they could do better in the future or which practices work best.
We just discussed what will be measured and how they will be measured, but that leaves us with the question: When will you measure them?
“There are three stages in the process of program evaluation related to timing: implementation reports, progress reports, and final evaluation (Smith, 2021, p.443).”
Implementation Reports
The first point for evaluation takes place when actually implementing the tactics. This is necessary because it allows the organization to make sure the implementation process is going as planned and smoothly. If it isn’t going according to plan, this is the time to make any changes to assure the tactics are effective.
Progress Reports
The progress reports take place at various points while the tactics are being implemented. It’s important that the organization maps out when these progress reports will take place over the course of the campaign. This is extremely important because this allows the organization to modify or strengthen any tactic to keep it effective over the entire course of the campaign. For example, if you’re using social media tactics and you see the posts aren’t reaching the audience you want them to, then you can modify this part of the campaign by creating new social media posts or changing which platforms you’re using. You can make sure all of the messages are being understood and customers are responding or reacting to them as expected (Smith, 2021, p.444).
Final Evaluation
The final evaluation occurs after the campaign has taken place. This will include outcomes of the entire campaign and gauge whether or not the campaign completed the goals and objectives created.
The evaluation process in the public relations campaign is extremely important. This is where you can prove that the campaign was beneficial to your organization. If it wasn’t, then you can see which practices didn’t work in the campaign and improve them for the next campaign.
Evaluation in PR. Photo by Axia.
Sources
Smith, R.D. (2021). Strategic planning for public relations (6th Ed.). Routledge.
Nigmatulin, A. (2023). PR Points: How We Measure the Success of PR Campaigns. PR News. https://prnews.io/blog/pr-points.html
Sortino, K. (2023). PR evaluation methods & techniques to use in 2023. Prezly. https://www.prezly.com/academy/pr-evaluation-methods--techniques-to-use
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