Public relations professionals have grappled with how to measure results for decades. If you speak to a veteran communicator, you’ll find it can still be a challenge to successfully measure an impactful communications program. How do you best translate brand awareness success into measurable results in today’s crowded communications landscape? Here are five tips to successfully measuring your PR program:

Link Clicks

Link clicks are a direct and simple measurement to understand if your content is working. By adding links to every piece of content, from press releases to articles, this provides a direct way to measure the content’s effectiveness and how that content is driving traffic back to your website or landing page.

Google Analytics

Now that you’ve added links to every piece of content, it’s time to get more serious about measuring content’s impact. Almost every business relies on Google Analytics to measure the its website traffic and identify the top traffic drivers. Google Analytics provides insight on what content is working and driving eyeballs to your site. More importantly, Google Analytics can track where those eyeballs are going. Did a well-crafted blog, with deep links to product pages, drive traffic to those pages? That’s a result worth measuring.

First-Page Google Search Results

The benefits of being on the first page of Google search results are immense. A recent study by Zero Limit Web observed that on the first page alone, the first five organic results account for 67.60% of all the clicks. That’s two-thirds of all clicks and a goal every company should strive to achieve. Drafting keyword-specific content that tells a story is the best way to landing in the first five organic search results. And understanding where your customers are searching is the first step. Using long-tail keywords help smaller companies compete for first page search results.

Views

If you’ve written an article for Forbes Tech Council, you understand the importance of views. Several publications are measuring their publicity value by measuring views on their published articles. This is an excellent way to measure if a particular topic is pertinent to your audience and if it is receiving views. And, whenever possible add links to your site or social media pages to better track engagement.

Share of Voice (SoV)

Share of voice (SoV) measures the percentage of all online content and conversations about a company or brand, compared to its competitors. Essentially, it acts as a gauge for brand visibility, quantifying how PR impacts business goals. By establishing a baseline SoV, the PR team get a better picture and understanding of the company’s position in its key markets.

SoV should be re-measured every six months to help evaluate the success of the public relations program and improve future campaigns based on the findings. Analyzing this data can reveal what types of announcements or activities gain the most significant media coverage, uncover new media outlets to engage, and expose competitors’ successful strategies to emulate.

PR measurement doesn’t need to be a black hole. If you’re looking for a PR agency that builds brands and measure its progress, Rainier is here to help! Our seasoned team is filled with excellent writers that understand technical audiences and can ensure your content is maximized for results. We deploy a full complement of measurement techniques to track clients’ progress.