I have just finished re-reading “Guidelines for Setting Measurable Public Relations Objectives” published by the Institute for Public Relations (www.instituteforpr.org). This paper is a very good reminder or new information to help you set meaningful, reasonable and quantifiable objectives. I’ve summarized a few parts of the guidelines.
Measurable Public Relations [and Marketing Communications] objectives are based on outputs, outcomes and business results.
1. Outputs = The results, often in the form of media coverage, coming from PR activities such as news releases, special events, collateral material, web sites and other channels.
2. Outcomes = Outcomes are recognized widely in the form of awareness, understanding, attitudes, preference and behavior. Outcomes are achieved as a result of outputs.
3. Business results = Effects that make a direct contribution toward the organization’s goals and objectives such as increased sales, lowered costs, a higher stock price, higher employee productivity or engagement, or mitigating a crisis or protecting reputation(s). These relate to what happens as a result of outputs and outcomes.
Ask these questions to help form your objectives:
- What is management trying to achieve and what will help or hinder our success, from an overall business perspective?
- Who do you consider to be our priority stakeholders?
- What themes would the organization like to communicate to our key stakeholders?
- What response would management like from target stakeholders?
- How does management think PR [and marcom] programs can help achieve these goals?
- What does success look like? To what degree is this success “meaningful, reasonable and measurable” and how can we link objectives to these?
- What is the optimal time-frame for completing these goals?
- What barriers has the organization or any of its units faced in the past that stood in the way of meeting objectives?
- What are our key competitors doing and how are we different?
Here are a few examples Outcome Objectives:
- Awareness: Raise awareness of [what it is] among [your audience / gender + age] from 20% lat year to 50% this year.
- Attitude: Create an understanding of [what it is] among 75% of [your audience] by the end of the campaign [date].
- Behavior: Between this year and next, increase from 15% to 25% of [your audience] to [your desired business goal].
To read the full guideline click here and download paper.
For more information on metrics see the following papers on the IPR website.
Using Public Relations Research to Drive Business Results – Paine et al (http://www.instituteforpr.org/research_single/using_public_relations_research_to_drive_business_results/)
Public Relations Research for Planning and Evaluation and Guidelines for Measuring the Effectiveness of PR Programs and Activities – Lindenmann (http://www.instituteforpr.org/research_single/relations_research_planning/) (http://www.instituteforpr.org/research_single/measuring_activities/)
How to Measure PR’s Contribution to Corporate Objectives – Colletti (http://www.instituteforpr.org/research_single/measure_prs_contribution/)
Thank you!