Evaluation should never be a bolt on service - here's why
This week I was amazed to learn from CoverageBook that half of PR practitioners admit to presenting a metric that they don’t fully understand to their clients.
I don’t know why I was surprised. It’s not that long ago that a PRCA Census revealed that one in four PR practitioners don’t do any measurement or evaluation and that our industry’s most popular metric is impressions.
That’s why new clients at Evergreen are always so surprised to learn how deeply we focus on business outcomes - as it isn’t usually something they have experienced before.
Planning for outcomes
Our clients often tell us that their past agencies would bolt evaluation onto the end of campaigns - reporting on output measures like number of articles, reach (or estimated views), backlinks, Domain Authority of backlinks etc - but rarely having a clear idea of what business results their work would (or did) deliver.
At Evergreen, we turn this on its head. We start with the outcome in mind and we build an evaluation plan around it, utilising data and insight to set meaningful objectives that inform our recommended strategic roadmap - crystallised through our MERTO Framework.
By approaching planning and measurement in this systematic way, we identify the strategic priorities to provide certainty of outcome and eliminate wasted time, effort and budget.
There’s an added benefit for longer term clients too as we’re constantly building our knowledge, increasing our effectiveness and growing our impact.
Data-informed targets
So how does this work in practice?
Let’s say you want 1,000 people to take a specific action on your website (e.g. purchase a product or sign up to something) and your current conversion rate is 10%, then we will set behavioural goals that give us the best chance of achieving that, for example:
Drive at least 10,000 people to the website to meet the goal (if the conversion rate is 10% then that 10k will convert into 1k people)
Supercharge it by making website changes that increase the conversion rate (improving the conversion rate above 10% will take us past the 1k target)
The next step will be to identify the outputs that will drive those 10,000 visitors in the first place and, again, we will use data from past experience and informed projections to agree targets for all those things that agencies often bolt on at the end - like press coverage, backlinks and engagement.
The most important thing here is that these targets are set at the beginning, based on data and with the destination in mind - not as an afterthought at the end of the journey.
Return On Investment
According to CoverageBook, 91% of in-house communicators said that they would invest more in Public Relations if they had confidence in agency data capability.
We think this suggests that in-house PR professionals are being very sensible. Why should you invest in a service if you don’t know what value you will get out of it? Especially in the challenging landscape we’re currently in.
That’s why we make it our focus to understand the value you want to unlock - and why - so that we can identify the most effective route to delivering that outcome, giving you certainty of ROI.
Here to advise
If you’re a decision-maker for a health organisation and would like to have a no obligation chat about your business priorities then we’re happy to talk.
We have a proven methodology - MERTO - that has driven tangible business impact for NHS organisations, health charities, health technology businesses, private healthcare providers and royal colleges. Just take a look at our campaign successes and client testimonials for proof - we’re certain that we can deliver a similar impact for you too.
You can contact me at leigh(at)evergreenpr.co.uk.
Leigh Greenwood is the founder and managing director of Evergreen PR, a Chartered PR professional and a former PRCA Professional of the Year.