Fact: Every communications vehicle must produce measurable results.

No marketing professional would deny this fact. As executive management continues to scrutinize marketing expenditures, marketing professionals have been forced to become experts in metrics and reporting. They are now accustomed to providing answers to such questions as:

• How many web site hits were generated from our online banner advertisements?
• How many sales resulted from that direct mail campaign we did?
• How many visitors did we have to our tradeshow booth?

But communications personnel and public relations agencies continue to struggle with ways to measure the success of their public relations initiatives. After all, how can you measure ideas and pitches, influence and persuasion?

Perhaps you'll never know exactly how many sales resulted from one press release mention or contributed article. You can't measure the trust a customer gained in your company by reading a case study, or the credibility you've built over time. But there are metrics that can be used to measure public relations campaign effectiveness.

Determining Newsworthiness: The "So What" Test

For public relations initiatives to be successful, they deserve a fighting chance. The first key to success is learning how to identify newsworthiness and eradicate any ideas not worth the ink. Clearly, the most exciting, informative and extraordinary stories benefit from the greatest levels of media coverage.

After dreaming up your story idea - regardless of whether it's an intended press release, article or case study - it's time to give it the "so what" test. The "so what" test is a way of determining whether or not the idea is important to your target market. Why would your target market be interested in your idea? In order to conduct the "so what" test, it's vital to put yourself in their shoes.

Consider the following:

You've hired a new executive with a background in banking. The "so what" test rates "poor." The same executive helps you launch a software package that will revolutionize the banking industry. The "so what" test rates "fair." The software package that is revolutionizing the banking industry is already being used by a half dozen banks, including one of the world's largest institutions. The "so what" test rates "good." One of the banks has realized a 20 percent reduction in administrative costs by using your software package. The "so what" test rates "excellent."

It's no secret that the best public relations results will be realized when you have a customer who is willing to publicly endorse your product or service. And it's also no secret that trade publications are starving for viable case study material. If your target market is banking executives, they want to know what other banking executives are doing to lower expenses and increase profitability. Give them that story.

Using the example above, this is not to say that you shouldn't make announcements about the new executive or the software launch. But you'll probably have to settle for press release mentions, since those ideas alone aren't feature article or cover story material.

Mission Impossible: Clip Tracking

The second key to public relations success is knowing when you're successful.

Companies like Luce Press Clippings, Bacon's and PR Newswire offer clipping services that search tens of thousands of print and electronic publications for coverage. In addition to searching for your company name, you designate product names and other keywords to use as search criteria. Most of these types of services do a marvelous job of locating enough clips to justify the monthly or annual fee.

However, it's impossible to find everything. Come to grips with the fact that you'll never locate everything editors and reporters ever write about your company. You could try. But because you usually pay a clipping service to search per region, country or industry, your costs could go through the roof while combing the globe for coverage.

Consider the following:

A company in the mobile computing space developed an application for transmitting handwritten e-mail messages between mobile devices. They disseminated news of the innovative product through PR Newswire's domestic distribution. A U.S. clipping service began locating dozens of clips. Thousands of U.S. consumers began using the product. Then, remarkably, hundreds of international consumers began using the product, including consumers in such countries as Argentina, Chile and India. Many of these international customers indicated that they had read an article in their local newspaper or computer publication.

Is it important to obtain a copy of the article from the Chilean newspaper? Consider the trouble you would go through paying a clipping service to locate one article, or trying to locate it yourself. Then, you'd have to translate the article in order to make it valuable. If consumers in Chile turn out to be one of your target markets, it's probably worth the trouble and expense. If not, don't bother with it.

Once you begin collecting evidence of coverage, construct a clip report. In spreadsheet form, include the article title, publication name, date the coverage appeared, etc.

Metrics that Matter: Qualitative

The third key to success is knowing how to quantify - and qualify - your accomplishments.

Many companies and agencies use public relations value (PRV) to measure the success of their public relations initiatives. To determine PRV, take the full-page advertisement rate for a specific publication and multiply it by the actual coverage size. Then, multiply it by three. The theory behind PRV is rooted in research that declares public relations three times more valuable and effective than advertising.

For example, a full-page advertisement in the Long Island Business Journal may cost $2,866. If the Journal wrote a quarter-page article about your company, the equivalent advertisement value would be $716.50. Multiply that number by three. Your PRV for that article is $2,149.50.

Over the years, public relations agencies, in-house communicators and professional associations have voiced different opinions about the effectiveness and appropriateness of PRV. But whether it should be two times advertising equivalent, four times advertising equivalent - or if the metric should be thrown out altogether - is irrelevant. Because one thing always remains the same: PRV is an excellent benchmarking tool. Compare your total annual PRV over the last three years. Has it increased over time?

However, measuring the success of a public relations campaign requires more than just "clip counting" and calculating PRV. How much ink you've gotten in a year certainly doesn't take into consideration positive versus negative coverage. As a result of the Enron case, Arthur Andersen has received more than its share of media coverage; but it's primarily coverage that has resulted in an adverse effect on the company's bottom line.

Public relations is an art. Therefore, the metrics used to measure public relations success must also be an art. Rather than putting an importance on quantitative measures, watch for coverage quality.

While reviewing each article individually, ask yourself such questions as:

• Does this article represent the company in a positive light or a negative one?
• How many of our key messages are included in this article?
• Does this article reach my target audience?
• What importance has this publication given my story (placement)?

Metrics Without Action = Metrics Wasted

The fourth and final key to public relations success is putting your metrics into action.

You've measured your public relations success using quantitative and qualitative measures. Now what? Don't let this valuable data go to waste.

Use these metrics to refine your public relations initiatives. If your news is being picked up by the wrong publications, revisit your media list. If your key messages aren't appearing in the articles, make them stronger and more memorable. And if publications just aren't covering your company's news, make sure your ideas are passing the "so what" test.

Fact: Every communications vehicle must produce measurable results.

Public relations is no exception.

[This article first appeared in New York Business Focus, June 10, 2002.]