10 Ways to Measure Your Press Release Effectiveness
Are you not sure whether your PR distribution campaign is working effectively or not? Find out how to measure your press release effectiveness in simple ways.
Every business requires gaining attention from the potential customers and a press release works the best in this guess. Due to its ability to reach out to potential customers from niche, PR is widely used in every industry in order to gain more exposure and media attention from the market. An effective press release distribution can help to build rapport with the journalists and media as well as improve your business’s online presence. It can also provide a competitive advantage with fruitful results. Now, the biggest question is how can you measure your press release effectiveness? Let’s find out the 10 common ways of determining a press release’s efficiency.
1. Media Pick-ups
It all starts with the media pick-ups which provide a better idea of how effective is your campaign. By measuring the number, spread, quality, reach, and other aspects of your media pickups, you can have a better idea of where you need to work. Make sure to count both online and print pickups as well as the number of indexed pickups. Quite obviously, the bigger the number is, the better reach you can expect. But it is not always the quantity but the quality of media pickup also matters.
2. Follow-up Stories
While the media pickups can directly publish your press release as it is, the approach gets more fruitful when they add a little follow-up story which leads to a higher priority position. In case they want to add a follow-up story, the reporter or journalists will contact you for information or can even set up an interview if they are interested in your business. Any inquiry like this counts as a positive performance meter for your press release distribution. Make sure to keep them interested in your story.
3. Social Mentions and Sentiment
Another way to measure is the relevance of your PR. Is the PR topic trending on social media? Can you find your company name mentioned on social media platforms? Is there any social mention that establishes your company as the expert in the field or leader in the industry? Keep an eye on these aspects and also take note of how your company is described and in which tone. Through public comments you can have a better idea of what kinds of sentiment is revolving; whether it is positive, negative, or neutral.
4. Mentions in Media E-newsletter
There are many media outlets and news sites that produce digital newsletters that are read by millions of online users. Usually, these offer audiences a better view of trending topics. So, if your company gets featured in it or gets a mention; it means your business and PR story is also relevant and trending. Make sure to take note of these mentions which helps to track and find potential grounds.
5. News Aggregator Inclusions
Modern news goes far beyond the mediums of newspapers, radio, and television. Online users encounter news stories through diversified digital aggregators as well as search engines. Make sure to count how many times you have been featured on the top global news aggregators such as Google News, Yahoo News, Bing News, Apple News, FOX, etc to name some. Focus on the platforms that are relevant to your area of expertise.
6. Link Click & Site Visits
Make sure to count the number of clicks that you get from the embedded links in the PR. The tracking process can get easier with the help of unique URLs that contain tracking information. One of the most used URL shorteners is bit.ly, which helps to track your links. Similarly, you should also keep an eye on web traffic and online engagement. Site visits can help you determine how much online users or visitors are interacting with your business website.
7. Referral Traffic
Site referrals are considered as the subset of web traffic. It determines the users who come directly to your business website from other websites without using an intermediary search engine like Google. Keep monitoring to find an increase in referral traffic. It can help you find the sites that feature your news and you can approach them for distribution in the future.
8. Backlinks
backlinks are also related to referral traffic which helps to take users back to your business website which is also related to site visits and link clicks. Backlinks are highly important as it is a part of SEO. Make sure to track the quality, number, and sources of the backlinks to improve your PR distribution.
9. Social Followers
Increasing the number of social followers is a good sign that your PR is working well. Every business organization and company is willing to gain more followers in order to raise overall awareness. Tracking social followers is important as it can offer you an idea of the target audiences. Increasing followers is also a good sign of popularity.
10. Email Subscribers
According to 83% of total global consumers, their preferred method of contact with any company is via email. Therefore, you should always monitor the number of email subscribers.
Final Thoughts
Measuring the impact of press release distribution and important for improving your PR approaches. However, it requires a fair share of time and tools to monitor. While you focus on your business prospects, hire a PR agency to take care of the distribution and analytics with transparency.
I am Darryl Broadhurst and i give investors an insight into the most recent news hitting the “Technology” sector in Wall Street. I have been an independent financial adviser for over 11 years in the city and in recent years turned my experience in finance and passion for journalism into a full time role. I perform analysis of Companies and publicizes valuable information for shareholder community.
