RETURN ON INVESTMENT - HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOUR EFFORTS ARE WORTH IT?

The results of your PR efforts can be notoriously intangible and difficult to assess, but we believe it is of paramount importance to try. Ironically, PR teams who are amazing at promoting the good stories generated by their firms are not always good at sharing their own successes. Here at Commspromise, we really focus on what return we get for our clients, each and every quarter... here are our top tips for feeding back on the value you produce:

Really think about who you need to share your hard work and successes with internally, and how often this should be done.

We usually advise producing a quarterly Return on Investment (RoI) report that cumulatively reports progress in Q1, then H1, Q3 and Year End as a minimum.

Importantly, the report should fit onto one page and should include only headline details such as number of clippings generated, main topics spoken to the media about etc ...

What to include: clippings, the main topics you and the lawyers have spoken to the media about, interviews, thought leadership, press releases and any crisis comms, forward features and campaigns, directories and awards.

It can also be helpful to produce a monthly activity report. This gives your internal audiences or PR clients a chance to see an overview of all your activity, not just key successes.

In order to produce such reports, you need to create a system for logging your activity. This may seem like a lot of extra work, but it makes generating reports a cinch and can be a useful tool for you to assess your own work, e.g. how much time you have spent on various activities and whether you want to make any changes.

A regular PR call with your key internal audience or client is also invaluable. The call is a more informal chance to discuss past progress as well as to plan for future activity.

Don't be shy of flagging up successes or statistics showing value.

RoI is also an important tool for you. Analysing how you have spent your time and what has produced most value is invaluable information to help you plan and improve your service.