SCHWARTZ HEALTHCARE-IT BLOG

Measure for Measure

Part Five in a Continuing Series on Healthcare IT Public Relations

A frequent question I’m asked from healthcare marketers is how to measure their public relations.  Whether PR is done in-house or through an outsourced agency, there should be objective metrics in place to measure success.  You should sit down with your PR team at the beginning of the engagement or campaign and set aggressive yet realistic goals and metrics by which to measure them. Examples of possible metrics include the following:

• Article Categorizations. What is the ideal goal and mix of coverage type? Company, product, customer case study, trend piece? Technology, vertical, business, local media? Determine your desire mix and align PR strategies to make it happen.

• Quarterly Increase in Media Coverage.  The trend should always be upward in your media coverage from quarter to quarter.

• Exposures. Tracking exposures, otherwise known as print circulation or broadcast viewer ship.

• Advertising Equivalencies. Another metric is advertising equivalencies, or how much the article would have cost had it been an ad. This usually shows PR to be more cost effective.

• Share of Voice Tracking: In trend stories, what degree of coverage does your company receive? Is the company or its customer a dominant voice, or a passing mention? These can be examined through a percentage grade or a tiered approach.

• Percentage of Message: What degree of your messaging is included in coverage? Is the company correctly represented? Is the positioning of your company relative to competitors favorable?

• Media Awareness Grid: This chart tracks growth in media mindshare on a quarterly basis using an objective scale of one (never heard of you) to five (always writes about you). The goal is to identify key reporters and grow the quality of the relationship per the scale.

• Analyze and Compare Against Competitors. The goal is to increase your company coverage beyond that of competitors.

There are of course other metrics beyond these examples. Whatever you use, hold your PR team or agency accountable.

Posted by Shawn Whalen on September 5, 2006 at 11:10 AM
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