Yes, You Can Measure Your Tech PR Program

Throughout the month of October, members of InkHouse’s B2B technology practice are taking control of the Inklings blog. Keith Giannini continues the series today.

In any industry, measuring public relations efforts is no longer a ‘nice to have’—it’s necessary for strategic planning, proving value and earning budget share. With enterprise technology's unique challenges, we need to spend a bit more time on one key area for measurement: audiences.

If you’ve been following our enterprise technology month blog posts (and we hope you have), you already know that the landscape has changed dramatically for PR pros. With fewer opportunities for coverage, we must thoroughly understand a company’s target audiences, the key decision makers and anyone who influences purchasing. In knowing what they read, where they live online, what industry events they go to, and what other roles impact their decisions, we can create stories that are targeted to them in the media they consume.

Here are some specific metrics we recommend tracking so your enterprise tech PR efforts effectively reach the right audiences:

SOV within target publications: Look at share of voice within your target media list. This list should include the publications that have the eyes of decision makers and influencers. Most PR analytics tools track this metric, or you can measure manually by tracking how often your company and your competitors are featured in the publications that matter most.

Media performance metrics: Look at the media coverage mix your company is securing. It takes more than one article for your audiences to remember you, so you’ll want a consistent, healthy mix of mentions, briefs, expert commentary, features and bylines. Track these coverage types by volume over time and make ongoing strategic adjustments to ensure you’re hitting target audiences with enough frequency and variety to earn recall.

Website conversions: If you’re selling enterprise technology, it’s likely that you have various conversion paths on your site, including gated downloads to content offerings and demo requests forms. PR content should be crafted with these efforts in mind, and linked to their landing pages. TIP: Google Analytics can track the referral source and visitor path/conversion from specific sources.

Bonus: Think beyond traditional media relations for your enterprise tech PR program. Affordable paid content options, social media campaigns, strategic events and other PR offerings can do a lot to move the needle and offer detailed measurement options.