“The techification of the entrepreneurial culture is also warping the greater business community’s understanding of, and appreciation for indirect marketing benefits. Technologists are data driven. Everything is based on direct response revenue. This bodes well for direct mail, SEM and other dollar-made-for-dollar-spent measurement channels. It may be the death nell for public relations, social media, brand advertising and more. Sans customer service, which for some reason even direct-response marketers “get” as a necessary evil, the touchy-feely channels are in trouble.” — Jason Falls, Social Media Explorer
Can PR drive sales? Sure, that’s one outcome you can measure. But, it’s not the only outcome that matters. As I’ve written before, not all PR is quantifiable. Intangibles matter, too.
For those not in our field, the value of PR can be hard to understand. In today’s very data-driven world, it’s even harder to convey. It’s the age-old question: What’s the value of public relations? How do you measure the impact of [insert PR tactic here]? As Jason notes, PR people struggle to show value, especially when compared to tangible, measurable “dollar-for-dollar” tactics.
Entrepreneurs who don’t fully grasp the value of proactive, aggressive PR are left wondering why they should invest significant resources in this nebulous budget line-item. Instead, they look for quicker, cheaper options — options that they think will deliver the same outputs and outcomes. (Sidenote: This is how we end up with press release automation services.)
You can’t sell what you can’t explain.
This applies to those of you “selling” to secure internal buy-in and to those of us focused on business development for our agencies. Want to sell more? We have to start by clearly articulating what we do and why it matters.
So, tell me, what do you do? And, how do you show the value of your efforts?
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Photo credit: jmcostanza