For businesses of all sizes, particularly in the aesthetics industry, PR can be regarded as an optional expenditure rather than an integral necessity of your business model. This is often due to a misguided perception that PR is fluffy and difficult to tangibly measure the return on investment (or ROI). PR and marketing can work in several different ways within your business, so it is critical that you are able to capture your PR campaign successes accurately in order to learn, grow and repeat!
Measuring Success
What most people want to see when they embark on PR campaigns is a spike in SALES. PR can be a costly venture, and if youre putting money in, you expect to be gaining profit back! However, when evaluating the effectiveness of your campaign, it is important to look at the bigger picture, and not just profit-based increases. Consider the spike in your visibility, profile – an increase in consumer trust and engagement with your brand.
Coverage in local newspapers, and magazines, online data, and newsletters are all valid indicators of PR success that can be measured with very simple tools. Using these tools, you can evaluate spikes in your PR campaign against activity in your clinic and correlate links between the two. Even your patients themselves can be used to measure your PR success by asking them where they heard about you and what they heard about you, and using your campaign to amplify those channels for further traction.
Be Clear from the Outset
The critical objective is: from the get-go of your campaign, you must be crystal clear on what your goals or objectives are. Whether you are taking the reigns and implementing your own PR strategy or using a consultant or agency to help you; identifying targets early on will help you see exactly when you have achieved them and how you may need to adapt your approach.
As your campaign progresses, refer back to your original targets and identify whether or not your strategy is working as well as it could be. Managing and tracking your expectations is key to analysing your PR success, and is the most reliable indicator of how your campaign is going.
For more information on evaluating your PR success, please dont hesitate to reach out to us here at Kendrick PR.