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by The Notified Team on Oct 1, 2024 6:17:30 PM
Traditionally, measuring press release success involved counting impressions.
But while impressions are important, they don't tell the entire story.
You need to look at a range of factors to understand how your news has resonated with your audience - including:
- Engagement metrics
- Coverage quality
- Website traffic
- Sentiment
- Achievement vs. objectives
Here’s how you can begin to go beyond the surface and measure what really matters!
PR Measurement Best Practices
1. Track Engagement Metrics
Impressions give a sense of reach, but they don’t provide insight into how your audience is interacting with the content.
Key engagement metrics to look at include:
- Click-Through Rates (CTR) – CTR helps understand how many people clicked on links within your press release, directing them to your website or other call-to-action pages. A high CTR indicates that your audience found your release compelling enough to act.
- Social Shares and Comments - High levels of sharing and commenting indicate that your story is prompting them to engage in discussions or spread the word.
- Time Spent on Page - Tracking how long visitors stay on linked pages helps gauge their interest.
2. Analyze Media Coverage To Determine Quality
When evaluating the success of your press release, focusing solely on the number of articles published can be misleading.
The quality of media coverage plays a crucial role in assessing true impact. Instead of just counting the number of articles, focus on the following:
- Media Type - Was your press release picked up by industry-specific publications or mainstream media? Industry publications often reach a more targeted audience.
- Placements - Look at where your story was featured, as top-tier media outlets have more influence than smaller or less reputable ones. A mention in a leading industry journal or major news outlet often carries more weight than several mentions in smaller or less relevant publications.
3. Evaluate Website Traffic
A key goal of press release distribution is to drive traffic to a website.
Here’s how you can better measure success when it comes to web traffic:
- Referral Traffic - This metric shows how much of your website traffic comes from your press release. By analyzing referral traffic, you can identify which sources are sending visitors to your site, whether it’s from specific media outlets, social media platforms or direct links within the press release itself.
- Conversion Rates - Measuring conversion rates helps you understand how well your press release turns visitors into leads or customers. A conversion occurs when a visitor takes the desired action, such as signing up for a newsletter, filling out a contact form or making a purchase. Tracking conversion rates from your press release allows you to measure how compelling your content is in driving meaningful actions.
4. Understand Sentiment
Understanding how your audience feels about your organization is essential – you can use social listening tools to help measure sentiment following distribution.
Here’s how:
- Sentiment Analysis - This involves analyzing the overall tone of conversations about your news. Social listening tools can assess whether the mentions of your brand are positive, negative or neutral. By evaluating sentiment, you can determine how well your press release resonated with your audience and whether it had a favorable or adverse effect on reputation.
- Brand Mentions - Tracking how often and in what context your organization is mentioned provides insight into the reach and impact of your press release. By monitoring brand mentions, you can see if your press release prompted discussions and how it influenced the narrative. This helps you understand the effectiveness of messaging and its influence on public perception.
5. Assess Achievement vs. Objectives
Each press release should have clear objectives. Evaluate if these were met by:
- Comparing Results to Objectives - Start by reviewing the specific objectives you set before distributing the release. These might include increasing brand awareness, generating interest in a new product or driving traffic to your website. Compare the actual outcomes—such as the number of media mentions, website visits or social media interactions—with your initial objectives. Did the press release achieve the results you anticipated or exceed them? This comparison helps you gauge whether your press release effectively fulfilled its intended purpose.
- ROI Calculation - Calculate the return on investment (ROI) by comparing the cost of the press release to the value of the results achieved. A positive ROI indicates that the benefits of the press release outweighed its costs, demonstrating a successful and cost-effective effort.
By focusing on engagement metrics, media coverage quality, website traffic, brand sentiment and achievement vs. objectives, you can gain a comprehensive understanding of how well your press releases are performing.
This approach not only helps you assess the effectiveness of your current strategies, but also guides you in refining future communications for an even greater impact!
Learn More About GlobeNewswire by Notified's Enhanced Analytics for PR Measurement
We’re excited to introduce significant enhancements to our GlobeNewswire platform. These improvements give communications pros clearer, more detailed insights into the performance of press releases and ROI.
With these upgrades, public relations teams can better track results, adjust strategies and drive stronger outcomes - all at no additional cost!
With over 20 feature upgrades, GlobeNewswire now offers even more intuitive tools to help simplify release performance analysis and reporting - giving you key metrics at your fingertips.
Key benefits include:
- Actionable insights: Access comprehensive data on press release performance, including outlet logos, regions, countries and languages. This helps assess targeting effectiveness and guides more informed decisions for future releases.
- Data at your fingertips: The streamlined interface makes it easy to interpret data, visualize key metrics and share results with clients or stakeholders. Whether it's for internal reviews or executive reports, you can now deliver insights quickly and efficiently.
- Comprehensive coverage: With new international placements included, the platform offers broader clipping coverage. You'll get a fuller picture of your press release's global reach, making it easier to fine-tune your campaigns.
Want to learn more? Contact us today - we’d be happy to chat and give you a demo!
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