Whether you’re correcting a narrative, wrapping up a big launch, or reflecting on the last quarter, proving that PR is worth the headcount and effort you put into it can be challenging. It’s a tale as old as time. But, the more data you have, the easier it becomes to not only prove success but give you guidance to keep building on that momentum.
Our customers look at readership data (unique visitors to articles) in a variety of ways to position their wins internally with enough context to also inform future strategies. Keep reading for 5 of the most common ways they find and highlight your wins with readership data.
1. Reporting readership for a single article placement, a full campaign, or in aggregate.
How many people actually read an article, might surprise you. After you secure a big win, check to see how many people are reading it, how many people are reading about that big launch, or how many people read about your brand in general over a specific time period. In some cases readership can exceed typical unique monthly visitor numbers for the outlet or show that you’re reaching an audience far beyond what you anticipated.
Here’s an example: A major retailer wanted to understand their own impact as well as their competitive landscape as part of their annual review. By looking at their total readership, readership across the competition, and top-read outlets and topics across both, they were able to demonstrate their own success while contextualizing how the brand is outpacing competitors across 50% of the top-read outlets.
2. Comparing your readership to similar coverage
We introduced Benchmarking last year so that comms teams can see how their own readership for a piece of coverage, an outlet in general, or even a specific reporter compares to similar coverage. Your coverage could be exceeding averages across any or all of those categories. By comparing an individual article, a full campaign, or readership over the course of the year to similar coverage, you can see what percentage of your wins are performing above the norm.
Here’s an example: As part of their EOY review, the comms team at a global athletic wear company wanted to assess their impact specifically for priority publishers, ideally showcasing the team’s success to leadership. Using benchmarking, they were able to show that the brand was outperforming or aligned with benchmarks across priority outlets, with mostly positive coverage. This helped the team showcase their impact internally while also helping them better understand where they sat relative to similar coverage.
3. Measuring readership for specific messaging, a new topic, or market
Proving success when it comes to shifting narratives or exploring a new thought leadership topic can be challenging beyond just a single article placement or even a profile. Messaging changes and gaining traction on a new topic takes time. Adding up wins is great, but how can you show that you’re really moving the needle? Seeing how many people read about you in relation to that message or comparing your readership to brands already owning a specific topic can help you benchmark where you are and show progress over time.
Here’s an example: As part of their ”State of the Company“ review, the comms team at an automotive tech company asked us to explore the autonomous vehicle space with them. They had worked on their messaging to become part of the conversation but weren’t sure how they compared to others in their industry because the company attracts significantly lower coverage relative to competitors. By looking at readership for the specific topic and comparing that to their competition, they were able to demonstrate gained share-of-readership over time.
4. Comparing year-over-year readership for annual events
Big industry events. They are exhausting. Even if you don’t set foot on the show floor. I’m tired just thinking about them. Measuring the impact of your big announcement(s) or activations with just a (hopefully) long list of coverage or social chatter did the trick in the past, but it starts to feel like old news when you’re at the same noisy event every year. Looking at how many people are engaging with your news can show you where you clearly broke through the noise, where you clearly won compared to the year before, and where there’s still room to experiment with something new.
Here’s an example: One of the consumer electronics brands we work with wanted to recap their coverage specifically around a major industry event (CES). We compiled an Insights Report that identified key publishers positively covering them and specific reporters that were not driving as much readership for them as their competition at CES. The report highlighted their impact at CES that they could showcase to leadership while giving them guidance for even more success the following year.
5. Analyzing coverage volume vs readership
Just looking at clips counts and impressions can be misleading. Moreso, if volume metrics don’t show the win you’re hoping for (or the win you know is there), it’s probably time to look at different data. Looking at how much coverage your brand gets next to how many people are actually reading that coverage frequently tells a far different story than volume and impressions alone. Not only does this help you paint a picture of brand awareness and impact, it also can help you find a win that volume metrics alone don’t.
Here’s an example: A major telco knew that they were relatively even when it came to their competition. In fact, based on coverage volume and impressions, their share-of-voice was roughly a 50/50 split. They wanted to know if that was in fact an accurate measure of brand attention. In studying readership for them and their biggest competitor, they had nearly 2x the readership by comparison. Just looking at volume and impression metrics has left that team underrepresenting their impact to leadership. Readership allowed the team to more accurately report the impact of their efforts and showcase a clear win in what they had assumed was an even race.
See how more of our customers leverage data to market their wins internally.