Does media coverage provide real tangible value?

With businesses tightening their budgets anyway they can, it is essential to know why hiring a public relations agency is important and the value it can bring.

Evaluation, Return On Investment and measurement are all terms you may have heard, most likely before you decided you wanted a public relations agency's help. But the biggest question you will ask yourself is 'how do I measure the value of PR I am getting?’

An old way, although some still use it, of 'valuing' PR would be to use an AVE (Advertising Value Equivalent) system which calculates how much coverage would cost if you had used advertising instead of paying for a public relations agency to organise it.

The problem with this method is that although it works out the cost of editorial coverage, it does not measure the value of it such as the impact the coverage had on the audience, the amount of enquiries and sales/leads your business may have generated subsequently, the increase in traffic to your website or the increase to your social media accounts.

While the generic definition of PR is to look after and promote reputation and influencing opinions and behaviours of a target audience, measuring coverage alone cannot determine whether PR has had a positive impact at all. 

So how do you measure coverage? Do you measure it by the relevance of who reads it? Or perhaps by how many people respond to it?

At Calacus we believe it should be a combination of the above, along with the effect it has on sales or reputation and by your influence shown through Google Analytics.

It is not as simple as just finding out how much it would be to use advertising instead but Calacus has tried and tested ways of showing the value of what we do that ensure all our clients continue to be delighted with our services.

Of course, PR is about so much more than just external coverage.

We provide message development to help clients tell their story, we media train them so they know how to deliver those messages and we provide strategic advice that helps clients to decide which direction they wish to go.

PR is about so much more than media relations.

But having worked in and with many of the largest media organisations in the world, you can rest assured that Calacus has the the knowledge and experience to help you get your message across.