How can you measure the impact of PR on innovation partnerships?

Innovation partnerships are collaborative arrangements between different organizations that aim to create new products, services, or processes. They can offer many benefits, such as access to new markets, resources, and knowledge, as well as enhancing reputation and credibility. However, they also pose some challenges, such as managing expectations, aligning goals, and protecting intellectual property. How can you use public relations (PR) to support and optimize your innovation partnerships? And more importantly, how can you measure the impact of your PR efforts on your innovation outcomes?

1 Define your objectives

Before you start any PR campaign, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and how you will measure it. For innovation partnerships, your objectives may include: raising awareness and interest among potential partners, stakeholders, and customers; building trust and credibility among existing partners; facilitating communication and collaboration among partners; and showcasing your innovation achievements and benefits. You should also consider how your PR objectives align with your overall business and innovation goals, and how they contribute to your competitive advantage.

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Corey Armend

Director of Brand Partnerships at Billboard
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One of the best top line strategies to break through PR clutter is to innovate on a first-to-market opportunity within the domain of your publisher partner. Having that be your directional north star will allow your partners to appropriately concept how to support your campaign.

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2 Choose your metrics

Once you have defined your objectives, you need to select the appropriate metrics to track and evaluate your PR performance. Metrics are indicators that measure the quantity, quality, or value of your PR activities and outcomes. There are many types of metrics, but they can be broadly categorized into four groups: output, outtake, outcome, and impact. Output metrics measure the amount and reach of your PR outputs, such as press releases, media coverage, social media posts, or events. Outtake metrics measure the reactions and perceptions of your target audiences, such as awareness, recall, recognition, or sentiment. Outcome metrics measure the changes in behavior or attitude of your target audiences, such as engagement, trust, loyalty, or advocacy. Impact metrics measure the effects of your PR outcomes on your business and innovation results, such as leads, sales, market share, or return on investment.

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David Becker
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Build an inbound funnel measuring PR impact tied to the release of your innovation product/service. Your funnel could look like this: PR earn > backlink > landing page > turnstile > lead. From there you can handover to sales and have them track conversions and ultimately revenue contribution to your innovation.

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Corey Armend

Director of Brand Partnerships at Billboard
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While PR/earned campaign efforts are important, having a complementary paid campaign with the publishers who are supporting your effort is also necessary. In this approach your campaign would be promoted across their social channels and you would own 100% share-of-voice of all the media units surrounding the article. This generates upper funnel awareness with the ability to capitalize on viewer engagement with creative visuals surrounding the editorial for better recall. It also allows you to optimize SEO and measure CTR in addition to guaranteed impressions.

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3 Collect and analyze data

To measure your metrics, you need to collect and analyze relevant data from various sources and methods. Some common sources of data include: media monitoring tools, web analytics tools, social media analytics tools, surveys, interviews, focus groups, or case studies. Some common methods of analysis include: descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, content analysis, sentiment analysis, or network analysis. You should use a combination of quantitative and qualitative data and methods to get a comprehensive and accurate picture of your PR impact. You should also compare your data with your baseline, benchmarks, and competitors to assess your relative performance and progress.

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Corey Armend

Director of Brand Partnerships at Billboard
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In addition to hard data measurement, we utilize tools to measure social sentiment which gives you an immediate range of consumer response. A great tool for this is Shareablee.

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4 Report and communicate results

The final step of measuring your PR impact is to report and communicate your results to your internal and external stakeholders. You should prepare a clear and concise report that summarizes your objectives, metrics, data, analysis, and findings. You should also highlight your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and provide recommendations for improvement. You should tailor your report to the needs and interests of your different audiences, such as partners, managers, investors, or customers. You should also use various formats and channels to communicate your report, such as infographics, dashboards, presentations, newsletters, or blogs.

Measuring the impact of PR on innovation partnerships is not an easy task, but it is a valuable one. It can help you demonstrate your value, optimize your performance, and enhance your innovation outcomes. By following these steps, you can develop and implement a robust and effective PR measurement and evaluation system for your innovation partnerships.

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5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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How can you measure the impact of PR on innovation partnerships?

1

2

3

4

5

1 Define your objectives

2 Choose your metrics

3 Collect and analyze data

4 Report and communicate results

5 Here’s what else to consider

Business Services

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How can you measure the impact of PR on innovation partnerships?

1

2

3

4

5

1 Define your objectives

2 Choose your metrics

3 Collect and analyze data

4 Report and communicate results

5 Here’s what else to consider

Business Services

Rate this article

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