Measurement in Earned Media
By: Paige Liston, Account Manager
A common phrase in business is that what is measured matters. Measurement can be easy when we’re talking in terms of click throughs to a website on digital ads, but when it comes to earned media placement, this can be a lot more difficult.
We all know earned media is powerful, but it’s next to impossible to truly know who is reading or watching a placement when it’s not an advertisement. Because of data we have access to from media companies, it can be more difficult to measure the impact of an earned media placement. While it’s often said that all publicity is good publicity, our team of experts knows that that’s not necessarily the case.
Our approach to media relations measurement isn’t just based on the number of impressions we anticipate from a placement based on reported subscription or viewer numbers. While the reach of a placement is certainly important, we also recognize that the most successful types of earned media are in line with your brand and share your organization’s key messages.
Our earned media measurement starts even before we kick off your account’s work. Part of our new business process includes providing you a Bohlsen Digital Relevancy (BDR) score, pulled from a service that we have exclusive access to in the state of Indiana. This score tells us how your brand is performing digitally by comparing you and your competitors on Google. This tells us how often and relevant your Google search results are, and if the results are positive, negative or neutral. A BDR score gives us a baseline of what potential customers or supporters see when they first search your organization. Our goal is to improve these search results through the right earned media placements during your time working with us.
Once we officially begin working with a client, we start creating the framework for a measurement rubric we can use to evaluate every placement that is generated on your behalf. As part of our onboarding process, we learn all we can about your organization, its goals, its key audiences, what we want those audiences to know about you and what publications they are reading. We create measurement criteria based on how closely placements stick to these goals. If we generate a placement in a publication with a high subscriber number, but it doesn’t contain any of your key messages, that placement likely will not score as highly as one with a smaller number of views but that speaks directly to your target audience with your brand messages clearly articulated. Our team also measures a placement’s digital impact, as we know that the placement itself is not the article’s final destination and that social media and that the digital impact and reach of your placement is an important part of its success.
Our team also monitors media placements based on Share of Voice in the media. Share of voice refers to the percentage of placements in your industry that are directly about your organization. Share of Voice gives you and those you report to a picture of how the coverage you’re getting in the earned media marketplace compares to those in your industry. We know that for some clients, it’s important for leadership to know how the work your team is doing in the earned media space compares to your competitors. Additionally, this type of reporting gives us a chance to see what sets your organization apart from others in terms of sharing expertise. When we’re able to see where your organization stands out in terms of topics in the media, this gives us insights into what makes your brand most media-worthy.
Overall, our team wants to make sure that decision-makers understand the value of the earned media work our teams are doing together and how it positively impacts your overall brand. We know that it takes customers multiple exposures to your brand to take action, and earned media is a powerful tool to expose potential customers to your brand in a way that they may find more trustworthy than advertising. High-quality earned media placements are an important addition to a unified campaign and provide a way for the public to learn about and interact with your brand. Combined with strong marketing, digital and creative elements, earned media can help your organization create a campaign that reaches your goals and increases brand awareness.