Public Relations:
Getting Your Money's Worth

It's easy for you to measure the value of your production costs, employee costs and capital costs, but how can you evaluate the effectiveness of money spent on marketing communications and public relations? First, make sure you fully understand the difference between advertising and public relations.

The typical advertisement comes in a 30-second radio commercial, or a 60-second TV spot, or maybe a 3X4 print ad in your local newspaper. It has its moment in the sun for one quick shot, or up to a month or two at most in the case of a magazine ad, then it fades out of existence. Good advertising, although fleeting, should result in a direct improvement in sales if it's repeated often enough. Public relations, on the other hand, serves a different, complementary mission.

Rather than being linked directly with sales, PR is a long-term process that involves educating the public, earning credibility and setting your company apart from the competition.

PR uses more subtle, and often more time-consuming, techniques than advertising, but in the end, could have greater and longer-lasting influences on attitudes and beliefs. Internationally known Ketchum Public Relations recently conducted a national survey of almost 500 marketing and communications professionals as to their most common PR communication tools:

• 95 percent use media or news releases

• 88 percent use websites

• 85 percent create marketing pieces, such as brochures,
...presentation folders, etc.

• 77 percent send out direct mail pieces, including newsletters

• 76 percent market at trade shows and conferences

Other methods included specialty advertising, trade magazine by-line article placement and marketing partnerships.

When your business decides to launch a PR campaign, the best way to ensure it will produce tangible benefits is to maintain a smooth line of communication with your PR company. Understand and familiarize yourself with the techniques the firm will be using, and then go back and evaluate the effectiveness of what has been done. Though bigger companies can afford costly "baseline" surveys and follow-up studies to measure PR results, the small business person isn't helpless.

Look for increased understanding of your company from those with whom you network (Are they giving you valuable referrals?), new respect (Are you invited to join a board or speak on your expertise?), and media interest (Are you quoted when news occurs in your industry?). As these events occur, you'll see your PR investments paying the bottom line dividends you wanted, and you'll value good PR as a credibility builder that gives you the competitive advantage advertising can't buy.