Source: 

If there's one thing our public relations industry has done a fantastic job at, it's convincing people that impressions really matter. Well, they don’t impress me much. What does impress me is that my clients view our partnership as an investment — not an expense.

Any time this conversation comes up, I use the same example. A few years ago, an innovative company — one that we really wanted to work with — reached out to schedule a meeting. We asked a very important question:“What does success look like to you?" The answer — straightforward, short and quick — surprised me a bit: "We need 3 million impressions per month." Hmm.

I get it, you want your name out there, but at what cost? Getting impressions really isn’t difficult. You will sometimes see more than 100 million impressions on a single release on PR Newswire. But what does that actually mean? Not much.

What does matter is that those impressions are the right ones — impressions on content that is crafted in a way that compels people to take action. Marketers would never dream of using the number of emails sent as a metric for success when reporting on a campaign — they can buy lists and send to as many folks as they want. What is significant is what actions those email recipients took as a result of the email received. Why are we not measuring our success — the impact of our PR campaigns — with metrics that matter?

So what metrics do matter? Well, that really depends on what you (or your client) is trying to accomplish.

According to an article by George Deeb, return on marketing investment (ROMI) is one of the most important metrics that investors look at. But how do you achieve it? It's about having the right tools, the right stories and the patience to leverage data being collected to learn from and inform your next story. We lovingly refer to this as data-driven storytelling: marrying the art of storytelling with the science of data collection and analytics. Ask these four questions to get started:

1. How do we capture the right story?
   This is paramount. Before looking to pursue any opportunity for your client, ask yourself, "What story does its buyer personas, or ideal customer profiles, need to hear to take action, to take that next step?" Lean on the expertise and industry knowledge of your team to determine when and where they may need to hear it as well. 
   
   
2. What action(s) equate to success?
   By defining what success looks like to you and your client for this story, you will have a much easier way of determining how to get there. We have taken a play from the educator’s playbook and refer to this as backwards design: Start with the desired end-result and work your way backward.
    
3. Do we have the right content in place?
   How is your client currently capturing leads on its website? What do the lead conversion paths look like? Is your client like many companies that only offer bottom-of-the-funnel conversions (i.e., schedule a demo, talk to a sales rep, sign up for a trial)? If so, the client is missing out on the vast majority of activity on its site that results from an article being published. Encourage, or better yet, strategize with your client on some top- or middle-of-the-funnel resources it can offer to capture those folks at or near the top of the funnel. 
   
   
4. Do we have the right tools in place?
   Google Analytics is a great start, as it provides some fantastic high-level information. Was there a spike in traffic as a result of the article? What was your site’s bounce rate, time spent on page, number of pages viewed, new sessions, etc.?

However, having resources that can collect deeper data is paramount. A marketing automation platform is a great place to start, but if your client does not have one or cannot afford one, there are certainly ways you can get close by cobbling free or low-cost tools together. You should also be looking at social media tracking as well. While a tweet or a post on LinkedIn may not get any shares, likes or retweets, there could be a large amount of engagement on the link that you can learn and benefit from.

Data-driven storytelling is certainly a science, but not an exact science. There is no silver bullet here. You are still going to misfire, as will my team as well. How you handle that misfire will define your agency's value in your client's eyes. Look at the data, figure out where the disconnect is or could be — was it timing? The wrong headline? Did you have the right links in place? Or maybe the story just wasn't as compelling as you thought it would be. Whatever the reason, show up to your next meeting prepared to discuss the misfire, tell the story of the data you have collected, own it and communicate how the next opportunity will be more effective due to what you have learned.

While you should still report on impressions and reach, as they are an important indicator as to how widely read a publication or blog is, measure success on metrics that allow your clients to see your agency as a valued partner and investment, rather than an expense. Take time to figure out what this may mean for your agency, your industry and your clients. What if you could report an ROI with every client, every quarter, that demonstrates your value in concrete numbers? It's powerful, and it does impress me (and your clients) quite a bit.