Yesterday, Linda Zebian, VP of Communications at Muck Rack, interviewed Claire Walsh, Lead of Public Relations at ZipRecruiter about how to track the right metrics, build smarter reports, and connect PR to business outcomes to determine Return on Investment. You can watch the webinar here.
Key Takeaways
Here are my key takeaways:
- Start simple but do start to measure the impact of your PR effort.
- Partner with marketing and MRX colleagues who already track brand awareness, website analytics, and other business metrics.
- Focus Share of Voice analysis on outlets where your audience actually consumes information.
- Translate PR activities into business language that leadership already uses for decision-making.
Just Start
Linda asked Claire, “What’s one piece of advice you’d give to a team trying to improve how they measure and report on their PR efforts?” [All quotes are lightly edited from Zoom’s Simulive transcript.]
Claire responded, “I would say just get started. Even if you don’t have the most robust measurement program, and you don’t necessarily have to, you do need to start somewhere. Establish some baseline, get some measurement out there, so that you’re able to show your impact over time. Whether that’s for your own personal storytelling of how much you’ve been able to grow something, or that’s for trying to get more investment and resources for your PR program within your organization, start somewhere!”
Claire went on to advocate for dedicating the time to building out a measurement program and for being consistent about what is being tracked. “Make sure you’re carving out that time to look back, because I think we’re so quick to move on to the next thing, and the next.” She continued, “There’s such great impact in not only taking a moment to look back at the success that you’ve had, but also making sure that that all the hard work you’ve done has been shared with others within the organization, and that you’re getting the credit that you deserve.”
Partner with Other Departments
Collaborate with colleagues who already have access to business metrics. Claire spent significant time with ZipRecruiter’s market research (MRX) team, which conducts quarterly brand health tracking studies measuring aided and unaided awareness.
“If I can see those metrics going up over time, that more people know the ZipRecruiter name,” she notes, “while there’s a whole host of other folks within our marketing org that are driving that metric, in theory, our PR work is part of that, too.”
Make sure the MRX team is considering your needs, too. “When people are purchasing at their point of purchase on your site or anywhere else, are they filling out a survey of ‘how did you hear about us’? Is there a way to get ‘a news story’ added [as a choice]?”
Linda interjected to say “I actually love that. Look at the marketing metrics and see how you can add something… I mean, that’s actually brilliant, and you don’t hear a lot about that.”
Claire continued by saying that her approach extends to working with the marketing team. She looks at website analytics through Google Analytics integration, examines referral traffic from media mentions, and even tracks how stories get shared internally by the sales team on LinkedIn. The goal isn’t claiming full credit for business outcomes but demonstrating PR’s contributory role in the broader success of the organization.
Focus Share of Voice Measurement
While many teams track overall Share of Voice against competitors, ZipRecruiter’s approach focuses on what Claire calls “Tier 1” outlets: publications where decision makers in their HR target market actually consume news. This includes both high-circulation outlets and niche trade publications that matter to their audience.
ZipRecruiter examines not just volume, but context: Are they the lead story or merely mentioned alongside competitors? What messages appear in coverage?
The key is establishing these tier classifications early and consistently tracking them. Claire emphasizes the importance of baseline measurement: “Decide what you want your cadence to be, get a baseline as soon as you can, and then compare it over time.”
Translating PR Jargon
Having started a measurement program, collaborated with others, and focused your Share of Voice measurement, discuss results in the language of the business, not the language of PR. Instead of requesting budget increases to “grow story counts” or “get more traction for PR initiatives,” Claire reframes requests around business objectives. “We’re trying to bring more customers to our platform, we’re trying to get more visitors to our website. How can we use PR to get more visitors to the website? Connect those dots for leadership and show how PR can do that.”
This translation from PR jargon to business objectives requires understanding what the company is trying to achieve and positioning PR as a driver toward those goals. The shift from “I need this investment for my tool because it’ll help me grow story count” to “This investment will help us drive more website visitors” makes the decision easier for business leaders expecting tangible performance metrics.
“What is most important is to get a feel for what matters to your organization and to your leadership and find a way to have PR translate and speak to that. And that’s how you’ll find the most success, and it’s not going to be the same for every organization. A more niche organization that’s in a specific industry, you might want to really key in on metrics that speak to your presence within that industry, or how you’re getting through.”
The entire webinar is worth watching. In addition to my takeaways, Lydia and Claire discuss vanity metrics, the use of AI, and other topics. Go here to watch the full webinar.
Author Notes:
Jeffrey Henning
