Return on investment=(gain on investment-cost of investment)/ cost of investment. This is the basic formula for determining what return on investment is, if you go by this then you are going to find any Public Relation campaign lacking. The reason for this is that PR is not just about selling more product in a smaller window, but instead building a long lasting relationship with your client base. In the Pr practice there has been a long debate if determining a ROI is even possible.
“Asked whether they regularly used the term ‘ROI’ or ‘Return on Investment’ when planning and evaluating public relations activity, there was a strongly positive response. Two-thirds (66.7%) answered in the affirmative and 33.3% in the negative.” In this study over one third of the participants said that they do not use any type of ROI. With the the worlds economic state constantly shifting it has become apparent that Pr professionals will need to demonstrate an ROI to their employers. For Pr to continue to grow in the business world it is clear that the need for a way to determine an ROI is of utmost importance the question is how.
“However, proving the value of public relations has challenged the profession for years-While there has been a lot of talk, there are few examples of definitive approaches for doing so effectively.” (is ROI in public relations realistic) “Many would argue that it is not possible to measure the ROI of public relations.We disagree.Although it is not always easy or exact, there are methodologies available to quantify the financial value of public relations.They use a variety of quantitative methods, as well as data that is often available fix)m the market research department of a company, or can be collected with a few additional questions to an ongoing tracking study.” The members at Ketchum boiled down ROI for Public Relations into Three different categories. Return on impressions, measuring this element of pr ROI is based on the basics of pr Awareness, Comprehension, Attitude and Behavior. With this method it is possible determine if the cost of pr impression and if it was either a positive or negative attempt. The second step is return on earned media and involves the use of advertising value equivalencies. This particular method is used to determine the differences between bought and earned media as to see how the two can compare side by side and which one might be more frugal. The third technique is return on media impact. The return on media impact is vital ROI for pr professionals to calculate because of the increase in social media. When launching a social media campaign it is possible to measure the effectiveness of the campaign by assigning statistical values to both the quality and quantity of a companies social media posts. Then track the fluctuation of sales along the same time line as the social media posts a company put out. With a possible way to give companies the ROI that they want the Pr profession’s future looks bright.
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