Accountability and Return-On-Investment

Once viewed more as art than science, marketers are increasingly interested in measuring performance. Like it or not, there is a new wave of accountability in the world of marketing, and if you're not prepared, you could get swept under it. Companies are becoming increasingly concerned with ensuring that all activities are profitable. As a result, each dollar invested in marketing is being challenged to demonstrate bottom line performance. New forms of marketing, escalating ad costs and tools that purport to measure marketing effectiveness have all contributed to the pressure traditional media is facing to "prove its worth."

Watrall, Rick. Communication World Bulletin (2003). Articles>Business Communication>Marketing>Assessment

Build More Effective International Media Analysis Programmes with Market Research Disciplines

Ask communication professionals why measurement is important, and their answers are likely to involve accountability, measures of effectiveness, ROI and planning support. Ask market researchers what makes for good measurement, and they are likely to respond that it involves reproducible results, adherence to rigorous standards and objective impartiality. Within the communication process, however—especially within PR and media relations—there is a tendency to look more closely at the output of their programmes than at the methodology yielding the data charts and reports. While market research has a well-established body of theory to support its claims of delivering objective and authoritative data, media analysis as a commercial discipline is only just beginning to grasp the importance of these standards.

Stoeckle, Thomas and Mike Daniels. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Marketing>Assessment

A Checklist for Public Relations Practitioners When Considering Measurement or Evaluation Research

Read these 10 useful tips from Walter K. Lindenmann, Ph.D., an independent consultant specializing in public relations research, measurement and evaluation services.

Lindenmann, Walter K. Communication World Bulletin (2003). Articles>Business Communication>Public Relations>Assessment

Five Tips for Measuring Public Relations and Catching the CEO's Attention

Measuring the effectiveness of PR is critical to moving PR from a tactical function to a strategic component of your company's plan for success. But the old ways of counting clips just aren't good enough to convince today's management executives that their investment in PR and overall communications is paying off. Here are 5 Tips about how to measure PR in ways that will catch the CEO's attention and increase the stature of PR in any organization:

McNamara, Julie. Communication World Bulletin (2003). Articles>Business Communication>Public Relations>Assessment

Fun With Measurement Math!

Recent research tells us that 97 percent of all public relations departments are involved in media relations, and 88 percent evaluate their campaigns using media analysis. On one hand, industry leaders urge us to measure the results of our work via business outcomes; yet on the other, communicators are still asked to supply output results as 'proof of performance.' Is there some link between the two that can cover both? Here are some relatively easy ways to make your media results speak with numbers that management will respect and understand.

Jeffrey, Angela. Communication World Bulletin (2003). Articles>Business Communication>Public Relations>Assessment

Hard Measures are Key to Gauging the Effectiveness of Communication on the Bottom Line

In conducting its landmark 2003 Communication ROI Study, which focuses on the relationship between an organization's internal communication strategy and practices and its shareholder returns, Watson Wyatt made some surprising findings regarding the relationship between effective external and internal communication.

Vogt, Peter. Communication World Bulletin (2003). Articles>Business Communication>Workplace>Assessment

How to Set Specific Goals for Your Public Relations Campaign and Calculate Your Precise ROI

In today's world, advertising is just one element of the marketing formula. In fact, there is a shift occurring away from advertising to other marketing that's less costly and more cost-effective and efficient. In all your marketing efforts, your goal is to gain that top-of-mind awareness position with your prospect/customer. PR can do this. Advertising can do this once awareness is attained. PR gets you there; advertising keeps you there. Knowing the return of PR truly justifies it as an integral part of the marketing arsenal.

Lautenslager, Al. Communication World Bulletin (2003). Articles>Business Communication>Public Relations>Assessment

Measuring Integrated Marketing Communication from Start to Finish

Many companies have taken a limited view of the impact that marketing communication can have on overall corporate objectives, reducing their understanding of the value of marketing communication. One reason for this resistance is that the value of IMC can be complex to measure in a world where marketing usually moves at a dynamic pace and is driven by a changing competitive landscape and seemingly unpredictable shifts in customer attitudes. The potential revenue and customer satisfaction benefits of implementing an IMC program can be so dramatic that companies shouldn't ignore the movement any longer.

Woods, Julie. Communication World Bulletin (2003). Articles>Business Communication>Marketing>Assessment

The Myths and Methods of Reputation Measurement

If you are concerned about your reputation and want to measure its health, here's what to do. Get the communication people in your organization together in a room and get consensus on what you want to measure and which constituencies are your top priorities. Determine how a good relationship with each of those constituencies benefits your organization. Your success is measured by achieving those benefits. Figure out what you will be measuring and what benchmarks you will be measuring against. Undertake the appropriate research and voila, you'll have the answers you need.

Paine, Katie. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Articles>Business Communication>Public Relations>Assessment

Practitioner's Perspective

The biggest challenge for auditors is to make sure that they're measuring the right things. All too often communicators measure only their outputs—the messages and channels they're producing—without connecting them to the outcomes of using these outputs.

Sinickas, Angela D. Sinickas Communications (2003). Articles>Business Communication>Assessment

Quantifying the Impact of Communication on Your Organization’s Bottom Line

Consider this scenario: You’re making a pitch to the CEO that calls for more focus and resources on internal communication, citing recent studies that demonstrate that organizations with more effective communication have higher performance. And you get this response: “Great, I’m sold on the importance of communication. Tell me which communication channels have the greatest impact on our bottom line, and put together a strategic plan that will lead to increased revenues.” Did you get a little more than you bargained for? While the CEO’s request certainly sounds challenging, rest assured that it can be done.

Williams, John A. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Assessment

Response Mechanisms—The Key to ROI

ROI still eludes many B2B communicators, despite the increasing pressure to prove it. What is the amount of revenue your company gains as a result of your communication after you’ve subtracted expenses? This is especially good to know if you integrate your marketing communication. What part of the mix is working, and what isn’t? If you know that, you can eliminate the duds and rev up the elements that really bring in revenue. Ultimately, over time, you can increase the return on your marketing investment by knowing how well the components of your program perform.

Elrick, Merry. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Assessment

Using a Client Memo to Assess Critical Thinking of Finance Majors    

This article describes a holistic, discourse-based method for assessing the critical thinking skills of undergraduate senior-level finance majors. Rejecting a psychometric assessment approach in which component features of critical thinking are disaggregated, this study is based on a holistic scoring of student memos. Students were asked to recommend and justify a course of action to a lay client facing an ill-structured finance problem. Analysis of student memos reveals critical thinking weaknesses that may be ameliorated by changes in assignments or instructional methods. The memos reveal four kinds of critical thinking problems: (a) failure to address the client's problem, (b) random rather than purposeful application of finance tools and methodologies, (c) inability to translate finance concepts or methods into lay language, and (d) inability to construct rhetorically useful graphics. The curricular implications of this study are discussed.

Carrithers, David and John C. Bean. Business Communication Quarterly (2008). Articles>Education>Business Communication>Assessment

Using a Plain Language Assessment Tool to Improve Business Communication  

Our company has been involved in a joint public/private sector initiative to bring the benefits of plain language campaigns to business communication. For the project we developed a plain language assessment tool that identifies problem documents, estimates costs associated with poor documents, analyzes their usability, profiles their authors and readers, and helps create action plans for improvement. Two organizations have run pilot projects with the assessment tool, and we did follow up research on them and on some organizations that were exposed to the tool in a workshop setting. The tool is an effective vehicle for improving business documents and performance.

Mierau, Maurice. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Business Communication>Assessment>Minimalism

Web Design by Designers

Designers are, as a rule, a fussy bunch, and when it comes to their own business communications they’re even more so. Designing a website for an award-winning design firm verges on the impossible. A design firm’s web presence primarily serves as a tool to attract new business from a global community—and, secondarily, as a means to show off. Designers are by far their own worst critics, and their websites have to tread a fine line between being cutting-edge so as to attract young new business, and more traditional so as to appeal to established or more conservative businesses.

Elam, Kimberly. Digital Web Magazine (2008). Articles>Web Design>Business Communication>Assessment

Corporate Blogs: Measure Their Value!

To date, ROI hasn't been applied to blogs. This is partly due to blogging recent introduction to the marketing mix. Many blogging experts have suggested calculating a blog ROI is impossible. As a professor, I teach students how to tie marketing to the bottom line. Calculating ROI for a blog should be no harder than calculating it for other marketing components. To place ROI measurements in context, you must first understand how blogs fulfill different business objectives.

Cohen, Heidi. ClickZ (2005). Articles>Business Communication>Blogging>Assessment

Communicating Customer and Business Value with a Value Matrix

If you’re like me, you’ve always felt something was missing once you finished creating your personas and scenarios. They communicate the heart and goals of the user, but miss out on a lot of details. And while it’s the intent of both documents to do just that, neither personas nor scenarios succinctly communicates to your business what features a product or service should have and why it should have them.

Cecil, Richard F. UXmatters (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Assessment>Personas