The global B2B tech industry is facing enormous challenges. The worldwide tech slowdown has cast a great shadow of uncertainty, causing a ripple effect that has impacted the job market, growth, and funding availability. In these circumstances, PR and marketing feel the squeeze from tech business leaders to demonstrate ROI as budget and resources are stretched.
These conversations are not new. Past crises have demonstrated that businesses that cut costs faster and deeper than rivals did not necessarily flourish. Instead, they had the lowest probability—21%—of pulling ahead of the competition when times got better, according to a study by Havard Business Review.
For those of us in the comms industry, the value of our work is self-evident. It’s a no-brainer, really. But our performance is often overlooked by those who issue and hold the budget. After all, modern organisations have access to all sorts of analytics to measure performance across the breadth of the business, and similar standards are expected of PR.
So, how can comms teams and agencies better connect their efforts to business goals and bottom lines in an unignorable way?
Let the data speak for your work
Comms work should not have to try hard to quantify the impact of PR on the business. It is in our DNA at Made By Giants to connect our work with real business outcomes from the outset. Today, the world of comms and marketing is awash with rich data, and it is important that the industry move beyond traditional methods, such as coverage reports or social media validation, to qualify results.
This is a critical part of securing leadership buy-in across the organisation. However, to do this, you must turn the data into actionable insights for the business quickly and efficiently.
How do we do this? Glad you asked. Here are some ways you can start turning data into actionable insights.
- Building out a qualified sales process
An increasing number of companies demand a better-integrated comms programme that plugs into their sales needs. In the last few years, the Giants have directly contributed £7.46 million in loan origination pipeline for a fintech client. See our etika case study here.
So, how can we prove this? In the case of etika, we activated a creative campaign through paid social, email, and media relations. By tracking inbound events to these activities, we identified the campaign’s impact on the sales pipeline. By working closely with the sales team, we were able to compile compelling and bespoke insights on the effectiveness of the campaign.
The ability to attribute hard cash success to the campaign is a powerful way to showcase the impact of comms on the bottom line clearly.
- Web analytics
The wealth of available marketing tools has made it increasingly easier to monitor demand gen, website traffic, and social media analytics. In the case of a no-code database client, we did just that. Click here for the Baserow case study.
Part of our KPIs for the launch and funding campaign was centred on generating website demand and increasing user acquisition. Gone are the days where KPIs are strictly measured in social media engagement rates or media mentions. To wow senior executives, comms professionals must lean into data-led metrics that tell a more holistic story.
By having access to the customer’s Google Analytics backend, we had the capability to monitor, track and optimise how PR content is driving traffic to the customer’s site and was directly responsible for user acquisition. Ultimately, our work garnered an 850% increase in unique visitor numbers and 63% growth in month-on-month active users.
The digital space provides comms professionals with quality data and ever more granular information they can leverage to optimise campaigns. That is why we insist on integrating directly into our client partner’s website backend for a seamless, data-led measurement process.
For comms to be taken more seriously, in-house communicators and agencies must provide a comprehensive metric system that maps out their work’s impact on business outcomes. This approach must underpin every marketing and comms conversation.
How are you currently measuring PR? Email us at onesmallstep@madebygiants.io if you want to know how we can help you connect your PR efforts to the business goals that matter.