By: Tawanda Carlton, Account Executive

From social media and marketing channels to digital mediums and broadcast, maximizing brand exposure is one of the primary goals for PR professionals when servicing clients.

In addition to securing media placements, reporting and analytics become a critical factor for agencies in helping them validate their worth and in calculating the ROI of their efforts.

Thanks to the access to information through digital channels, transparency matters.  Clients require a deeper understanding of their return on investment – and this is why measurement is vital.

Client reporting allows PR professionals to:

• Expound upon their hard work and achievements with irrefutable data
• Educate clients on the success achieved
• Provide transparency on the methods incorporated to deliver on client’s business goals.
• Stimulate dialogue between the agency and the client on ways to build on the goals achieved, and craft new targets and methods to achieve them.

In order to get the best out of the reporting process, it’s essential to think through a few key components.

Establish Metrics That Matter

First, it’s key to understand the Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs, that matter most your clients. Despite the industry, product or monthly retainer, I’ve found that every client has a particular measurement of success. While all clients want to see how your PR efforts have impacted their bottom line, some clients care about the number of placements and media impressions achieved, while others are more concerned about how they fair over their competitor, the overall sentiment and/or the trending themes from the coverage attained. With this, measurements of success should not be approached the same. Our agency has found that agreeing on  KPIs, with clients upfront helps to set clear expectations while setting up a trusted partnership between the client and agency. To minimize surprises in the reporting process be sure to align expectations in advance. This allows you to research, deliver and report in ways that save ample time, which in this industry, is your most important asset.

Think With The Client In Mind

Make sure your clients know and understand that you are always thinking and acting with them in mind. At Media Frenzy Global, we rely on and value conversations with our clients during the reporting period as it provides an opportunity for us to share context and deeply explains our rationale behind the methods of action, our overall findings and recommendations. Metrics are the cornerstone of these conversations as they assist in proving our value, showing off the hard work we’ve achieved, and establish an effective and strategic plan of action for the next quarter.

Get Creative

Don’t forget to think differently when showing off all the hard work you’ve put in for the month, quarter or the year. Our team makes a concentrated effort to think beyond the standard and unimpressive spreadsheet templates. Graphs, charts, and images are just a few of the visual aids we utilize to showcase our results. We’ve found that our clients are more receptive to information being presented in new and exciting ways and have used tools such as Powerpoint, Keynote, or Coverage Book to aid in the process. After all, the metrics shared through graphs and charts reveal a telling story about the success or improvements needed in the client’s overall PR efforts.

Client reporting should always be viewed as a way to not only build upon the agency-client relationship but to also show your worth. Meaning, your overall success is tied to the fruits of your efforts and reports illustrate those efforts.