However you choose to communicate with your target market, it is important to evaluate the effects.Not all press coverage is necessarily good coverage and it is important to focus on those publications and articles that will have the most benefit for your business. For example there is little point securing coverage in a magazine that none of your target audience will ever read. You need feedback to find out what has and hasn’t worked, as this will help you improve your future strategy.Measuring the affect of advertising and other types of marketing on direct sales is relatively easy. However the impact of press coverage can be more difficult to chart.
One of our clients, award winning stockbrokers, Hoodless Brennan (www.hoodlessbrennan.com) recently monitored the affect that press articles over the past year had in terms of direct sales and produced graphs to evaluate what worked best for them. This found product-based articles in the Guardian, Financial Times, Sunday Express and Sunday Times had a particularly dramatic affect on sales. This method can also help you calculate whether your current strategy is cost-effective. Are you getting a sufficient return on your investment?
You can also measure hit counts to your website on days that coverage has appeared or ask new customers where they heard about your company as a way of quantifying your press activity.
