CONTENT ENGAGEMENT REPORTING

Transcription

1 CONTENT ENGAGEMENT REPORTING For Modern PR Agencies Data-Driven Insights, Monitoring and Reporting for SEO + Influencers + Content

2 Content Engagement Reporting for Modern PR Agencies In This Guide, You Will Learn: Page: 1. The Current State of PR Reporting 1 2. The gshift State of PR Reporting 2 3. The New Landscape of Content Distribution & Discoverability 3 Traditional PR Outlets 3 The Rise of Off-Site Content 3 Influencer Marketing 4 4. Client Expectations for PR Reports 6 What Your Client Really Wants to See in Their Reports 6 The Death of Vanity Metrics 8 Deeper Metrics for Meaningful Data 8 5. Why You Need to be Using Smart URLs for Client Reporting 9 What are Smart URLs? 9 Access to Your Clients Google Analytics Accounts 10 Measuring for Off-Site Content Engagement with Smart URLs Sample Content Engagement Report 12

3 1. 1. The Current State of PR Reporting As a modern PR agency, you can t depend on publications and journalists to get your clients stories seen and read by their audience. With the advancements of technologies and accelerated focus to a digital world, consumers have gained more control over a brand s story and are seeking for more engaged, one-on-one conversations with a brand than PR agencies are traditionally used to. Sources of news and information have adapted with this advancement. Prospects refer to Google, social media platforms, review sites and peers to educate themselves. They look for unbiased pieces of content to help shape their opinions through trusted sources. While many PR agencies have adapted their practices to focus on social media, content marketing, and influencer marketing, the ability to effectively monitor, measure and prove campaign effectiveness to the client is still a challenge. The most common form of measurement for public relations specialist and their clients is total reach (68%) and total impressions (65%), according to the USC Report. Unfortunately, these are easily attainable vanity metrics that the client does not care about. These metrics do not paint a true picture of a campaign s engagement and effectiveness. Clients expectations are increasingly focused on using data to drive strategy. Fred Cook, Director of USC Centre of PR, states that measurement remains the holy grail in the PR industry. Everyone agrees it s a huge growth opportunity but few seem to have figured out an integrated approach to determining the real return on investment for communications. If a PR agency is capable of showing their client actionable data to apply to their campaign strategy and how it helps reach key business objectives, they prove to be an invaluable resource. TWEET THIS

4 2. 2. The gshift State of PR Reporting Your modern PR agency works diligently to understand the client, create engaging content and publish it into unique channels in order to build brand awareness and develop their audience. Proving engagement of this content to the client keeps you up at night. Collecting metrics in a productive way and presenting them in an organized way is a constant challenge. Imagine being able to provide your client with a branded report with the click of a button where all the content your agency has been responsible for creating is represented by true engagement metrics. Client-facing data and graphs, comparing two time periods, depicted in a way they immediately understand the impact their PR investment is having on their web presence and brand. Imagine being able to present content engagement metrics by: Channel (Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram) Influencer Content Geography Device Content Type Imagine how delighted your clients will be with having instant insight into real metrics.

5 3. 3. The New Landscape of Content Distribution & Discoverability Traditional PR Outlets Consumer behaviour has adjusted over the last several years as it relates to news consumption. People are not subscribing to PRNewsire and BusinessWire at the rate they once did. Press releases and leveraging news distribution websites still play a role yet PR agencies must look beyond these tactics to reach an audience. A fully-integrated PR campaign that takes into consideration different social media channels and content marketing is essential in reaching and resonating with the target market. Fifty-one percent (51%) of people with online access use social media as a news source, according to The Reuters Institute Digital News Report With mobile so readily-accessible, consumers are increasingly using their phones to stay up-to-date. These two trends are impacting traditional PR strategies where PR agencies used to hold a level of control. Sources of news vary but nowadays, most of the distribution of news happens on Facebook, with 44% stating it is their number one social network to watch and comment on the news. With phones and their social media apps at an arm s reach, news and stories can travel globally within a matter of minutes. Half of social network site users have shared news stories, images or videos, and 46% have discussed a news issue or event (Pew Research Center). This can be a scary thought for PR agencies who are new to the digital world, but for those who approach it strategically and have insight into where and who is having this conversion, have the opportunity to use this to their advantage to find new audiences. The Rise of Off-Site Content At least 67% of the customer s journey (Sirius Decisions) occurs off of the brand s main website and in some cases, it s as high as 90% (Forrester Research). The behavioral trend of prospects informing themselves, before they buy, in social media and external sites will continue. With that said, content

6 4. marketing continues to play a growing role for many organizations, with 81% of PR agencies stating it is the largest area for future growth (USC Report). Content marketing exists and lives beyond your own website. Off-site channels such as social media, video sites and influencer marketing have taken over as leading components in content marketing strategies as it helps attract an even larger audience, drive targeted traffic directly to their website and increase the diversity of trusted sources pointing back to their website. You are likely tracking the content you have on your own website using embedded analytics, such as Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics. These on-site analytics systems are capturing only 10% to 33% of the brand s content engagement metrics. It is a much larger challenge for marketers to track their off-site content - the 67% to 90% of content engagement that is part of the buyer s journey. Using smart URLs, discussed later in this guide, can help to provide in-depth insights into engagement with your off-site content so you have a full view of what content is working best, what platform it is working on and potentially who is engaging with it. Think of smart URLs as Google Analytics for your off-site content. Influencer Marketing If a brand launched a new product and you were faced with two statements, which one are you more likely to believe and engage with: 1. Press release from its CEO stating the new product is cutting edge and going to make a large impact in the industry; or 2. A leader in the industry who you follow and has tested the new product and states it is a game changer in the industry? Likely, the latter.

7 5. The concept of influence is not new, but with the amount of information we have access to, consumers are becoming more selective with the sources they trust. Almost 90% of people trust online reviews written by other consumers as much as they trust recommendations from personal contacts. A leader in the industry offers a non-biased view the CEO can not offer. Influencer marketing has been named this year s Holy Grail for public relations. One influencer sharing a post can lead to a 31.8% increase in social shares on average, according to a recent BuzzSumo study of over 100 million articles. Influencer marketing can have a powerful impact on a brand s online presence, helping raise brand awareness, highlight client s successes and provide media exposure. This approach to marketing helps PR agencies get the attention of their client s audience by partnering with trusted influencers in the client s industry. When identifying influencers, find people your audience trusts and already follows. This will improve the chance of your message resonating with the audience when they are hearing the opinion of somebody they value. Keep in mind, the best influencer isn t necessarily the one with the most followings. Amplifying your message through a megaphone to reach the most people is not the most effective way of achieving engagement. The graph below represents the impact of influence based on an influencer s audience size. Influencers posts, whether it is a blog or social media post, is a source of off-site content that needs to be tracked. Smart URLs are an effective way of knowing which influencer is performing the best, what pieces of content are achieving set goals and objectives and what channels are effectively reaching your client s audience.

8 6. 4. Client Expectations for PR Reports What Your Client Really Wants to See in Their Reports More Results. Fewer Actions. A common tactic for some PR Agencies is to deliver a report focusing solely on the work that has been done by their team. While this can be great to show the effort, the client really cares more about seeing the results. To really understand ROI, reports need to show more results and fewer actions. For instance, while it s great to know ten pieces of content were distributed during a specific month, your client will be much more interested in the number of engagement points received on the content. It will likely always be necessary to outline tasks completed by your agency. Clients still want to know an adequate amount of time is being spent on their account, for the investment they re making with you. However, the focus of the report should be on highlighting the successes of the time spent, in qualifiable, meaningful data.

9 7. Failures and Near Misses With technology today, everything is visible in the metrics. Thanks to the explosive growth of sales and marketing tools, every step of the digital strategy can be tracked. This is great when you want to identify the successes of the client s campaign. However, it also makes it glaringly obvious when something has failed. Brand marketers and agencies no longer have the ability to hide behind the numbers. The truth is in the data for everyone to see and your client reports should reflect the true story. While this may make some agencies nervous, it will show your team is responsive and adaptive. If a particular channel for content distribution is not working, show your client using live data and reallocate the investment to another channel. TWEET THIS Benchmarks and Real Impact When it comes to PR, it can be very easy to get swept up in the excitement of large exposure or a well-performing campaign. However, a truly successful PR program is one that extends beyond one campaign and has a noticeable impact on the organization. Positive PR outcomes may gratify our egos, but true performance is tied to tangible ROI, says Aly Saxe, Founder, and CEO of IrisPR. By anchoring efforts to business priorities and challenges, then measuring their effectiveness as a solution, PR leaders will obtain the insight required to create smarter strategies and hone performance going forward.

10 8. The best way to show this is to run regular benchmark reports, at the beginning of a new PR program, but also at the top of each new campaign. As mentioned above, the truth is in the data. Running regular benchmark reports can clearly show the impact your agency has had on your client s organization and provide back up to the efforts of your team. The Death of Vanity Metrics The term vanity metrics has been sweeping the marketing world for the last few years and has become even more notable with the increase in content marketing and rise of influencers. Vanity metrics include likes, shares, pageviews, downloads, subscribers, etc. While these numbers might look great on paper and can be a sign of traction, they are not a true indication of success for the organization or campaign. In the case of content and influencers, many brands can be wooed by a large number of pageviews, believing pageviews equal audience. While this might be true in definition, it is not relevant for gauging actual engagement from that audience. For instance, let s say you have hired two influencers to represent one of your clients. Influencer X may present you with a monthly pageview count of 30,000 while Influencer Y reports only 9,000. However, once content is live on both of their sites, your client can see much more traffic coming from Influencer Y. With deeper analytics reporting, using off-site tracking, you would be able to show your client which influencer is generating true engagement. Deeper Metrics for Meaningful Data Deeper metrics, which explore engagement and retention, will paint a much better picture of how real the audience is and the kind of ROI your client is getting from it. Creating a report based on deeper metrics will show your clients you have a better understanding of their strategy and key business objectives.

11 9. These metrics can certainly vary depending on the goals of each campaign, however below is a good starting point for engagement analytics you could be reporting to your client. A Total Timeline of Engagement - A look at how each campaign has performed over a certain period of time. This will give your client an indication of the typical lifespan of engagement on new content and decide if additional promotion is needed to extend the power and reach of the campaign. Content by Engagement - Which piece of content within a campaign has had the most engagement? Being able to answer that question can help your client understand what is resonating with their audience. Channels by Engagement - Does your client s content perform best on Twitter or LinkedIn? Comparing engagement across all channels shows which ones should be a focus for further time and investment. Influencers by Engagement - This metric is a critical one for any client who is working with influential members of their audience or industry. As mentioned above in vanity metrics, the size of an influencer is not everything. Looking at influencers by engagement will highlight which influencers really have pull with their audience and are driving their readers to your client s site or content. 5. Why You Need Smart URLs for Client Reporting What are Smart URLs? A smart URL is a unique link (usually shortened and white-labeled for branding and/or campaign recognition), which contains additional tracking parameters and analytics behind the scenes.

12 10. When a smart URL is created, it can be engineered to report on various data points based on the creator s requirements. Content tags can be added manually and/or collected dynamically as the URL is engaged with (i.e., clicked on). gshift s smart URL system, kontexturls, gives you the ability for unlimited tags so you can build client reports that fit your needs. Many brands use content on their websites and track it using embedded analytics (i.e. Google Analytics) however, tracking the content and engagement which lives outside of your website can be more difficult. Using smart URLs will help to provide in-depth insights into engagement with your clients off-site content. You can find out what content is working best, by channel, by influencer, by campaign and more. Access to Your Clients Google Analytics Accounts? A major challenge for many PR agencies is the lack of visibility into the web analytics (Google Analytics, Adobe Omniture, Webtrends, etc.) accounts for their clients. Without first hand access to this data, you can only see part of the story of what is happening with your clients content. Unless your client has granted you access, you will not be able to see their top referring domains, traffic by channel, or even their goal conversions from a campaign your team is working on. Truth be told, even with insight into Google Analytics, your client is still only receiving one third of the picture. With so much activity now taking place off-site, on-site analytics tools do not have the ability to reflect the true engagement happening with their content and the full path visitors take to get to their website.

13 11. Measuring for Off-site Content Engagement with Smart URLs There are many ways smart URLs can be used for your clients campaigns and content. Below are two of the most common tactics smart URLs are used for. First, you can create smart URLs for any embedded links within the piece of content you are creating. Whether these are internal links to other content on your client s site, or external links leading the visitor somewhere else, using smart URLs will help you gain visibility into how many users are actually clicking those embedded links. These embedded links are particularly important in a PR campaign involving off-site content (press releases, influencers, bylines, etc.) because it allows you to report on the click engagement from within the content itself, even though you do not have access to the analytics of the off-site URL. Smart URLs allow you to report on the click engagement from within the content itself, even though you do not have access to the analytics of the off-site URL. Secondly, you can then generate smart URLs to share the piece of content out through social media or other distribution channels. Quite simply, you would replace the normal URL with the smart URLs whenever crafting any social post for the content. As an agency, you can use the tagging features of smart URLs to tag the content by client, campaign, channel, influencer, content type, and much more.

14 12. The use of these URLs are relatively transparent to the user as they require no additional action beyond a simple click. However, while the interaction looks the same to the end user, the clicking of the specific smart URL triggers the collection of multiple data points behind the scenes. These data points lead to an extensive reporting system, allowing you to arm your client with a wealth of knowledge on the performance of their content and distribution strategy. 5. Sample Content Engagement Report As an agency focused on public relations, we know you work hard to produce and distribute quality content for your client. The success of their content often relies on how well it is received. Unfortunately, reporting on audience engagement continues to be a pain point for many agencies. gshift has simplified this process, making it easy for you to collect data and report on content engagement, throughout the entire publishing and distribution process. Download a copy of our sample Content Engagement Report to the right to get a sense of what this data can do for your clients. The reports are fully customizable, and can be automated and white labeled. This gives your team the ability to focus on the components of your clients campaigns that matter most to them. SAMPLE REPORT Check out our fully customizable sample Engagement Report:

15 Please share this guide with your networks: Share on LinkedIn Tweet this Guide Share on Facebook About gshift gshift s industry leading Web Presence Analytics Software Platform helps Brand and Agency teams efficiently understand and improve on the impact and engagement of a organization s content across its web presence. gshift s software infrastructure has been collecting and storing web presence data since More than 10,000 brands in 24 countries benefit from gshift s insight data and software, as they optimize their time to improve the discoverability and the sharing of their content. gshift placed 29th on the PROFIT HOT 50. For more information, please contact us at or sales@gshiftlabs.com