How Can You Measure The ROI of Online PR?

Digital PR  | Image Resource: allstarsdigital.in

There is a link between the media appearance of a business and the increase in sales but this link is not so simple. The most challenging work of a digital professional is to prove the Return on Investment (ROI) of their work.

When it is done digitally, it offers better opportunities for PR professionals to show their work is leading to the desired results for the client. Digital PR brings increased visibility to your business and the potential customers can easily find your business, know about your brand and convert into loyal customers.

There are unique ways to find the ROI of an online PR and this can help you to show your full efforts to your clients.

Measuring your PR efforts

• SEO and online PR are closely related and one of the metrics is the Domain Authority. Domain authority measures a website's authority and relevance on a particular topic with search engines. The higher the score the more visibility the website has and will result in more traffic.
  
  You can use the Moz Domain Authority to determine your score. Most of the domain authority is derived from the external links pointing to your website. By building links from relevant and authoritative websites you can improve your domain authority to get meaningful results.

• Online PR helps to build a relationship with your audiences and also the reputation of your brand. Online PR is one of the ways of branding in marketing and helps people know about your brand. If the target audiences do not know that your company exists then they will not consider you to solve their problems.
  
  If the target audience is not aware of your brand then it will be difficult to find new customers. Online PR shows a way for potential customers to become loyal customers because it helps to increase visibility and credibility. It helps in brand building and when your brand is recognised by the public then your PR efforts are paying off.

• Online PR helps to increase brand awareness and it can also help to change the customer’s search habits. For example, for an automotive company, it can be seen that instead of searching for broader terms like ‘Best hybrid cars’ the customer may start searching for more specific models and vehicle brands.
  
  This metric can be easily tracked through Google Analytics. You can track the number of search queries in a month for your client. As your online PR starts showing effect the number of branded searches will increase per month. It will also help you to identify trends and the public perception related to the brand.

• One of the ways to check if your online PR efforts are helping to build online discussions is the Share of Voice (SoV) metric. SoV helps you to measure how much of the online conversation is dominated by your brand when compared to its niche.
  
  To calculate the SoV, divide your brand’s measure by the total market measures. This is done with social media mention but can also be used with other metrics.