CMOs: 6 Tips For Proving The ROI Of PR To Your Board

Forbes

2 days ago

Heather Kelly is the CEO of Next PR, an award-winning, full-service public relations firm with offices across the U.S.
Your team just completed a phenomenal PR campaign to announce your latest funding round. As CMO, you're extremely pleased with the number of press release pickups, interviews secured and overall media traction. The board of directors, however, isn't impressed. They don't see how any of this meets their business goals, and now you're feeling put on the spot—and maybe even a bit insulted that you have to defend your hard work. It's a classic PR mistake: Failure to connect the dots between PR efforts and business ROI leaves many board directors questioning the investment.
It's also not your fault. For years, PR professionals have struggled to justify their work with hard data. We've been conditioned to believe that top-tier media placements and other vanity metrics are the markers of success. We know in our hearts that it impacts the bottom line, so it must be true, right?
In today's economy, that's not enough. Especially now that margins are slim and budgets are tight, CMOs are under tremendous pressure to deliver measurable impact for every dollar spent. And in their defense, it's the board's fiduciary responsibility to question the ROI of every investment.
That means it's our role as PR professionals to leave no room for questions about the value and impact of our work. Here's how to demonstrate the ROI of PR in a compelling way:
Establish expectations.
Don't assume you know what metrics the board is looking for. Ask them directly: What are their goals? To increase sales or revenue? Drive product adoption or user acquisition?
Understanding the objective is critical for accurately capturing and communicating results—and for devising strategy, too. Kicking off a campaign without articulating the desired outcome is putting the proverbial cart before the horse. Collaborate with the board to establish goals first, then you'll have better—and provable—results.
Lean into business KPIs.
A lot of PR pros shy away from business KPIs because it's traditionally been difficult to track the metrics. Today, we have powerful measuring tools like Google Analytics, Sprout Social and BuzzSumo that provide insights into website traffic, content downloads, sentiment analysis, backlinks, social engagement and share of voice. You can even correlate media placements to equivalent advertising value and track how media coverage, brand perception and sentiment are impacting talent recruiting and retention.
Start by establishing a baseline so you have a point of comparison. A lot can change in a couple of months, so you'll want to highlight any progress.
Speak the right language.
Consider that many board members aren't marketers, salespeople or PR pros by trade. Instead of talking about content downloads or impressions, translate your results into business outcomes they understand. Frame PR results in terms that align with what matters to the board—growth, profitability or reputation. Your PR team or agency partner should help translate data and messaging into a compelling, business-focused narrative.
Don't be afraid to push back.
Because they may not understand audience targeting, board members often focus on a single, audacious goal: coverage. I like to call this tier-one clout, when a mention in the Wall Street Journal is the only thing that matters to them.
In reality, many of our clients have seen far greater lead generation, sales traction and even acquisition interest from media placements in niche industry publications. You may need to educate the board on the business value of HR Dive versus the New York Times in reaching your target audience decision-makers.
Benchmark against competitors.
Boards often want to understand how the brand is performing against the competition. While you can't prevent your competitors from getting media coverage (a board member actually asked me to do that once), you can tell better stories to increase your share of voice or outrank them in SEO.
You don't have to match their press release cadence one-for-one to compete (yet another misguided boardroom ask), but you can position your subject matter experts as leading authorities in your industry to increase inbound reporter requests. Explain to the board why that's more valuable.
Be proactive.
Don't wait until the board asks about PR metrics. In addition to preparing KPI-focused reports for your quarterly board meeting, consider developing a monthly email update highlighting media wins, new reporter relationships and relevant trends, connecting PR efforts to broader business goals. Proactively demonstrating impact positions your team as strategic and mission-critical. It shows how PR drives revenue and profitability.
As CMO, you likely have a clear grasp of PR's ROI in driving sales and other key business metrics. But the board may not, especially since PR isn't their area of expertise. Rather than feeling defensive, lean into the opportunity to educate them by presenting clear goals and precise measurement aligned to business objectives.
There's no doubt PR works. Demonstrating its impact, however, requires the right data and clearly connecting success to the board's vision and company goals.
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