Historically, it’s always been difficult to measure the results of PR and communication strategies. Even when sales peak during particular campaigns, it’s not always possible to definitively link them back to your communication strategy. Technology is making this easier, however, and there’s now a range of easily accessible ways to track the success of your work as a communication professional.

1) Social media engagements

With so much communication occurring on social media these days, the number of engagements your posts receive should be high up on your list of metrics. It’s important to remember that “likes” aren’t everything though. There are many people out there on the internet who will “like” pretty much anything, so tracking the number of comments and shares you get – i.e. meaningful engagement – is a better indicator of how you’re communication strategy is performing. Those that are commenting and sharing information are much more likely to end up buying a product or promoting your brand than those who are simply “liking” your posts.

2) Ask new customers how they heard about your product

Thanks to online shopping, it’s now easier than ever to find out the reason why an individual customer chose to purchase a product from you. Simply add a dropdown menu to your checkout process that asks the customer how they heard about your brand or product – categories could include social media, paid advertising, specific campaigns or heard from a friend. After a while, you’ll have enough data to make meaningful decisions about which communication strategies are working.

3) Use Google Analytics

Google analytics allows you to measure things like website traffic, bounce rate (the number of people clicking on your website and then leaving straight away) and how many pages users view per session. You can also set certain goals using Google Analytics and measure those. Goals could include clicking on the contact us page or signing up to your mailing list.

Opening an incognito window (which will have none of your internet search history impacting the results), and googling certain keywords and terms will also enable you to see how well your website and brand performs on Google, and how high you appear on the search page.

There are numerous ways you can measure the performance of your communication strategies, and they’re increasing all the time as new technology becomes available. For more communication news and trends, please visit our Insights page.