We could all use a little inspiration to think differently about measuring our outputs, outcomes and overall value as marketers. Especially on those days when you feel like you’re drowning in data or struggling to demonstrate ROI clearly. These are some of our favorite quotes – some sassy, some serious and some old – about PR measurement that will keep you inspired while you’re working on a big dashboard for a client or tracking down clips for a report.

1. PR MEASUREMENT:
8 INSPIRATIONAL
QUOTES & LESSONS

2. Data are just summaries of thousands of stories ----
tell a few of those stories to help make the data meaningful.
Chip and Dan Heath
Authors of Made to Stick

3. Data is important, and it’s not going away. Just be sure that your
data tells a story – the story of your customers, your brand or your
product – in a meaningful way that inspires a desired action or
behavior. Data without context = just numbers.
Lesson #1

4. Not everything that can be counted counts,
and not everything that counts can be counted.
William Bruce Cameron
Sociologist

5. Data is everywhere, and so are the salespeople and pitches for
products and tools to help you analyze it and wow your boss.
However, keep in mind what does and does not need to be
measured for your business goals so that you end up with a clean
snapshot of performance, rather than more dashboards than you
know what to do with and a bunch of diluted metrics.
Lesson #2

6. Can we all agree that the "impressions" statistics at the end of every case study
video mean very little? Basically we’re celebrating that, maybe, perhaps, someone
somewhere might possibly have had an opportunity to see the thing that we made.
Kofi Amoo-Gottfried
Chief Strategy Officer at FCB Garfinkel

7. Oh this one is good. Beware the impressions trap. Much like
advertising value equivalents (AVEs), impressions are a loose
metric at best – based on hypotheticals like “if this earned story
was an ad” and “if every single website visitor clicked on our
article.” It's nice to think about those big numbers, but they don’t
measure outcomes effectively.
Lesson #3

8. Perhaps it has happened to you. You discuss a campaign with your marketing partners, and
someone says, “We need to get one billion media impressions for this campaign!” And we all have
to keep in mind: There are only 300 million people in the United States.
Molly McKenna-Jandrain
Director of Public Relations at McDonald's USA

9. Another witty reminder about impressions. Think about ways to
redirect similar conversations with your business partners to a
more concrete discussion about how you're going to measure
what matters.
Lesson #4

10. Running analytics on less than the whole pie erodes
marketing credibility.
Unknown
Advertising Research Foundation West Event

11. I really wish I knew who said this! Speak up if you’re out there.
This is a great lesson. As marketers and PR pros, in-house or
agency, sometimes you don’t have all the information in front of
you. But try, try, try to get ahold of it. Drawing on metrics from
marketing, PR and sales, you’ll be able to draw connections much
more easily and show how PR is growing your brand audience
and impacting the bottom line.
Lesson #5

12. Because every client has different priorities, the targets you’re going after will vary case by case. When you build your
media list, take an extra 30 minutes and score every target based on these factors: Direct influence on customer, reach
or circulation, and ability to drive leads. When there’s a result, you’ll add a score for length of the story and tonality.
Aly Saxe
Founder and CEO of Iris PR Management

13. This one is so easy to put into action for all PR professionals.
Thinking strategically about how you build your media lists and
how you’ll report on earned media successes from the very
beginning will save you loads of time when pulling
together monthly or quarterly reports.
Lesson #6

14. PR can influence [business outcome] metrics, unquestionably. Getting the right audience is absolutely
our job. We see PR's impact on search, social and media. But ultimately, at the end of the day we do not
control those downfunnel functions, and I would no more hold PR accountable to a potentially bad sales
team than I would hold advertising's performance to customer service metrics.
Christopher Penn
Vice President of Marketing Technology at Shift Communications

15. While PR has the power to influence many business outcomes,
professionals should be cautious of tying their efforts to outcomes
they cannot ultimately control. Focus on what you can control and
how you can grow the audience for your brand or product, and
you’ll be more successful.
Lesson #7

16. The price of light is less than the cost of darkness.
Arthur C. Nielsen
Market Analyst and Founder of ACNielsen

17. I love this quote because it applies to both time and
money. Spending the time to analyze data and report on things
that you’ve done to impact ROI is well worth it – it can improve
your business, team morale, luck when department budgets are
being determined and personal success. Spending the money is
also worth it. Think about measurement as an investment.
Lesson #8

18. www.ervinandsmith.com