Vet Media Agencies With These 5 Measurement Questions

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Posted: In: Blogs Musings

A few weeks ago, our Director of PR Engineering published a post about how to best manage outsourced PR as a guide for those looking to streamline their processes. I expanded upon this thought recently in the Forbes article “Six Questions to Ask Before You Hire a Media Agency,” noting that being crystal clear on how success will be measured is paramount to defining that relationship from the get-go.

It’s much easier to focus on the qualitative instead of the quantitative — just like how most of us would rather spend our time reading a book instead of skimming a spreadsheet. But trust me: Your CEO, CMO, and VP of communications care far more about the numbers and the quantitative ways that public relations supports the greater business strategy than they do the qualitative.

So let me make it easy on you. The next time you’re vetting the abilities of a media agency, ask them these five measurement questions and make sure they have answers for you before you move forward. If you handle PR in house, consider this an exercise and discuss with your teammates.

Measurement Questions

It’s also a good idea to ask a prospective agency if they’re using any tools to help track success, present results effectively, etc. The way in which they present that information can be quite telling of their tech-savviness, indicating some of the value they could potentially bring to the table.

What PR metric matters most to your senior leaders? Tweet it to me @RebekahIliff.