Think technical writing is just manuals and specs? Think again. Discover how thought leadership and business-focused content supercharge your digital marketing strategy. By Nick Cravotta
Is Your Tech PR Driving Results? How to Measure What Matters
So, you restructured your marketing strategies. Did it help? B2B Tech buyers need to know about your company, and you need qualified leads to pass on to sales. But when the sales cycle is 18-24 months, how do you know that the changes you made to your tech PR and digital marketing programs are the right choices, and will lead to solid results? How do you prove that what you’re doing makes a difference to the bottom line?
Step back first: What were your business objectives?
A good starting point is always to take a step back. What objectives did you have? Business goals drive marketing goals. Whether your executive team needs funding, hopes to sell the company within 2-3 years, wants to penetrate a growing market or new geography, marketing objectives can vary dramatically. Let’s assume for our discussion that the focus is on sales growth. How can you ensure your company is top of mind when your services are needed?
Does the market you want to capture know your company?
Technology public relations influences brand credibility, thought leadership, and customer trust. Understanding PR metrics helps align your tech PR efforts with business goals and measures visibility – so important today when AI summaries play havoc with your digital presence. Strong PR helps you get seen in more channels—good stuff that increases your ability to influence AI. To safeguard you from faulty metrics you choose and/or an agency presents, let’s look at metrics you should distrust and the ones that make a difference.
Tech PR metrics that ring hollow:
- Wire reports may show your release was distributed to a ton of media companies that may open, or even post your release, but in reality, they have next to 0 real client prospects in their readership
- Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE) has been widely discredited in the PR industry. It doesn’t measure PR value, doesn’t account for quality of coverage, and treats PR like advertising—which it isn’t. Successful PR builds relationships, manages reputations, and tells stories that influence customer opinion. In contrast, advertising promotes products/services directly and controls both the message and the placement.
- Share-of-Voice (SOV) with no quality filter—you need to drill down on which press hits are quality coverage vs. a list of companies in a market report. Otherwise, this number can be inflated and meaningless. Instead, look at the number of good quality, relevant pieces of coverage such as contributed articles and editor-written content.
Tech PR metrics that demonstrate improvement:
The top-ranked metrics demonstrating PR success, according to Muck Rack’s State of PR 2024 are:
- Number of stories placed—evaluates visibility across key targeted channels
- Reach/impressions—essential for understanding audience size and exposure
- Key message pull-through—when key messages appear in earned coverage
- Website impact—traffic, SEO, conversion
Other tech PR metrics you might include in your evaluations:
- Share-of-Voice (SOV) highlighting a brand’s position in the market
- Sentiment that guides how coverage lands with audiences and if negative, whether messaging should be tweaked
- Social engagement of earned coverage that turns exposure into active participation
- Average domain authority—that shows the authority (relevance/quality) of the site where coverage appears. It’s not just about pickups from any news outlet
Penetrate the trusted channels where your prospects hang out with earned content that highlights your strengths, and you will make significant strides in ensuring solid ROI on your PR investments.
Need help getting your technology to channels that will help you achieve your business objectives? TalktoHCI@hcimarketing.com.
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HCI has marketing professionals in North America and Europe.
HCI has marketing professionals in North America and Europe.