How to avoid these research problems

By Angela Sinickas, ABC, Diva of Diagnostics

Ready to measure your communication success? To avoid rookie measurement mistakes, don’t:

1. Forget to measure until after communicating.

One of the best ways to prove a campaign or channel was effective is to compare baselines before and after the communication. But it’s easy to forget to measure the “before” baseline. Here’s how to fix:

• Check to see whether any locations did not use your intended campaign as it was supposed to be used. Use these as your “control groups” against your “pilot groups” (where it was used correctly).
• Ask the audience to gauge what impact your communication had on their knowledge, attitudes or behaviors.
• Include demographic questions in your existing audience attitude research that identify which communications your audience was exposed to, and the difference they had in impact.

Read full article >

Going up! How to tie communications to your organization’s business success Count what counts How to get your piece of the ROI on communications

Master measurement techniques

Polish your plan with the help of Angela and your peers

The other day, I was discussing ROI with a group of ridiculously talented, impossibly young PR pros in their first year at a big agency. They report ROI to their clients in clicks, shares and likes.

“As a business owner,” I told them, “if I invest a dollar in your services, I want to receive my dollar back, plus a quarter. That’s a return on investment.”

You’re not still measuring communication success in clicks and shares, are you? Let’s put aside for a moment the fact that our organizations and clients can’t spend clicks and shares. And let’s ask these questions: What’s a click worth? What’s a share worth?

At Become an ROI Rock Star With the Diva of Diagnostics — a two-day Master Class with Angela Sinickas on Oct. 12-13 in Washington, D.C. — you’ll find out how to find out. And you’ll also practice the techniques you learn in class, get feedback from Angela and your colleagues, and get a chance to polish and improve your plan. That’s what we call putting the “Master” into the Master Class.

Specifically, you’ll:

• Create a communication plan for a campaign or project
• Develop a measurement plan for tracking success before, during and after your campaign
• Write measurable objectives for your messages, channels and outcomes, then test them against Angela’s five-point checklist for success
• Select the best measurement tools for your communications
• Draft a focus group guide and a survey to apply to your campaign
• Interpret raw data from surveys, then present results so they say what you mean and make a meaningful impact
• Get feedback on the plans and tools you craft in class

To get the most out of this workshop, please bring your laptop and a problem you’d like to help your organization solve.

We expect tickets to this event to sell out fast. If you’d like to be one of 50 lucky communicators to learn to measure your communications like Angela Sinickas does, please Register now.

Polish your skills at our upcoming Master Classes

Learn to Master the Art of the Storyteller, Catch Your Readers, Get Clicked, Cut Through the Clutter and more

Rather bring Ann in to train your whole team? Invite Ann