It’s budget season. Complaining that you don’t have a budget for measurement today is like complaining you can’t afford a suit for a job interview. (Have you never heard of Goodwill?) Seriously, between Google Analytics and other free tools, like Survey Monkey, HootSuite, Twitter Analytics, and Facebook Insights, the no-budget argument just doesn’t fly any more.
What may be harder to argue for are the resources and human intelligence to put those tools to work for you. So we thought we’d offer some quick tips to make sure you have sufficient resources to do measurement right. First read our article “How to Create a Budget Your Boss Will Love,” then enjoy these five additional budgeting tips:
- Don’t think of it as a way to justify your existence.
Measurement is a way to understand what is working and not working, not a way to justify last year’s expenditures. When you make your case for measurement resources, make sure your leadership understands the consequences of not measuring, e.g., all the wasted time, effort, and energy doing things that don’t have a good pay off. Good metrics give you reasons to say no to all the stupid ideas that you know won’t work, because they prove how ineffectual they were in the past.
- Make it a priority.
Budgeting is a matter of setting priorities. A former client of mine put it this way: “When it came to measurement, you were my right arm. I could always slash off a pinkie, but I was never going to cut off my right arm.” And we stayed in his budget year after year. That’s because he used data to make better decisions. Like the year we showed him that a major song and dance show they were doing at a trade show was yielding very little in terms of qualified sales leads. Sure, the research cost him $20K or so to do, but from then on he saved $50K per trade show.
- Get everyone hooked on your data.
When measurement becomes incorporated into every strategy discussion and planning meeting, people get addicted to having good data on which to make decisions. So, even if it’s the simplest of metrics, make sure that every time you go into a meeting you have data to back up your decisions. Once they become addicted to data, they will never be able to leave it behind.
- Don’t start any project without it.
Every time you start a project, campaign, or take on a new client, make agreement on metrics one of the first decisions. That way they won’t think of it as an add-on, but as a vital part of the process.
Take the case of a PR firm in upstate New York. Their client was the Economic Development Agency for a county. When they landed the account, they knew there would be lots of questions about how or if they knew they’d be successful. So they put measurement into the budget: $7,500 the first year. Not a huge amount, but enough to do:
- On-going media analysis that would show them how well their messaging, positioning, and visibility was stacking up against the competition, and
- The first part of a pre/post study to determine the impact that PR was having on attitudes and opinions of local leaders.
By being able to demonstrate solid results, both budgets were increased – the one for measurement and the one for PR.
- Make sure everyone sees your results.
Read our piece on how to create a great report in four hours (“How to Write a Fabulous Media Measurement Report in 4 Hours or Less”). Then do it on a regular basis. And, whenever you finish a project, make sure to put together at least a one-page PowerPoint that demonstrates the results, good or bad. If the results are below expectations, then explain what happened and how you can improve next time. When people understand that you’re accountable, and that good metrics are essential to that accountability, then they’ll be loathe to take an axe to your measurement program. ∞
Paine Publishing provides communications measurement training and education. Katie Delahaye Paine provides customized measurement training and services.
