Today’s business leaders have access to greater amounts of information than ever before. That might seem overwhelming, but it’s essential to use that information to make well-informed decisions about every aspect of your business.  

You’re already using data to improve your business performance and growth trajectory. If you’re not doing so already, it’s time to start using it to optimize your communications and marketing programs. 

Grounding your communications efforts in data can help you achieve those quantitative goals. Analyzing the right data will highlight where your opportunities lie, where your efforts are falling short, and where your audiences are getting their information. Data will help build your ideal PR and content strategy – and show you how to make improvements once it’s in motion.  

Every source of data yields different insights, so it’s important to know which ones matter most for your goals and objectives. Here’s a high-level overview of the numbers you should be looking at when devising and executing your communications programs. 

Media Relations: Looking Beyond UVMs 

Long-standing metrics such as circulation and unique monthly visitors (UVMs) still provide value, but they can also be vanity metrics. Think of it this way: If you measure the impact of coverage purely with circulation or UVMs, it’s like measuring the attendance of a football game based on the number of seats in the stadium, not the number of tickets sold. 

UVMs and circulation are still relevant, as they assess the potential reach of a story published in the New York Times compared to a community newsletter. We regularly combine these statistics with things like an outlet’s domain authority, which assesses how well its content ranks in search engines, and a share-of-voice analysis versus direct competitors to assess market awareness.  

Pure reach isn’t always the most important metric. You also need to ensure your earned media efforts are reaching the right target audiences – a huge benefit of coverage in trade publications – which is another big reason why domain authority matters. 

Key message pull-through is also a vital data point, as it helps gauge how well your brand and product messaging resonate with reporters. Identify three to five key messages you want to get across to your target audiences, and then check how many of them come across in earned media opportunities. 

Social Media: Focus on Boosting Engagement 

On social media, metrics such as reach and impressions help gauge brand awareness. However, they offer little insight into audience engagement, and engagement is the key benefit of social media. A mix of qualitative and quantitative analysis will provide transparency into what audiences want when engaging with your posts.  

That’s why we prioritize action-oriented metrics on social channels: Followers will literally tell you what they want to see more or less of based on likes, comments, and shares. If actions speak louder than words, then listen to what your followers tell you based on the actions they take. 

Conduct quarterly reviews to identify trends in engagement and then adjust to match what your audiences enjoy seeing more of. Take those efforts a step further by analyzing click-through rates to your website or landing page from each post. 

Remember, what works on one social media channel may not work on another channel. Each channel caters to different audiences, and each audience may want to engage with your brand in different ways.  

Digital Marketing: Optimize Your Audience’s Actions 

Whether it’s email or content marketing, pay-per-click advertising, or paid search, you want your audiences to take action.  

Digital marketing can offer the best levels of transparency into your customer journey. You can assess the actions users are taking, which actions you want them to take, and make adjustments that improve your success rate.  

The click-through rate is a key metric, as it will tell you if audiences are actively clicking on your offer. This will usually take them to your website, where Google Analytics can further track their engagement.  

Now you can gain insights into your digital marketing sales funnel. Key metrics such as pageviews and time on site can help you better understand what users find important. Also look at conversion rates for downloadable content, such as e-books and whitepapers, to see if audiences follow the buyer’s journey you’ve created.  

If they don't, identify small tweaks and areas for improvement, such as making the call-to-action more prominent or your gated content easier to access by reducing registration requirements. Sweeping changes may hinder your ability to identify the issue, so make incremental changes as needed.  

We Can Help Implement and Optimize Your Data-Driven Strategy 

It’s important to note this is an oversimplification of a highly involved process. There’s a reason why careers in data science are on the upswing, as the sheer amounts of data available can be overwhelming to sift through and utilize for decision-making. 

You’ll need an adept partner that understands how to take a data-driven approach to strategic communications. At Airfoil, we ask tough questions about the types of data and reporting you require, and we use those insights to inform future decision-making for your communications team.   

Still have questions about using data to improve your communications strategy? Contact us today.