Why it's time for PRs to connect comms to business results

Robust attribution is a challenge for all marketers. But we know it is vital for communicators to prove what works if we are to truly assess – and prove – the full value of earned media.

Once communicators can prove the value of PR, we will secure the budgets we need to give PR its proper place in the marketing mix.

But how many PRs and communicators see this challenge as a priority? The 2017 Global Comms Report – which Cision has just published with market-leading industry title PR Week – sheds some light on the situation.

As ever, you can see the findings as both good and bad news.

Communicators are struggling to “join up the dots”

First, the bad news. The study shows how communicators across the globe are struggling to connect the dots between their work and the actual business results successful comms and marketing content produce.

It surveyed 425 communicators from the UK, US, Canada, China, Germany, France and Sweden – and all over the world, the story was much the same.

Globally, 63% of the CCOs, CMOs, SVPs and client-side presidents who responded, said the inability to measure PR impact effectively is one of the three most difficult challenges they currently face.

In the UK alone, some 70% of respondents said they felt the comms industry can do a better job at measuring and proving its business objectives.

Pressure to justify existing spend (let alone increase budgets) is another of the key challenges identified in the 2017 Global Comms Report. Some 65% of respondents said the tightening of budgets is a barrier to growth in PR.

How communicators can break down these barriers to growth

But it’s not all doom and gloom. The report also shows that 36% of respondents globally are collecting data to help establish this connection between comms and business success. They say they devote between 10% and 20% of their overall budget to collecting data to understand the impact of comms.

Historically, this kind of data has been hard to come by. But thanks to the latest technological advances, it’s finally possible to demonstrate the impact comms has on web traffic, lead generation – even revenue.

What’s more, the report suggests comms is owning content creation in business. Two thirds of those surveyed ranked content creation as one of their three most important activities. It was ranked most important by 32%.

Of course, that’s just a taste of the findings uncovered in this exclusive report. It paints a clear picture of how the comms industry can break down key barriers to growth in 2018 – making it essential reading for everyone from junior PRs to company CMOs.

So, enter your details into the form below and download your copy of the 2017 Global Comms Report today.

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