In PR we are often asked to justify the value of the coverage we achieve on behalf of our clients. One of the most common ways PR agencies do this is to work out the advertising value equivalent of the coverage achieved and multiply it by three based on the assumption that at least three people will have read it.
While this is the standard for our industry and an impressive metric for our clients to show their board members how well their PR agency is performing, it does beg the question, is a financial figure the best way to put a value on your content?
Yes, of course achieving great coverage is our aim with any piece of content we create for our clients, but my view is there’s also plenty of value in what else can be done with that piece of content.
So imagine we successfully manage to place a customer case study in a trade publication – the client’s delighted as it’s a great piece of coverage but its use as a piece of content doesn’t end there. That piece of coverage should be tweeted, put on the Facebook page and turned into a series of blogs. It should also be posted on LinkedIn and any comments responded to create real engagement with that specific piece of content. It could also be turned into a video case study for the sales team to showcase the work their organisation does.
The point I’m trying to make here is that AVE is a useful metric but surely it’s how hard that piece of content works on delivering further engagement that proves its true value.
Fiona Whyatt has worked in B2B PR for many years. She loves blogging!
