If you’ve found this blog you might have just watched the 45 minute webinar:”Digital #PR, #SEO & AMEC Framework”, maybe you found it via social or this popped up via organic search. Either way, you are in the right place to find out how to measure digital PR and use the AMEC framework as a way to frame the narrative and focus on what matters, i.e. outcomes.
If you are just here for the slides from my presentation, you can find them here.
The presentation and this blog post covers:
- The Digital PR problem
- The solution
- What you can measure?
- The tools and techniques we can use
- Some information on the AMEC Framework
What is Digital PR?
For some practitioners digital PR is their world but for others it is a dirty word. After all isn’t all PR digital these days? For the purpose of this presentation and blog post, here is a definition:
Digital PR is an online marketing strategy used by businesses to increase their online presence. E.g. Digital PR agencies liaising with journalists, bloggers and influencers and using editorial to gain high-quality backlinks, with the core aim of improving Search Engine Optimisation.
Many people know this technique as SEO PR or digital PR outreach.
Digital PR has a measurement problem: an obsession with links as a metric.
And before you bring out the pitchforks, I am a digital PR and I know about links.
I’ve worked for 20 years as a digital PR, and I know more than most about the value of links and their contribution to building online search visibility.
My agency, PR Agency One, was set up in 2011 to take advantage of the “PR for SEO” gap in the market and to use analytics as a way to measure broader metrics linked to brand, organic visibility and conversions.
Nine years on, digital PR has become an established technique.
As an experienced SEO PR and Digital PR practitioner, I’ve developed a suite of measurement products to evaluate outcomes from digital PR, focusing on tracking organic visibility, branded traffic and other traffic sources to points of conversion either via ecommerce or lead generation websites.
So what is the problem that digital PR has with measurement?
If we just focus on link the true commercial objectives and impact are often overlooked. Links are not a business outcome. They are an indicator.
Focusing jut on links is moving PR down the value chain. We become suppliers, not consultant. The further from the c-suite, the less valuable the service.
The solution: how to measure digital PR
Focus on real digital outcomes which are driven by links, referral, search visibility, conversions and sales.
Yes we can measure links, coverage and other indicators along the way too, but we need to focus on the end result.
- Media coverage
- Links
- Visibility / rankings
- Brand
- Reputation
- Social media
- Qualitative feedback
- Site traffic
- Goals / conversions
- Revenue
- And of course…. BUSINESS OUTCOMES!
Let’s take a deeper look at links
Links are still the number one ranking factor, once you exclude any technical SEO issues linked to a website or the site’s content.
But the golden rule is links are NOT an outcome! If we want to measure our performance we need to look more broadly at all the indicators and outcomes.
As part of this we will look at links and we need to assess these based on key link level metrics:
- Follow vs NoFollow
- Link Authority (DA, TF, DR etc)
- Thematic relevance
- Avoiding traps, e.g. affiliate links
- NoFollow at a Robots.txt level.
What tools can we use to measure digital PR?
There are lots of tools that you can use to measure PR, but the most important thing is not to think that there is one silver bullet, i.e.a tool that can measure digital PR for you. Unfortunately,. measuring Digital PR is quite analytical.
Don’t just rely on tools. Use your own data. Commission your own research and build your own models using your own databases.
Tools include, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Google Trends, SEM Rush, MajesticSEO, Ahrefs, Moz, Searchmetrics, Cision, SproutSocial and Orlo.
Use the AMEC Framework to FRAME the conversation
The AMEC Framework comes into play to help tie together all your measurement.
The integrated evaluation framework is an online tool that guides users, both PR and measurement professionals, through a step-by-step process.
The framework links organisational and communications objectives to outputs, outtakes, outcomes and organisational impact. It can be used to evaluate paid, earned, shared and owned (PESO) channels.
This is the place to pull together all your data and insights into one place in an easy to use narrative.
The good news is that this tool is not just theoretical. PR professionals can use the interactive tool to see how it works – for both training purposes and when evaluating live projects.
The interactive framework can be accessed here.
Posted by