How to measure employee marketing and comms
According to the 2016 Inside IC Global Survey,
70% of professional internal communicators admit to spending
the least of their time on measuring their effectiveness.
Decide, Determine, Develop, Define
We hope the following simple-step guide will make it easier for you to measure the contributions you make to aligning your leaders, managers and employees with the commercial imperatives of the organisation you work for.
If, after reading this, you get the adulation of your exco,
a positive salary adjustment, a corner office and hot PA, we will see
that as a measure of our success.
1. Decide up front
Measuring happens at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of a campaign.
To decide where you want to make an impact,
cluster your communications into themes, with a percentage breakdown of
how much you are currently communicating in each area – for example:
2. Determine your targets
You now have a visual representation of where you are focusing your communications, compared to how much you are communicating in those areas. If the two match up you’re on track, if not, you can make adjustments.
To do this, set targets of the percentage of impact you
would like to see, and plan your comms accordingly.
This not only helps you identify your priorities and set realistic targets, it also gives you a measure of eventual success.
3. Develop a Baseline
Before you begin your next communications campaign, find out how, where and why your current communications are hitting or missing. Use conversations, interviews and focus groups with employees and leaders find out specifics such as:
a. Who is consuming your current campaigns?
b. What do they expect from your campaigns?
c. How well do current campaigns meet their expectations?
d. Their preferred communications channels?
e. Their preferred type of content?
4. Define the Results (See model at the end)
Now you can run an employee campaign using the knowledge you have gained in the preceding steps – and most importantly – you can now measure against four key deliverables:
1. Efficiency of channels.
Did your message get into the right hands at the right time? For example:
Did your e-mail get read?
2. Effectiveness of communications.
Was your message read, understood and remembered? For example:
Did you get responses to call-to-actions?
3. Impact on audience.
Did people change how they behaved or responded? For example:
Logged on to a system and updated their details?
4. Impact on business.
Did the changes affect productivity, customer experience, or profitability? For example:
Improvement in compliance related matters?
Better customer experience stats?
Increased sales?
Do It Again
Once you start planning your comms’ for measurable outcomes you begin to see what media, what content, and what channels have the most impact.
This is a radically simplified guide, but it does give a sense of how the obstacles to measurements can be overcome using the right strategies and insights.
For more detailed information, see the excellent Poppulo knowledge Whitepaper available here:
https://www.poppulo.com/resources/global-internal-communications-statistics-benchmarks-and-trends/
For a more comprehensive outline of how we at Actuate use these steps in designing our employee marketing and communications campaigns for our clients, contact Kevin on +27 11 021 1400 or kevin@actuate.co.za
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-went-right-kevin-liebenberg/