Metrics that matter Developing a measurement strategy with impact Jean Burke Esensia Communications Communication is an art not a science. Trust me, Im a communications expert, I know what Im doing yeah but what if I find my activities dont make any difference to the business? I know I need to be measuring more but I dont know what or how to do it Hey come and look at all my charts and graphs! Let me show you how weve contributed to revenue growth Adapted from: Marketo 5 stages of marketing accountability How would you describe your approach? (c) Esensia Communications 2012 Only about four in 10 use measurement findings in planning future communication initiatives and making business decisions, and even fewer benchmark their work against that of other organizations. Source: Towers Watson ROI Study 2012 (c) Esensia Communications 2012 Companies with highly effective communication are three times as likely as low effectiveness companies to take this important step Source: Towers Watson ROI Study 2012 Are you adding value or making noise? The measurement step ladderThe measurement step ladder (c) Esensia Communications 2012 Feel Good Efficiency Performance against objectives Business KPIs Thumbs up/Like Good food/venue Style of presenter Like this channel % who clicked How many read article Number who attended event Trust this channel % knowing what new strategy is and their role in it % who feel empowered to change % who have taken an action Increased customer satisfaction Improved sales Engaged employees Value to Business Ease of measurement The measurement step ladderThe measurement step ladder (c) Esensia Communications 2012 Feel Good Efficiency Performance against objectives Business KPIs Thumbs up/Like Good food/venue Style of presenter Like this channel % who clicked How many read article Number who attended event Trust this channel % knowing what new strategy is and their role in it % who feel empowered to change % who have taken an action Increased customer satisfaction Improved sales Engaged employees Value to Business Ease of measurement Most of us spend our time here.... When this is where we should be! Thinking about a recent project, identify something you measure Why do you measure it? What do you do with the results? What benefits are you gaining in terms of proving value? Know Feel Do Focus on outcomes (c) Esensia Communications 2012 Research Approaches (c) Esensia Communications 2012 QuantitativeQualitativeObservation CountingTalkingWatching What you get Numerical data, statistics e.g. % satisfied, number accessing a particular channel Words, pictures, views and opinionsActual behaviours and actions Sample size Varies but can be large & geographically dispersed Small number of people but can be geographically dispersed Depends but typically a smaller sample Good for Gathering objective data from a large audience base Benchmarking and tracking progress over time Convincing stakeholders who require hard facts/numbers to respond/react on an issue Testing new ideas and concepts Getting under the skin of the numbers gathered in quantitative research Capturing subjective feedback e.g. emotions, feelings and reactions less easy to gather through statistics Gathering reliable and objective data what you see is what you get Information easy to gather and at no additional cost to the business or IC team Adding richness to quantitative data and seeing words translated into actions Watch out for Making survey too long Survey fatigue : over relying on quantitative methods can result in poor response rates/respondents going through the motions Missing out on the nuances and emotions that cannot be captured through objective data Ensuring you communicate the purpose of the research and the benefit in participating Interpreting or generalising the feedback from a small group of participants as the views of your whole employee base Ensuring those you speak to are representative of the total audience Bias: where the views of the interviewer or focus group moderator shape feedback Group effect Leading questions or assumptions that might influence the feedback Automatically attributing behaviours/changes seen directly to communication efforts Assuming behaviours seen at one point are sustained over time Typical methods Surveys On line, Postal, Phone Face to face Full/sample Face to face, telephone or intranet mediated interviews Focus groups On line bulletin boards Testing sessions Walkabouts Manager forums/ blogs/ webchats In tray analysis What are you measuring on step ladder? What approach and specific tactic would you use? Whether employees understanding of the strategy has increased People feel confident about the future of the organisation Have we achieved the desired 15% increase in product sales? % of call centre staff who like the new employee magazine % of senior managers who thought the recent away day was good % employees who feel the recent CEO webcast was the right length Whether we have achieved a 10% increase in the number of people who are volunteering... REINFORCING YOUR VALUE-ADD Surprisingly few organisations formally reporting outcomes of communication measurement Q. How do you report the outcome of your communication measurement? Towers Watson ROI Study 2011/12 Shaping your reporting strategy Gathergather and sort your data incl. bespoke research, information available through other functions e.g. Questions from employee engagement survey, health & safety stats Prioritisefocus on metrics that matter i.e. that relate to business objectives/KPIs and watch out for leading and lagging measures Gapsidentify where you might have gaps e.g. Too much focus on what people think of channels and not enough about how well people understand the strategy engage stakeholders to find out what is most important to them Targetsthrough benchmarking or existing metrics decide on targets, identify where you might need baseline measures e.g. Current levels of awareness of the business strategy Visualisefocus on how to tell the story rather than producing reams of data, decide on a visual approach e.g. Speedometer can show progress over time against targets. Find out from other functions how they report (c) Esensia Communications 2012 Create an appetite for feedback Share the process with clients as well as the robust measurement that results Dont be afraid to ask your stakeholders for feedback Look at how you can you foster a culture of peer to peer feedback within the IC team......and never forget what gets measured gets done Finally, consider: The impact of the desired result. The higher the impact, the more effort you will want to put into it. The amount of conflict you expect. The more conflict you expect, the more effort you need to put into your strategy. Time or competing priorities. How much time can you or others spend on the effort? Data or dialogue people. The people you work with will have biases for either data or dialogue. Find out where the bias is and make sure you take that information into consideration in the overall strategy. Source: Theresa Welbourne PhD