50 Examples of the Benefits of PR

CEOs, CFOs and other top corporate executives sometimes question the value of public relations, claiming that PR has no tangible link to ROI or other similar business metrics.

The truth is: PR helps companies save money, become more efficient, build brand awareness, sell more products, raise funding, increase shareholder value, generate customer leads, entice consumers to pay a premium for products or services, and help develop stronger customer loyalty. Some businesses owe much of their success to PR efforts. Nonprofit organizations use PR to increase donations, obtain funding and explain their missions and accomplishments.

Katie Delahaye Paine, CEO of Paine Publishing, lists a total of 50 PR benefits in her new white paper, 50 Shades of Public Relations. More importantly, the research cites case studies for the benefits. Although not all the examples show PR’s link to ROI in a way that a chief financial officer will accept, they do demonstrate incremental business value in terms of increased revenue, reduced costs or stronger reputation.

Here’s a look at a selected few.

Win a contest / Become an industry leader. Jim Koch, owner of Samuel Adams, a small Boston brewery, turned to PR in the 1980s to take his brewery to the national level. PR consultant Carol Cone entered the Samuel Adams Boston Lager in a taste contest where the unknown American beer bested top German beers. Sam Adams soon became the leading American hand-crafted beer.  [Note: Sam Adams Boston Lager is my favorite beer.]

Create brand value. PR allows businesses to charge more for products, sometimes more than similar products from competitors. A high-end florist charges $150 for a candle in a simple glass jar that could be purchased elsewhere for $10. That’s called brand value and can sometimes be created almost entirely through PR. Similarly, jewelry stores with greater brand equity are able to charge more for virtually equivalent products.

That’s the ticket. Southwest Airlines optimized press releases for search engines and tagged them with unique URLs to identify subsequent ticket sales. In the first year of measuring the effectiveness of press releases, it attributed $2.5 million in incremental ticket sales to PR.

Become more admired. A media analysis of companies on the Fortune 500 list demonstrated the value of earned media coverage. There is a strong correlation between CEO visibility and the company’s rank on the list. There is also a correlation between effective messaging in the media and rank. There’s NO correlation between sheer volume of coverage or exposure and ranking.

Improve your stock price. Professor Ernest Martin used wave theory to show that good PR helps keep a company’s stock up longer in a down market and helps it recover faster. While PR does little to change institutional investors’ minds, it does have a major impact on individual investors, who are generally the last to sell off stock in a down market and the first to buy in a rising one.

The Silent Profession?

Mark Suster, an entrepreneur turned venture capitalist, argues that PR is especially important for early-stage companies. PR’s benefits are invaluable but silent, Suster says. Some of the top PR benefits of startups and early-stage companies are:

• Recruiting. It’s 10x easier for startups to recruit qualified candidates if the recruits have read about your company and are excited by its vision.

• Staff morale. Employees love seeing their positive media coverage on their company. They love positive feedback from their peers, parents, classmates and others. Employee retention benefits are significant, although intangible.

• Business development. Positive media coverage leads to more inbound marketing phone calls and more business. The problem: Customers may not remember where they first learned of your business by the time they call.

• Fundraising. No matter what they claim, venture capitalists are influenced by media reports. Great PR has added millions to start-up valuations and increased likelihood of closing a second round of funding.

Other PR benefits include greater brand awareness, more leads, improved M&A prospects, and greater customer loyalty.

While PR benefits are immeasurable, they can be difficult to measure. “They don’t show up in a calculation that says I spent $7,000 and I got X-thousands inches of press,” Suster writes. “It doesn’t work that way.”

Many PR measurement experts disagree. Measurement mavens like Katie Paine advocate for PR metrics tied to business goals and outcomes.

Bottom Line: If you’re trying to prove the value of PR to higher ups in your organization, a wealth of research and case studies demonstrate the varied benefits of good PR.