How to tie communications to your organization’s business success
When it comes to measuring your communication’s success, there are two ways to do it: the easy way and the Ann Wylie way.
The easy way is through cause and effect.
You send out a coupon; 50 people use it to order a product for net sales of $50,000. Subtract the cost of creating, printing and mailing the coupon from $50,000, and you’ve got the value of your communication.
The Ann Wylie way is through correlation.
If you can’t show cause and effect — and, sadly, most of the time communicators can’t — you should still attempt to show a correlation between our efforts and our company’s success. To set up that link, first establish two things:
1) A communication effort
2) The organization’s success
Then link the two together by establishing that the communication was:
- Received
- Believed
- Acted upon
Here’s how:
Make the link | |
| Start with your goal … | To help the organization increase productivity by 2.5 percent this year by convincing employees to support productivity efforts |
Then ask … | |
Action step | Sample activity |
| Was there a communication effort? | Conduct a content analysis to determine what percentage of the publication was devoted to productivity messages. |
| Was the communication received? | Ask questions on a mail-in survey to determine whether respondents read the publication. |
| Was the communication believed? | Review companywide employee opinion surveys before and after you run your productivity messages to measure changes in attitude. |
| Was the communication acted upon? | Conduct exit interviews with groups exhibiting improved productivity to determine whether the publication helped influence their actions. |
| Was there a business success? | Check productivity reports to learn whether the organization met its productivity goal. |
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