The PR Performance Equation (Part I)

By Michael Drew - May 23 , 2007

Every author I consult with, I stress the importance of a pre-publication Public Relations (PR) effort. In fact, I won’t work with anybody who doesn’t have a plan for actively promoting their book at least six months prior to its scheduled release.I encourage you to employ a similar policy when it comes to publishing manuscripts. Without such a plan, an author’s chances are miniscule for realizing significant book sales and achieving bestseller status. It’s just that critical.

You’re probably sitting there thinking, “That’s great and all, Mike, but what do I tell prospective authors when they ask me how much PR it’s going to take? Is there some kind of formula for that?”

Actually—there is. It’s called the PR Performance Equation. And while it’s far from being an exact science, it’s an excellent tool for helping authors understand how different aspects of their PR campaign should work together in contributing to book sales. Here’s what the equation looks like in its entirety:

MPo x [(SoV x IQ) x PEF] = Sales Volume or Books Sold

I know, I know. That and fifty cents will get you a local phone call, right? But I promise it’ll make more sense as we break it down into bite-sized chunks and analyze the three sub-equations that make up the master equation above:

Sub-equation 1: SoV x IQ = SMi

Sub-equation 2: SMi x PEF = SMa

Sub-equation 3: SMa x MPo = Sales Volume or Books Sold

Definitions:

SoV = Share of Voice
IQ = Impact Quotient
SMi = Share of Mind
PEF = Personal Experience Factor
SMa = Share of Market
MPo = Market Potential

Now that I’ve electrified your attention, I’ll focus on the first sub-equation, SoV x IQ = SMi.

Share of Voice (SoV)
Share of Voice is the percentage of all the PR being done in your author’s field of expertise that belongs to him. If he’s the only one engaging in PR in his specialty niche, his Share of Voice is 100% because every time his audience comes across a message pertaining to his area of focus, it’s coming from him. But if there are 99 competing authors who are all reaching the same audience an equal number of times, your author’s Share of Voice is only 1%. In this scenario, the audience is presented with a hundred messages, and only one of those messages comes from him.

Think of Share of Voice in terms of reach and frequency. Share of Voice records the number of times people ‘hear’ your author’s message as compared to the number of times they ‘hear’ a competing message. So if all 99 competitors send out PR messages an average of 3 times a year for a total of 297 PR messages in a year, and your author sends out 303 PR messages yearly, then your author has a 50.5% of Share of Voice in his field of expertise.

Impact Quotient (IQ)
Impact Quotient is the relevance of your author’s message. How much does what he’s saying ‘scratch the target audience’s itch’ compared to the competing messages out there? Let’s say an average message has a value of 1. Average messages don’t move anybody to take action, and they don’t turn anybody off, either. People feel exactly the same before they ‘hear’ an average message as they do after it’s over.

Following this line of logic, if your author’s message is 50% more effective at resonating with the needs and motivations of the audience, that translates into an Impact Quotient of (1.5). However, if his message is 50% less effective at capturing their interest, his Impact Quotient drops to (.5).

[NOTE: Yes, your’re right—the Impact Quotient is entirely an estimate, a seat-of-the-pants judgment. But this factor most definitely exists, and its relationship to other factors in this formula has been demonstrated countless times in PR and advertising campaigns. So just make your very best guesstimate, perhaps erring just a little bit on the side of undervaluing it to maintain as conservative and realistic an outcome as you can.]

Share of Mind (SMi)
Share of Mind refers to the ‘mental equity’ your author’s name carries in the minds of the audience compared to the names of his competitors. Do people think of him as ‘the authority’ when they have a need that falls within his arena? Or do they think of someone else? Remember, Share of Mind is the product of Share of Voice times Impact Quotient.

SoV x IQ = SMi

And that means the more dominant your author’s reach and frequency, the less impact his message has to have for him to hold a position of value in the mind of the audience. Looking at it from the other side, the more impact your author’s message provides, the less reach and frequency it takes to maintain that same position. Can you see how Share of Voice and Impact Quotient interact and are able to compensate for one another? Your author’s goal, of course, is to be as strong as he can with both of these variables.

Let’s go ahead and assign some values now that you have an understanding of the variables involved. Let’s assume your author reaches the same audience the same number of times as each of four competitors, and his message is fifty percent better than any of their messages.

20% SoV x 1.5 IQ = 30% SMi

Do you see what’s happening here? Your author is carrying more equity in the minds of his target audience than his media saturation might allow for. That’s the power of a message with teeth. Conversely, if your author’s message is only half as relevant to the audience as the competing messages out there, his media saturation is being wasted:

20% SoV x .5 IQ = 10% SMi

Look at the variance in the outcome between those two examples. Do you see the difference the impact of your author’s message makes on the position he holds in the audience’s mind?

Talk to your authors about this. Show them these examples and explain how reach, frequency, and message work together to establish their positions in the minds of their audiences. Make sure they understand how important it is that their book promotion words resonate in the minds and hearts of prospective book buyers.

Next week we’ll dive more deeply into the PR Performance Equation by discussing the effect that your author’s message has on book sales.

Questions about the PR Performance Equation may be directed to Michael R. Drew at the Austin, Texas, headquarters of Promote A Book: 512-858-0040. You can also contact Michael via email at Michael@promoteabook.com.