Measuring the Performance of Your PR

By Michael Drew - Jan 07 , 2009

You schmooze, you lose. That’s the perspective the big publishing houses are embracing as they flip the page to 2009. Some evidence taken from Sunday’s New York Times article, Puttin’ Off the Ritz: The New Austerity in Publishing–

• MacMillan eliminated two of its three annual sales gatherings, with plans to hold them via Webcam instead of in-person.
• Simon & Schuster canceled its annual holiday party
• Random House postponed their spring sales conference indefinitely
• Many publishing houses will be scaling back their presence at the International book fairs and BookExpo America
• Harper Collins is experimenting with profit-sharing for authors instead of cash advances. They are also purging returns from booksellers.

These book industry behemoths are feeling the need to clamp down on relational-based expenses and do away with practices not generating an encouraging return on investment. And for good reason. Nielsen BookScan is reporting book sales have fallen 7% since the beginning of October, compared to the same period in 2007. And there’s no indication of 2009 being better than 2008. In fact, most expect it to get worse.

Am I saying you should postpone the release of your new book until things get better? Heck no. We don’t know if things will ever ‘get better’. But I do think you should have a methodology for understanding the relationships between the components of your promotions. A formula that will show you the big picture and help you make competent decisions about what is productive for you and what is not.

I call this formula the PR Performance Equation (adapted from Roy H. Williams’ Advertising Performance Equation). Here’s what it looks like in its entirety—

[(SoV x IQ) x PEF] x MPo = Sales Volume (books sold)

Where:

SoV stands for Share of Voice
IQ stands for Impact Quotient
PEF stands for Personal Experience Factor
MPo stands for Market Potential

Calculating Share of Voice

Share of Voice (SoV) is your % of all the book-related messages seen, heard or read by your target audience. If you’re the only author communicating to them, your SoV is 100%. If your 1 of 100 authors promoting books they might care about, and each of you is reaching them an equal number of times, your SoV is 1%. Most likely, it’s somewhere in between.

Calculating Impact Quotient

Impact Quotient (IQ) is your message’s power to convince. In order to calculate IQ, you must assign a value for the ‘average’ message and go from there. Let’s use 1.0 to keep things nice and round. Is your message better than the average? Is it 50% better (1.5)? Is it twice as good (2.0)?

If you’re curious, an in-depth discussion of SoV and IQ can be found in a previous post titled The PR Performance Equation, Part I.

Calculating Personal Experience Factor

Personal Experience Factor (PEF) is the experience your target audience members have whenever they ‘touch’ your brand. This includes their experiences on your website(s), with your newsletter, at your seminar, etc. Similar to calculating your IQ, you must also assign an ‘average value’ to determine your PEF. Let’s use 1.0 as an average value here, as well. Do you deliver a superior experience when compared to competing authors? How much more superior is it?

If you want to learn more, an in-depth discussion of PEF can be found in one of my previous posts titled The PR Performance Equation, Part II.

Calculating Market Potential

Market Potential (MPo) is the number of books sold in your category. Do you know what that number is? If not, can you at least determine the relative size of the market in terms of interest? When you look at your market as a body of water, is it closer to resembling a puddle, a bayou, a well, or an ocean? A description of each of these, as well as a more in-depth discussion of MPo, can be found in a previous post titled The PR Performance Equation, Part III.

As a B, C, or D-List author with a modest platform and a limited promotional budget, the challenges of getting your name out there and selling a significant number of books are great. If you’re going to accomplish these goals at a time when the book industry is evolving and consumers are counting their pennies, you need a tool that allows you to evaluate your promotional efforts, control your expenditures and maximize your efficiency.

The number of roving variables in the PR Performance Equation does not allow for complete accuracy. But it will help you understand the relationships in play, and it is directionally true. As Albert Einstein put it, “As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.”

I think the PR Performance Equation lies in the gray matter between certainty and reality. Tinker with it. See what you think.

Happy New Year!

Questions about your 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.