It’s that time of the year to plan your PR budget. Why not factor media monitoring into the equation?
A standing ovation—from performers at Madison Square Garden to business leaders at the top of their game, to your inspirational campaign that seals the deal with that big client—everyone craves one. Now is your chance to revel in the spotlight. As you’re finalizing your PR budget for the fiscal year, why don’t you come up with that next big idea to present to your team: media monitoring.
Without media monitoring, it is next to impossible to track real-time information, and companies are constantly missing out on critical information that can help them keep track of what clients and customers are saying about their brand, their products, and what their competitors are up to.
With a small yearly investment in media monitoring for your brand, you can get instant access to uncovering information that you never knew was available to you, including social analytics, insights, real-time media coverage, and reports. With this critical information you can stay ahead of the curve and easily target your audience with efficiency and accuracy.
PRNews Online is on our same page:
“If your PR agency lacks an automated PR measurement solution, a good portion of your investment likely is spent on an account executive charging for countless hours of combing through media coverage and social channels. Your dollars are better spent on having the PR team work on securing results and automating the capture of those results.”
Now, we know what you’re thinking: “This all sounds fine and dandy, but how do I convince the top dogs to add this cost to our allocated PR budget?”
This is where confidence comes into play. Once you come to the realization that media monitoring is the way to go (and if we’re lucky enough you decide to use Critical Mention—sorry, just had to plug), next up is convincing leadership. If you throw a bunch of numbers at them, most likely they’re going to smile, but politely decline. However, if you show them the good stuff, meaning the value it brings to your company versus simply spewing out output and needs, they just might listen. Remember, PR is a client-driven business—leadership is keenly aware of this fact. Like the saying goes, “Happy wife, happy life.”
Once you hook leadership to incorporate media monitoring into the PR budget for the fiscal year, you can start running the software for your clients. Now comes the time where you can really shine. You can impress your clients with this software and even use it as a pitch for prospective clients by differentiating yourself from other PR firms. Your clients will now think the world of you because you took that extra step to help them on their way to greatness. Your team and your boss will also appreciate your initiative in being a proactive team player, and that news tends to reach the top.
Before we wrap up, here are a few other key pointers to assist in you pitching media monitoring:
- Increased ability to provide customer service
- Track, monitoring and identify industry trends
- Increased lead generation
- Increased reputation management
- Excellent blogger outreach
- Optimize your product searches
- Better market research and insight into product suggestions
- Save money and time on traditional research methods
We can’t 100% guarantee that with these tips leadership will take you up on using media monitoring software. However, we believe with this information will give you a really good shot at getting that chance to not only get your standing ovation, but really take your company to the next level.
Until next time!
-Critical Mention
