TweetIn the last nine steps, I have walked through Are We There Yet? A Communications Evaluation Guide by the Communications Network. It started with figuring out what to evaluate and establishing an overarching goal. The central question was: how are your communications efforts creating a change; more specifically, a change in behavior. The central...
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TweetThis is not an estimation of you complete communications plan budget. That said, you should budget for evaluation within your communications plan. The authors advise that a good rule of thumb is that “the evaluation budget should be at least five to seven percent of the total budget of your communication program.” You should...
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TweetThe authors list several evaluation tools, including interviews, focus groups, surveys, observation, quantitative data collection and analysis, and content analysis. Interviews, focus groups are pretty straightforward qualitative techniques. Surveys can be used to track qualitative, and in a lesser degree quantitative, changes over time. Observation can perhaps best be translated into the listening skill...
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TweetYou should now be clear on what your communications efforts are expected to achieve. You know your goal, objectives, audience, baseline and evaluation questions; the next step is to develop specific metrics to answer your evaluation questions. The authors introduce milestones at this point of the evaluation. If objectives are intermediate markers toward your...
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TweetThe first question before posing your evaluation questions is: what stage is your communications effort in? The authors make a distinction between early, mid and advanced stages. Early Stage The early stage means the development or early implementation of a communications plan, where there is a degree of trial and error. The evaluation at...
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TweetIn order to evaluate your results, you have to know your starting point. You will have to compare your baseline data with the new data you are going to gather as you progress toward your goal. You need exactly the kind of baseline data that will be able to show you whether your communications...
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TweetOrganizations often take the easy way out and measure what’s easy to count, such as visitor numbers for their Web sites. But those numbers won’t tell you what those visitors did with the information or content they found. According to the authors of the guide, “you’re ultimately trying to move an audience; therefore, getting...
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TweetThe communications environment is in constant flux, which means that many things might change on the way to your goal. A typical communications plan looks ahead 12-18 months, which is a much shorter time frame than the five or ten year goal. However, a five or ten year goal informs your communications plan. The...
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TweetEven if you are evaluating tactical efforts, you will still need to define your goal. You ultimately are concerned about how well your message is disseminated, or you ultimately have a Facebook presence, for a strategic, overarching goal. Furthermore, the tired “raising awareness of your organization” is not acceptable. The authors ask: “why do...
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TweetThis week, Drew McManus’ Take A Friend To the Orchestra 2010 kicked off on his Web site Adaptistration. I was invited to write a guest contribution this year and was immediately inspired by a book I was reading: Joseph Jaffe’s Flip the Funnel: How to Use Existing Customers to Gain New Ones. So, head...
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Dutch native Marc van Bree is a well-rounded marketing communications professional with more than 7 years of experience strategically communicating—on and offline—in a rapidly changing media environment. Visit mcmvanbree.com »
