COVID-19: The importance of using campaign measurement tools during a crisis

During this pandemic, as teams self-isolate and work from home, it can be tempting to make changes to your marketing practices amid all the uncertainty.

But you would be doing your organization a disservice, as now is the time to focus on your communications plans and getting your message out. It is not the time to cut out your ongoing measurement and analysis.

Here are some tips and tactics on how to effectively measure your media campaigns during a crisis.

LISTEN TO THE CURRENT TRENDS

According to a recent ComScore report, “Canadians are consuming news at a record pace.” There is a need for more meaningful content and more opportunity to get that content picked up and consumed. Tracking and analyzing the message pickup will help you determine whether your strategy was successful.

Industry leaders KD Paine and Heather Fysh appeared in a podcast called Managing and Measuring Crisis Communications During the COVID-19 Pandemic, where they argued that continuing to measure your communications efforts will allow you to see how your brand fairs in hard times versus good times.

This means not suspending measurement programs, and if you are starting, go as far back as you can so you can benchmark and compare pre- and post-pandemic brand sentiment and messaging.

COMPARE THE DATA

Use past measures to benchmark against what is happening around brands and clients. By continuing to use content analysis tools like Media Ratings Points (MRP), you can see where your brand or clients were before COVID-19, how performance is doing during COVID-19, and how it’s doing after.

By continuing to monitor and analyze the results, you can show what is and isn’t working. Seeing the data and analysis reported can help you use this information to plan on what to do next.

ADJUST MESSAGING FOR RELEVANCE

You may need to switch your normal analysis to a look at more customizable criteria like sincerity, transparency, stronger calls to action and key messaging.

Looking at sentiment during this pandemic may be one of the most important metrics now, being sure to course-correct your message as the coverage is analyzed and adjust as needed.

It seems easy to forget about measuring communications and campaigns right now, but this is the time to focus on deeper measurements and benchmarking.

Media Ratings Points (MRP) is here to help you organize, strategize and build meaningful reports. Sign up for a free 7-day trial and start measuring your earned, paid, shared, and owned media today. Contact us at info@mrpdata.com.