In PR, reporting is a vital tool used to help clients understand and analyse their media coverage.

As the PR specialist, you need to ensure that your reports directly address your clients’ needs — and are presented in a way that makes their life easier.

Let’s see how you can take your reporting to the next level:

1.  Identify your clients’ needs

First and foremost, you need to make sure that both you and your clients agree on the expectations in advance. This could include details including the pricing structure, what they hope to get out of their reports, the frequency of the reporting and so on.

In order to provide valuable reports to clients, you need to identify and understand their needs.

The better you know your client and their business, the better you are able to help them.

Get to know your clients by getting in touch with them on a regular basis. Being accessible to them by taking their calls, responding to emails timeously or by meeting them in person can go a long way to building up the relationship.

Take the time to visit their website or blog to understand the ins and outs of what it is that they do. Show your clients that you have made the effort to gain a deep understanding of their particular needs and business goals, which will prove that you’re willing to go the extra mile.

Make sure you can answer the following questions:
  • What does my client want to achieve?
  • What challenges does my client face?
  • What can I do to make my client’s job easier?
It’s vital to know your clients’ preferences when it comes to communication and reporting. That way, you’ll know how to contact them and how often they want to receive their reports.

2. Choose the right reporting metrics

When it comes to reporting on PR efforts, every client has a different measure of success. Show your clients that you have been listening to them by putting together a tailored report that aligns the reporting metrics to their specific business objectives.

For example, if a client is looking to get their message out to as many people as possible, then their reports will need to focus on clip volumes, circulation and reach. These metrics will show them how much coverage they have received, as well as if they are on the right track in terms of meeting their goals.

However, if brand reputation is important to them, including a sentiment analysis of their media coverage would be best because it would give them an idea of how their brand is being perceived by the media.

If your client is hosting an event or product launch, and the media coverage is image heavy, then being able to showcase their clips visually will be more impactful. Utilising a media coverage ebook, like RedBook, can give your clients a professional media report that they can easily share with stakeholders.

Clients that already receive a large amount of coverage probably won't be interested in the number of media clippings they receive. Rather, they'll be focussed on the trends and discussions surrounding their brand in the media.

Remember to ensure that every metric you include in your report is tied to a business objective that your client wants to achieve.

3. Automate as much as possible

Manually compiling reports for your clients can take up a huge amount of your very precious time. This can affect your ability to complete other tasks in a timely manner. Instead, use a tool that can automatically create your reports so that you don’t have to do it yourself.

Finding a tool that can automate reports for clients will also prove useful when you are asked to pull a report at a moment’s notice. For example, when a PR crisis strikes, wouldn’t it be useful to automatically pull a report for your client that will help them weather the storm?

Automated reports can also be scheduled in advance, meaning that you’ll never let a client down by delivering a report late, but rather, you’ll impress them with your efficiency.

4. Stand out with unique reports

Set yourself apart from other agencies by providing valuable, insightful reports that are presented in a way that differentiates you from competitors.

Personalise your clients’ reports to reflect their corporate image. You can do this by adding their logo, using their brand colours, fonts and images. Presenting a report that looks and feels like their brand will show them that you have paid great attention to their brand identity and style.

Let your reports stand out by presenting your clients’ data visually, using an interactive online dashboard or other visualisation tools. Reports that include visual solutions will help make the data more accessible and easier to understand.

Data visualisation tools that you could include in your reports range from infographics and detailed pie charts to bar and sparkline graphs. This type of graph is great for illustrating a single media trend in your client’s coverage.

Rather than taking your clients through masses of numbers and text, having their data visualised can often make it easier for them to spot issues that need attention. The quicker they can spot issues, the quicker they can attend to them. Often, having data displayed visually can also help clients find insights that they might not have noticed in an ordinary, linear report.

For more information, visit www.newsclip.co.za. You can also follow Newsclip on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.