Prove you can work wonders with a budget – Using measurement to grow your PR budget (Part 3)

When it comes to building a case for an expanded PR budget, I like to recommend the following three part approach that I’ve personally found to be very successful:

1. Use measurement data to show what you’ve achieved with the current budget

2. Layout the goals

3. Define what you are asking for and explain how that will drive even greater results

From what I’ve learned in my experiences dealing with executives, I think it is important to address these three areas when you make your budget pitch. Here is a closer look at the first of these three steps: Use measurement data to show what you’ve achieved with the current budget…

In a previous post I mentioned that before you sit down with executives and ask for more money for PR, you need to make sure your program is performing at its peak. If you’ve done the work and you are achieving great results it is time to begin making your budget pitch – starting by showing off all of those great results PR has produced.

Sit down with execs and give them some solid examples of business successes that PR is responsible for. Make sure that the information you provide is clear and meaningful. Remember, executives are business-minded, so they value seeing things like charts, sales numbers, graphs, ROI, growth figures, and anything else that demonstrates business outcomes linked to PR.

Ideally you’ve been measuring the results of your PR program and you have a good amount of information at your disposal to help demonstrate what PR has achieved with its current budget. If you don’t have baseline information available, you’ll have to go back and collect this previous data. Don’t overlook the importance of collecting measurement data – without it you’ll have a tough time convincing executives that PR has been successful and deserves more money.

Once you have collected your data, you want to pull the most convincing and relevant info so that you can clearly demonstrate to executives how PR has successfully impacted the business.

Make sure that as you layout PR accomplishments, you support your claims with data and facts. And be sure that you are linking the PR activities you executed with positive business results. For example, if sales increased by 200% because of PR efforts, you need to show that PR was directly responsible for that business win.

Using data and making a clear connection between PR and business success will show executives that they are getting their money’s worth out of PR. It will make them feel more confident that PR is using its current budget to deliver positive business results. And that is the first step in building your case for a PR budget increase.