And so does measuring the results The volume of on-line placement of PR continues to grow which means campaign managers must develop strategic thinking for incorporating it in their plans. The benefit is lower cost leads with higher conversion rates. The goal of integrating offline and online placement is to drive incremental traffic and acquisitions not to take away from what each medium is achieving. Developing strategic plans for incorporating online placement into existing campaigns is one of the best hedges against rising costs. Collect the data - One important step for an organisation to take is to become data-driven. This requires a few key things: 1. having an open and enquiring mind 2. putting in place the systems and technology to collect the data on an ongoing basis 3. hiring the people who can decide on what metrics are important, gathering the data and then analyzing it 4. being prepared to act on what you learn, even if it means changes To stay consistent in data gathering, consider using the same methodology for your online and offline campaigns. This allows you to draw easy comparisons across campaigns with consistent data definitions. Find the focus - One problem most often encountered by organisations is what to take notice of. There is so much data available that you can get completely lost in it. Work on things that are important to the business from the beginning. Also recognise that what you want to focus on will change over time. Analytics is a learning process. You may be working with several different types of data but the effort to look at the data across systems is well worth it. A comprehensive analytics strategy may be tough to put into place but it can help streamline your business, make you more responsive to the market, and increase the speed and accuracy of your decision making. And social media?- Modern consumers are becoming weary of ad messages and usually need more information than is contained in a brief commercial to make a purchase decision. A trusted source of information from people who they identify as being 'like them' is becoming increasingly important. They start their research online and rely mainly on reviews and recommendations from peers and experts, parties who have no incentive to trick them into buying something. Identifying where consumers search for information online and making it easy for them to find what they seek might involve finding the influential bloggers, social networks or specialist sites but metrics can be the key to understanding the usefulness of the medium. For more information on Media Proof services or to discuss what help you need please contact us at info@mediaproof.com