Developing Communication Metrics

How do you retain people? "Make few promises. Keep them all." That's the simplest rule I always recommend. How do you keep your promises when they're a WIP? You send comms to keep people updated. But... How do you know if they're landing? Enterprise orgs should track these metrics: 1) Did they even get it? Measure: Delivery rate or % of employees who got this message. If people never see the message, nothing else matters. You'd be surprised how many internal IT protocols actually end up blocking your internal comms. Happens more than you think. 2) Did they see it? Measure: views or video plays. It helps show you initial engagement which is a good start. It doesn't quite tell you comprehension yet but that comes later. P.S. I've seen open rates below 10% before at Fortune 100 companies who initially thought their comms were landing well until they started benchmarking open rate by cohort & department 3) Did they understand it? Measure: Quick poll: “Was this clear?” (Yes/No. Short quizzes help too btw) People may see the message but not understand what to do with the info. That's why I'm a big fan of the BLUF technique the Navy Seals used for comms. It stands for "Bottom Line Up Front" where the most important information is presented at the beginning of your message. 4) Did they act on it? Measure: Did employee complete the action in question. Ex: what's your completion rate on the actions you sent? THIS is your ultimate indicator that comms are working. 5) Did they feel heard? Measure: Weekly or monthly pulse surveys This gives you qualitative data that helps improve tone, clarity, and trust over time. What you say is one thing but the TONE that your frontline feel from it is what really matters from a culture perspective. Friendly reminder: All of these performance analytics SHOULD be segmentable by department, location, team and region to validate where your areas of high and low engagement are so that you can address this with operations and local leadership teams. P.S. What else would you add?

Counting clicks and likes is like judging a restaurant by how many people looked at the menu... not how many enjoyed the meal or came back. Communication teams are often drowning in numbers that don’t mean much...likes, clicks, impressions. But what if we stopped chasing vanity metrics and started asking: Did our message actually move anyone? That’s the idea behind the WHO MEL Manual for Communications. Apractical guide to measuring trust, relevance, behaviour, and learning. What I’m taking from it: →Build a comms Theory of Change. Map how your messages lead to changes in awareness, attitudes, and behaviour and then pick indicators for each step (not just the final click). →Measure quality, not just quantity. Pair reach with relevance and resonance (e.g., message recall, perceived credibility, sentiment, trust). →Use mixed methods. Blend analytics (web, media, social) with surveys, interviews, and social listening to see if people understood, cared, and intend to act. →Close the loop. Treat Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) as an always-on learning cycle. Plan → monitor → reflect → adapt (not a post-campaign autopsy). →Make it practical. The manual includes templates for MEL plans, indicator menus, example questions, and reporting formats you can lift into your workflow. If you’re tired of vanity metrics, this is a solid, workable way to link communications to outcomes people actually care about. 🔥 Join my FREE mailing list to get content straight in your inbox Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/ec8mqV2M #Communications

Stop measuring internal comms in the dark. Here's your 5-level roadmap: 📈 Level 1 - Reach: Weekly newsletters? Track open rates and engagement to optimize timing and content. 🧠 Level 2 - Understanding: Town halls falling flat? Survey comprehension to ensure your key messages actually landed. 💭 Level 3 - Sentiment: Team morale declining? Monitor employee perception and confidence levels—you can't rebuild what you can't measure. 🔄 Level 4 - Behavior: Rolling out new processes? Track adoption rates. Are people actually using that new system, or just nodding along? 📊 Level 5 - Business Impact: Sales team missing targets? Track how internal product updates correlate with revenue performance. The game-changer: Match your measurement depth to your communication stakes. Routine updates and clarity = Level 1-2. Change initiatives and alignment = Level 3-4. Business-critical initiatives = Level 5. Your comms strategy is only as strong as your measurement strategy. Which level matches your biggest challenge right now?

#UnpopularOpinion : 𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙨𝙖𝙡𝙚𝙨 𝙘𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙘𝙧𝙞𝙥𝙥𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚. • 50 calls per day • 100 emails per week • 15 LinkedIn messages daily These numbers look great in management reports and terrible in customer experience. 𝘐𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵 6 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘴, 𝘐'𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 8 𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘨𝘰𝘢𝘭𝘴 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘶𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘣𝘺 30%+. Why? 𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘁, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝘁 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀? • Conversation quality scores • Discovery depth assessment • Buyer engagement patterns • Advancement ratio (not just activity) • Multi-thread penetration in accounts 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘄𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁'𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 "# 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘀" 𝘁𝗼 "# 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺𝘀 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆," 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿: • Meeting-to-opportunity ratio improved by 41% • Average deal size increased by 27% • Rep turnover dropped dramatically The hard truth? Activity metrics are easy to measure but rarely correlate with success in complex B2B sales. If you're ready to measure what matters, let's talk about what that looks like for your specific selling motion. #SalesMetrics  #SalesEffectiveness #SalesLeadership

Years ago, I stepped into a role as an internal communication (IC) leader and found that success often meant, “We sent an email, therefore, we effectively communicated.” Yikes. Any communication professional worth their salt would have shuddered in horror at that. I sure did. 😱 Effective IC hinges on measurement. Here are my go-to methods: 📊 Employee Surveys—Regular surveys unveil insights into perception, channel effectiveness, content relevance, and satisfaction. Quantitative data simplifies analysis and improvement. 📈 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)—Your KPIs could be employee engagement scores, email open and click-through rates, intranet article views, internal social media engagement, or any other relevant metrics. By monitoring and analyzing these KPIs over time, you can get insights into the effectiveness of your efforts. 🗣️ Feedback Sessions—Conduct focus groups and interviews for ongoing feedback. 📈 Business Metrics—Monitor productivity, customer satisfaction, turnover, and other indicators to assess IC’s impact. 📢 Employee Feedback Channels—Use suggestion boxes, town halls, and huddles for employee perspectives. 📊 Benchmarking—Compare your IC efforts to industry data for insights. Remember, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Choose what fits your resources. Effective IC measurement optimizes strategies and proves your value. For more insights, check out my book, “Me, Myself, and IC: A Guide to Building Internal Communication as a Team of One.” 📘 https://lnkd.in/gUHTXDSn #InternalCommunication #MeasurementMatters #EffectiveCommunication

Improving how we measure communications impact energizes me. This is a topic I frequently debate with colleagues and business leaders. To gain the confidence – and perceived value – of the C-suite: ✔️ Learn the business and speak the leaders’ language. ✔️ Evolve from outdated KPIs to metrics executives actually care about. ✔️ Secure up-front alignment on how communications supports business strategy and goals. PRWeek's recent article captured key perspectives from in-house and agency leaders. A few standout takeaways: 🔹 Internal comms often gets left out of scorecards -->but it’s a critical audience to demonstrate impact. 🔹 Shift from backend measurement to upfront strategic insights that shape decision-making. 🔹 AI is improving predictive analytics; teams are getting better at anticipating impact and defining success factors. 🔹 Redefine "earned" and "top tier" --> it’s about targeting and engaging the right influencers and audiences to shape perceptions and actions. Let’s make sure comms leaders are driving this change. What measurement trends or challenges are you seeing? #CommunicationsStrategy #CommunicationsMeasurement #PRMeasurement