It’s that time of year. Everyone is making New Year’s resolutions, and if you’re like most other PR or marketing professionals, measurement is on your list initiatives for the year ahead. If not, it’s likely that you want to continually improve and be able to make a greater impact with the same budget, for example. And if you’re like most other people in this world, you’ll probably lose some (or all) of your motivation as the year goes on.

One of the most important ways to ensure proper measurement is to set benchmarks. It’s hard to measure if you have “moved the needle” or made an impact if you don’t know where you started.

The tricky part about using benchmarks to measure, though, is that you have to measure or set the benchmarks in the first place. And as new clients and campaigns emerge throughout the year, sometimes setting the proper benchmarks gets lost in the shuffle. Below are a few tips to ensure measurement will be a part of your New Year.

Make it part of your routine . . . now! While you’re still gearing up for the New Year and solidifying your new routine, add benchmarking and measurement to the mix. Do you have a daily or weekly to-do list? Consider writing down something to remind you to measure. Think about each of your clients or projects every day or every week, and check to be sure you’ve made measurement part of the equation. Do you have a plan in place? Have you gathered all the data you need? Taking five minutes now will save you hours in the long run.

Measure benchmarks in your downtime. I know what you’re thinking: no one in the PR world knows what downtime is. But hang with me. If you find yourself with a few extra minutes or time to catch up on admin work, I recommend doing a bit of measurement first. Double check that you are tracking all of the information you need and that you have the proper benchmark to compare to. Look around for secondary research that may be useful. Find a way to turn time between meetings into your time to hone your measurements.

Keep records to reference later. If you find that you don’t have time to measure a lot every day or every week, the best thing you can do for yourself is to keep records. Track exactly what you’re doing and what the result is. We all know what a tracker is, but I encourage you to think outside the box. What else can you track and follow? What else matters to your client and your campaign?

What else do you recommend for setting and using benchmarks?

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