Communication Funnel: Correct understanding, proper execution

Evaluating the effectiveness of a media campaign based on a certain framework for communication and public relations is called a communication funnel.

From then and now, communication and public relations have been always considered a difficult field to evaluate marketing effectiveness. The results of marketing campaigns are not measured by the number of posts in newspapers or the number of views or monthly access to websites.

CISION Group in the fourth quarter of 2009 introduced a specific concept of a communication funnel. From the marketing theory to the detailed statistics, professional communication and relations practitioners can identify their stage in the communication and marketing campaign to make a niche measurement. Also, the board of directors or organizations can acknowledge the efforts of the communication department in general or the specialized department in particular.

Branding level

At the top of the funnel, the brand-level impact is the first thing coming to our minds about the effects of communications and public relations of an enterprise. It is vital, obviously, but it’s the beginning of the marketing strategy only, it’s not all of what the marketing development exercise.

The brands are profiled in the minds of potential customers and the majority of the public. It is showed through concepts such as awareness (do the public know the existent of the enterprises and brands?), thinking about the business of the enterprises (who do they think about when talking about the business?), and prestige (good, bad or neutral?). Once the public recognizes or interacts with a brand favorably, the marketing plans are considered as having good results.

However, it becomes more and more difficult to attract the attention of the public due to the turbulence and perception affected by the VUCA chaos and fake news.

Brand mention frequency has been considered as a way to measure brand awareness. Besides this factor, enterprises need to pay attention to the quality of these mentions. The number of unexpected mentions is likely to happen accidentally.