If you’re a regular reader of this column, you know I believe PR programs should deliver a tangible return on investment.

While many PR professionals rely on “soft metrics” such as number of placements, total impressions and advertising equivalencies, to me, the true measure of success is the impact PR has on solving strategic business goals.

However, unless a company has an effective lead tracking program in place, trying to align PR with sales is a very elusive task indeed.

So, what will you say when the CFO asks you to justify your PR budget? Do you have the proper tools and reporting mechanisms in place to prove the program is not only effective, but providing a huge strategic advantage?

Dashboards may solve the reporting issue once and for all. With a single click of a mouse, you will know if the program is working, how it compares to the competition and dozens of other metrics you define. Best of all, this information can easily be accessed from any location around the world via the Web.

Since the beginning of the year, Tech Image has been working very closely with two of the leaders in the dashboard space, KD Paine & Partners and Meltwater News, to identify the best practices and software solutions. While the jury is still out, we are testing beta versions of a dashboard solution for two clients this summer and I wanted to share some of the things we’ve learned.

One of the most important metrics for any type of performance monitoring program is identifying what you want to measure. For example, if your program’s primary objective is to generate sales leads, having a dashboard that compares PR placements to unique Web visitors and/or click-throughs will provide a good indication of whether your program is moving the needle. If traffic spikes up when major placements appear and nothing else changes, you have a decent indicator that your key message is being received and your PR efforts are moving prospects to action.

A tougher metric to measure is public opinion. Here’s where blog monitoring may be more valuable. Tracking negative and positive mentions of your company and its products and services can be a very useful metric, and it’s not particularly difficult to do with the current generation of dashboard tools available to marketers. We’ve included a white paper from Katie Paine that discusses measuring the blogosphere in much more detail in this issue.

How many metrics should a dashboard measure? Performance management expert (and former client) Mike Callaghan advises that a dashboard should not include more than three to five key performance indicators (KPIs). Anything more than that becomes unmanageable. As an organization, you have to know what drives your business; these are the things you want to measure.

In a recent Chicago presentation for BusinessWire, Katie Paine made another statement that is profound in its simplicity: “You should only measure things you’re willing to change.”  

So what should you measure in a dashboard?  Here are some simple KPIs to consider, based upon what our clients are telling us they want to know:

• How do this year’s PR results compare to last year?  Do you have more key placements this year versus last year (or quarter)? Are you spending more or less on PR? What is the correlation between coverage and spend?

• How does your PR program compare to the competition? Wouldn’t you like to know, at a moment’s notice, how your PR campaign stacks up to the competition? Are you leading, lagging or staying even?

• How effective are key messages resonating with the market? How many stories feature key messages? How does this information compare to previous years?

• Which company spokespersons are receiving the most coverage? Do you know why the CTO was interviewed twice as many times as the CEO? Would this information be important to share with your executive team?

• How well are you influencing the influencers? Despite thousands of media outlets, Websites and blogs, most companies have a baker’s dozen of key reporters and analysts they need to influence (such as Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal). Who are the key influencers you need to reach and how often are they writing or reporting about your company?

• What impact do placements have on Web traffic and lead generation? Work with your Web developer to track Web traffic and with your sales/marketing department to track sales leads. By using custom landing pages or unique 800 numbers for calls to action (such as receiving white papers, downloading product information or registering for special promotions), it’s pretty simple to track sales leads. Incorporate this information into your dashboard. It’s not uncommon to see 6X or even 10X spikes in Web traffic when stories appear in major news media, but wouldn’t it be helpful to track this information regularly?

Most of the dashboard solutions we’ve tested offer several dozen reports and the ability to slice and dice the data to your heart’s content. While it will be tempting to slice and dice the data multiple ways, my advice is to keep things simple. Measure the KPIs that drive your business and are important to your executive team, investors, partners and ultimately customers.

After all, dashboards are supposed to make your life simpler, not more complicated.

Anyway, that’s my two cents’ worth.