‘Systems get funded’: Navigating the ties between comms and ROI
Weaving a business narrative for leaders through metrics is critical.
In a lagging economy with cloudy forecasts for the future, the more communicators can point to their processes helping to achieve an organization’s goals, the better.
At Ragan’s Internal Communications Conference this October, Johnna Muscente, vice president of communications and PR at Corcoran, will share how communicators can build metric-driven strategy into their processes to display their value to leadership.
“Systems get funded,” Muscente said. “If we can show how our communications drive real business results, we earn our seat at the table.”
The value of comms in a tough economic climate
Muscente said that every action a communicator takes should be done with the intent of proving why comms is necessary to the function of the business.
“Everyone’s operating in this climate of caution,” she said. “We all know budgets are going to be tighter, but at the same time expectations are higher. For comms leaders, it means there’s no room for fluff. Every initiative has to prove its value.”
She added that comms pros should view their planning and execution processes through this business-first lens — and it can be helpful to follow the lead of other departments in this way.
“Every dollar spent, every town hall planned, every program launched — it all has to justify its existence,” Muscente said. “That sounds harsh, but it’s reality in this economy. Leaders are looking at comms through the same ROI lens as marketing or operations, and we have to be ready for that conversation.”
Factoring data into the equation
In both business and comms, the numbers tell a big story about successes and areas for potential improvement. Muscente recommended that communicators approach leaders with data that tells a story about how communications affects aspects of the organization’s function to create a narrative.
“When you sit down with a CFO or CEO you can’t just say, ‘We need more support,’” Muscente said. “That’s not a conversation they’ll respond to. The better approach is to say, ‘Our comms efforts contributed to a 16% increase in all-hands engagement, which reduced frontline attrition by 9%.’ That’s the kind of tangible business story leaders can’t ignore.”
She added that comms pros should lean into their skills as storytellers to put together a cohesive narrative of not just what they’re doing, but how their activities tie back to provide value to the business.
“You don’t have to go in saying, ‘We grew engagement, it’s awesome,’” Muscente told Ragan. “You can now say, ‘Here’s the content that resonated, here’s how it drove traffic to our site, here’s how that traffic converted and here’s how marketing nurtured those conversions with paid.’ That’s a complete story. Leaders fund systems like that.”
Muscente said that the measurement tools her team uses help unveil what’s working and what’s not — and that data can influence the way comms pros approach budget and resource allocation with leaders.
“The fact that we now have all these incredible intelligence tools makes for a much stronger budget conversation,” Muscente said. “Instead of relying on anecdotes or vanity metrics, we can walk in with data that shows how comms directly impacts the business — whether that’s employee retention, customer conversions or cultural alignment.”
Ultimately, Muscente told Ragan that the most important consideration for comms metrics is knowing how to link them to improved business performance — not just allowing them to sit in a vacuum. That’s achieved by telling the story behind the data as only communicators can.
“For so long, communicators have struggled to tie metrics directly back to business performance,” she added. “Marketing could do it with leads and conversions, but PR and internal comms were different. Now, with the tools we have, we can prove that comms is not just a ‘nice to have.’ It’s a driver of measurable outcomes.”
Register for our Internal Communications Conference here.
Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications. In his spare time he enjoys Philly sports and hosting trivia.
