You’re not gathering data to simply check a box; You’re tracking your internal comms for a reason—to prove the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of a specific strategy or campaign.
As you collect this data—things like open rates, attention rates, and click-through rates—what do you do with it?
Does it sit in a spreadsheet unused? Or do you use it to your advantage? How can you summarize and share your data, not only in a meaningful way, but in a way that illustrates the value of your work?
Using Internal Comms Data
Articulate your internal comms objectives. It may sound cliché, but it’s always helpful to start by articulating your goals. What do you want to achieve as an internal comms department? And how does data play a role in your work? Are you more concerned with getting employees to engage on your intranet, or getting the word out about company initiatives? With your objectives defined, it becomes easier to identify the different metrics you need to prove the impact of your work to internal and external stakeholders.
Track a variety of data points that align with your goals. Next, ensure that you track different types of data that relate back to your goals: granular, organizational, and benchmark data are good places to start.
- Granular data is the most drilled down and specific; It could be something like the click rate of a single email campaign.
- Organizational data provides a view across your company; This may be your overall email open rate, or your email open rate by department.
- Benchmark (or trend) data gives you insight you can view over time, plus the ability to analyze your messaging each month, quarter, or year. Benchmark data also exists for entire industries, as illustrated in our 2021 Corporate Communications Internal Email Benchmarks Report.
Analyze and share your data. With relevant data in hand, it’s time to determine the best way to summarize it and share it with a larger audience. If you’re presenting to senior executives, Harvard Business Review recommends the ‘summarize up front’ approach: If you’re given thirty minutes to present, pretend you only have five. “This will force you to lead with all the information your audience really cares about—high-level findings, conclusions, recommendations, a call to action.” After you communicate the most important takeaways, you can move on to supporting data.
Fortunately, you don’t have to be a data scientist to use your data effectively. Begin by articulating your internal comms goals. Next, ensure that you’re tracking the data that you care about most (i.e. the data that supports your goals). And last, share that data to prove the impact of your work.
