A lot of communicators ask me where to start with their measurements, how to connect what we do to the outcomes our organizations are trying to achieve, and how to take the right amount of credit for communication’s impact versus other things the organization is doing to achieve the same outcome.

To link communication impact to a business result, I work backwards from outcomes in developing the communication approach:
1. Identify a measurable business outcome that communication can impact.
2. Break out specific behaviors/actions for different key stakeholders that need to change in order to achieve the business outcome. (This is the step most communication plans skip over.)
3. Use qualitative research with the affected stakeholders to identify what knowledge and attitude changes are required before they would change their behaviors, and which communication channels would be preferred for knowledge and for attitude inputs.
4. Develop your communication tactical plan with specific messages and channels you will use to influence #3 to change #2 that will result in #1.

Then you switch to quantitative measurement mode. You plug into the measurements others in your organization are already doing to track business results (#1) and key audience behaviors (#2) against your own inputs. You as a communicator measure changes in knowledge and attitudes and actual exposure to the preferred channels (#3), and track the actual volume and frequency of content of the needed messages you’re sending out through the preferred channels (#4).

You can isolate the impact communication has versus other organizational inputs in several ways:
1. Do a pilot test where communication is the only variable and all the other inputs are the same for all groups.
2. Track the timing of your communication inputs versus the timing of improvements in knowledge and attitudes and behaviors. A pattern of spikes and valleys that matches the inputs and outcomes becomes a compelling argument for the amount of impact communication has.
3. Ask the people whose behavior changed to what extent they credit the communications they were exposed to for their behavior change.