When developing a communications plan, an important way to evaluate success is to to count “impressions.”

Simply put, an impression is any time a communications tool, such as a newspaper or radio ad, makes an impression on a person.

Most newspapers, television stations, and radio stations can supply you with information about their readership, viewers and listeners. Billboard advertising, and movie theatre pre-show advertising, can also supply you with information about the number of vehicles that pass billboard locations, or that attend movies.

Your impressions should be extended to include your website and social media channels too. Don’t forget ReCollect’s campaign feature – that’s an easy way to count impressions.

When planning a communications plan to promote new acceptable materials, you may establish an objective like: “To generate 100,000 communications impressions from September 1 to September 15, 2016.”

Once your communications plan has been implemented, you add up the impressions to demonstrate whether you reached your objective:

It should be stressed that counting impressions is not an exact science. An impression does not automatically equal behaviour. It’s a measurement of an output, not an outcome.

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