Proving Communications Value to the C-Suite: Why Reputation is a Winning Business Strategy
The end of the year equals annual reporting time for many communications professionals, yet a 2025 MuckRack survey found that PR professionals’ biggest challenge is linking their efforts to business goals and managing stakeholder expectations.
Part of the problem is that traditional PR metrics like impressions and number of placements were never designed to tell a business story. To gain a stronger seat at the table, communications teams must move beyond these vanity metrics and articulate how their work supports business challenges.
This is easier for global companies with dedicated insights teams, but there are plenty of ways small and mid-sized organizations can do it, too. It starts with educating with data on the important role communications plays.
Marketing fuels demand with sales leads. Communication builds trust, the currency that enables demand to convert. A strong reputation drives customer loyalty, strengthens the brand, and reduces risk. Harvard Business Review estimates up to 80% of a company’s market value is tied to intangible assets such as brand equity, intellectual capital, and overall reputation. In other words, trust is a business strategy.
So, how do you measure the intangible?
Even small teams can build a practical reputation health dashboard using a blend of indicators to garner key business insights you can put into action.
- Leading indicators signaling brand momentum: PR share of voice, media coverage sentiment, social engagement
- Lagging indicators reflecting business impact: Growth in online reviews/ratings, customer satisfaction or Net Promotor Scores, increases in talent inquiries, partnerships or speaking invites
- Behavioral signals showing decision-making: Increased SEO/branded search, time on owned content, form fills/newsletter sign ups
Together, these metrics reveal how communications efforts shape perception, strengthen trust, and support the business. When communications reframes its value in terms the C-suite understands – trust, stakeholder behavior, risk and competitive advantage – the conversation shifts. Communications become less of a cost center and more of what it truly is: a strategic driver of organizational performance.