That Dog Won't Hunt...

Have you ever had a co-worker or consultant suggest something that you KNOW won't work? They're talking all about their amazing idea, and you're just sitting there thinking, "That dog won't hunt." If you know what we're talking about, then you already understand the importance of research and evaluation.

Yes, we know... research and eval are not sexy topics, but they can help you shut down bad ideas or prove your zany ideas might just work. Pretty powerful stuff! So, read on, if you dare. We promise to make this as painless as possible and give you some concrete ideas on how to tackle pre-campaign research and campaign evaluation.

Pre-Campaign Research

There are a few basic ways you can inform your communication campaign before things get too far down the road. You need to know the "lay of the land," and you need to know the folks you hope to be speaking to.

Let's start with the "lay of the land," or the background that your campaign will be operating in. Consider the following:

• Has a similar campaign been done before? A campaign done by your organization or a competing organization is worth looking at. You don't want to be too similar to a competitor's approach, and if your company has tried this approach before, did it work or not? If you're new to an organization, there might be horror stories around the last campaign that you'll wish to avoid stirring up. So, ask a veteran of your organization and get the scoop before you bring it up at a leadership meeting.

• Are there any other events or current news topics that potentially interfere with or interact with the point of your campaign? By checking into this, you are preventing potentially embarrassing outcomes and associations. Better to wait a week to launch than to tread too closely with a negative association.

• Is the target audience for the campaign well-defined and easy to reach? Knowing more about your target audience before developing specific tactics is essential. There's no point trying to reach a soccer mom by running a story on the 6 o'clock news. She's not home! If your target audience is vague, how can you help solidify ways to reach them? These things are well worth exploring before you invest a tremendous amount of time and money in ineffective communication channels.

Campaign Evaluation

Your background research is done, the plan is made, and the communication tactics are set. But how will you know if you've won the day? Making a plan to evaluate success is essential and best done before a campaign is launched. Some metrics are much easier to collect while a campaign is in action than trying to figure out numbers after the fact. This is even more important if you need to write down baseline numbers to compare to.

Evaluation can be tricky because you need to make sure that your measurement of success is tied to your goal for the campaign. If you're trying to raise awareness about your cause, are you measuring success with a pre-campaign survey and a post-campaign survey to see if knowledge about your cause increased? Are you measuring success as an increase in sales or donations? Depending on your communication channels and campaign tactics, measurement could be as simple as putting 100 brochures in each brochure rack and counting them each month for three months to see how many get picked up.

However you choose to evaluate the success of your campaign, save your results! This information is what you and your department can refer back to for the coming years to plan for future success. Or, if you crash and burn, at least you can say "that dog won't hunt" and show your proof.

Til next time,

the Renegade Researchers @ blue ink