A lesson learned

Just as planning before you start your campaign is essential, one of the most important stages in a campaign is once the active period has ended. You need to look at what you’ve done, how you’ve invested your time and energy and what the results have been.

To do this properly, you must have kept an effective record of contact you’ve had with your targets, support you’ve gained, media coverage and so on. Looking at your objectives yourself and thinking about what worked and what didn’t will help you towards your next campaign. Often, it’s not a case of whether you did or didn’t achieve them, but how far you got.

It’s an old management maxim that often you get 80% of your results from 20% of your effort. Look at what has happened in your campaign and work out where you
got most of your results from.

What didn’t you get results from? Don’t be ashamed to admit where plans were flawed, where things didn’t quite turn out as you expected. Everyone needs to learn from these experiences.

At the end of your campaign, remember to write to supporters and thank them for their help. Even if you didn’t achieve some of your objectives, it’s still important to thank people for what they did. This way, they’re more likely to help you in future campaigns. Tell them about the successful elements of the campaign and tell them what you would change each time.

After all this, you may not want to start on another campaign straight away. It may be necessary to take a rest from active campaigning for a while. Don’t feel guilty about this. There’s no point pushing on and on campaigning if your heart isn’t quite in it and your energy is low. Wait until the time is right.