Evaluation: Closing the loop for better results

Written by Coulter Macdonald, Canada Revenue Agency, and Resha Damania, Employment and Social Development Canada

It may seem difficult to measure whether a communications campaign has reached its intended audiences, but it’s not. It’s actually quite easy! We can use evaluation reports to measure what worked and what didn’t for a campaign.

I look forward to measuring my work. Hopefully you do too. But there’s more to it than just measuring. Having the data to assess the outreach of our products is one thing; doing something with it is entirely another. I think of this step as “closing the loop.” Let me ask you, do you close the loop with your projects?

Closing the loop is all about sharing and celebrating the results of your work with clients. It means going the extra mile to ensure they also have an understanding of what was achieved (and what wasn’t).

You might feel nervous about sharing your results. I certainly have felt that way! However, I like to remember that it’s a way to encourage a discussion about what worked well and what can be improved for next time.

Not all the news will be great, and that’s okay! This reaffirms the importance of closing the loop. For instance, following the delivery of a recent communications campaign on taxes and the digital economy, I found our results were not as expected. My team and I knew that our client had plans to release more products similar to the ones from the campaign, like tax tips, stakeholder desk messages, and social media content, so it was important to let them know as soon as possible about the outcome of the initial campaign. We needed to get their input on next steps and provide advice on the products we would recommend for the next round. From what we learned, we were able to pivot and develop new products that were more useful.

Keep in mind that one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to meeting the needs of your clients. Consider sending them the evaluation report, a summary, or the data. I like to give them a presentation because it’s more engaging and it helps me map the direction of a project. A presentation also helps me think about what my clients want to hear. When the project didn’t achieve our expected results, my client appreciated walking through the results.

Aside from my experience, there are countless examples that showcase the benefits of evaluating and closing the loop. You can find these examples not only in your workplace, but across the government!

At Employment and Social Development Canada, I developed a measurable communications approach for the Canada’s Volunteer Awards ceremony and call for nominations—a program that recognizes important contributions of volunteers across Canada. One of my tasks on this file was to close the loop by doing a communications evaluation on the most recent award ceremony and call for nominations.

Thanks to what we learned from the evaluation, we are making some changes to how we approach the Awards this year. First, we are pushing the awards ceremony from December to National Volunteer Week in April and combining it with the call for nominations for the next round of Canada’s Volunteer Awards. This will help ensure more recipients and stakeholders are available to travel to the event and will allow us to benefit from existing attention on volunteerism, including as part of the Prime Minister’s annual statement for National Volunteer Week.

From the evaluation, we were also able to decide which products to keep and which ones to eliminate. We had high hopes for the award recipient hometown news releases and targeted media pitches. Neither performed as well as we had hoped, which meant they were not worth the time, effort or resources that it took to set them up.

There will also be new activities as part of the next phase of the Awards. One idea we have is to develop web pages to acknowledge past award recipients, which will include their testimonials. We can promote this content using our social media channels. In addition, adding UTM codes in all the communications products will give us an accurate picture of where our clicks are coming from.

We hope you agree that an evaluation isn’t complete until you close the loop with your clients and make changes to future campaigns based on what you’ve learned. Data doesn’t lie. It helps us make informed choices, try new things and let go of approaches that don’t serve us well. When we follow the evidence, it will help us compile a strong list of dos and don’ts.

The CCO’s Key Messengers stories highlight best practices and trends from communicators leading GC campaigns and initiatives. This article was organized by the Communications Evaluation Community of Practice (accessible only on the Government of Canada network). You can also find more communications tools and resources to support your #GCComms evaluations planning by visiting Evaluations (accessible only on the Government of Canada network).