Focus, Focus, Focus

We all have limited resources.  Fundraising campaigns, advocacy campaigns, candidate and issue campaigns all constantly try to get the most out of their limited resources.  Whether those resources are financial, people, time or something else, there is rarely enough and using them wisely will be the true test of your success.

The best results come with relentless focus.  And that is this week’s Three Things.  Three things not to lose focus on in any campaign.

1) Primary mission: What do you want to accomplish?  We say this a lot, but without a clearly defined purpose, the rest of your decisions become a lot more difficult.  Even when your purpose is clearly defined, there can be a lot of noise that interferes with your ability to keep the focus where it’s needed. Put it on walls, on the signature of your emails, at the top of every agenda – whatever it takes to help you and your team keep your eyes on the ball.

2) Primary metric:  What one measure more than anything leads to success? Is it size of your email or mailing list?  Number of volunteers who show up/take action on a given day?  Personal contacts made with legislators, donors, community leaders or voters?  There will inevitably be multiple measures of success that are important.  But which is most important in accomplishing #1 above?  Find a way to separate your primary metric from secondary metrics in the minds of your team.

3) Primary channel: Knowing #1 and #2, you should be able to identify which channel brings the most bang for your buck when communicating with your audience.  It’s not that there aren’t tons of media (mail, email, mass, social, earned, etc.) in which to communicate.  It’s that with limited resources, you have to find the one that generates the greatest return and push it hard. Your presence elsewhere may be required, but your focus should be placed in the channel that will take you the furthest.  Win your primary channel before building to others.

And that’s our Three Things for this week. What do you think – is there a fourth thing that we’ve forgotten?  Or would you replace 1, 2, or 3 with something else? Let us know in the comments…

And, as always, if you’ve got Three Things you’ve been dying to tell the world, shoot us an email – we’d love to share your ideas in this space!

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