What’s next? The campaign may be over, but your work has just begun 💪

Your advocacy campaign has come to a close, and maybe you reached your goal for emails deployed, tweets posted or letters sent. You’ve popped open the champagne, busted out your happy dance moves, and let out that breath you’ve been holding since you first realized how important your issue is. 🍾

While we encourage you to take the time to celebrate your team’s hard work, we can’t stress enough that the work has truly just begun.

Many of our subscribers rely on donations to continue providing the services and advocacy that their community needs. Others are launching rapid-response campaigns to escalating or developing issues, and are building up to that big final push for change.

In both these cases, and many others, one campaign isn’t always enough to call the job done.

Activate the Middle

Over the course of your campaign, you’ll have accumulated a list of supporters who have recently taken action for your cause. Each of these people are positioned in the middle of the pyramid of engagement — we call them contributors. The key is to activate the middle, continue giving them opportunities to participate and, hopefully, spread the word. You’ll see community growth as well as a move from member to contributor, to evangelist, to donor and leader.

When you stop nurturing this path of engagement, community members can begin to drop off, losing interest or motivation.

For more information, check out our page on the strengths of multi-channel engagement.

Recognize your Supporters

Another way to keep your supporters engaged between campaigns is to encourage them in a direct, personal way. Write to your action takers to highlight the change they’re making. Keep them up-to-date on your goals to leave them feeling accomplished and motivated for your next ask. This forms a consistent community of support around your issue.

This is also a great way to transition from non-monetary to donation asks, and vice versa. Your supporters are already passionate about your issue - give them tangible recognition to keep them that way.

This can be done through social media blasts with progress reports or email updates directly to their inbox. The latter is most effective, of course, as personalization is much more impactful.

Conditional Targeting

Keep the connection alive by following up with representatives positively. Run campaigns of support to keep them accountable for all community concerns and needs. Some folks in our market call it ‘thank and spank’, but considering the phrase is a little outdated and confusing, we call it conditional targeting.

Use conditional targeting to automatically segment your supporters’ messages by their representatives’ party affiliation, jurisdiction, or other targets. New/Mode’s conditional targeting capabilities will make your campaign all the more impactful by delivering the right message to the right people at the right time.

For example, if the rep belongs to a political party that has endorsed climate action or not, the messages sent will either thank them for their support and encourage them to uphold their promise, or ask them to advocate for climate action.

Don’t forget: Follow up and thank reps for their support on your issue, acknowledging their key role in making positive change. This will set you up for success the next time your supporters come knocking.

Issue-Based Advocacy

Lastly, while your campaign may have come to an end, there are a multitude of issues that beg our attention. Consider the intersectionality of your supporters. What other issues are they facing right now? How can you help?

Issue-based advocacy not only helps you stay relevant, but it’s a surefire way to keep your current supporters engaged while also acquiring new ones.

For more on the advantages of issue-based advocacy, check out our blog post on the topic.

We’ve seen progressive campaigners from a multitude of backgrounds come together on issues like racial justice, COVID-19, and the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. We all have a stake in the wellbeing of our communities, so collaboration is key.

Have your own tips and tricks for maintaining momentum in between campaigns? Comment below, or give us a shout on Twitter. If you’re a progressive campaigner looking to boost engagement and launch campaigns that win on the issues, connect with one of our Campaign Advisors today.