Evaluation

Feedback and evaluation are vital to ensure the effectiveness and continuing improvement of your communications.

You should evaluate the processes that went into producing your print project and the outcomes it produced. You can look at facts as well as opinions. Questions to ask include:

Processes 

• What did you learn?
• Did you finish it on time and budget?
• How could you do this better next time?

Document your answers and update your stored knowledge for the next person in your organisation who does a similar project. Create links to documentation of processes in case of staff changes or emergencies.

Outcomes 

• Did our target audience receive or see our printed material?
• How many people did we reach? 

What feedback can the audience offer? 

• Did our publication achieve our strategic goals? 
• Were there sections that people didn't read, or didn't like? Why not?  

Evaluation tools:

• Include feedback mechanisms in any publication; for example, a phone number or e-mail address with a request for people's reactions
• Use simple online survey tools such as Survey Monkey.
• Build in an evaluation form into your website's Content Management System. Drupal, for example, has many options for this. See the Message in a box evaluation page for this toolkit
• Ask your stakeholders
• Monitor any enquiries, media coverage or audience behaviour
• Ask for all feedback to come to a central point so that you can compile and regularly review it with your team