Should I work a big area or a small one?

Small enough to finish and re-work. A large area worked once is mostly a sample of who was home at that hour.

How many times should I work an area?

At least twice at different hours before treating it as exhausted. The second pass reaches a different population at the same addresses.

Is it worth going back to houses that said no?

Not the same season, usually. Going back to houses that never answered is a completely different proposition and is where the value sits.

Canvassing strategies that hold up

The strategies that hold up are unglamorous: finish an area before starting another, record every address, and re-work a neighbourhood at different hours before expanding to a new one. Most doors end with nobody home, so a single pass over a large area samples it at one time of day and leaves most of its value untouched.

Finish before you expand

Working half of three neighbourhoods leaves three partial records and no usable answer about any of them. Reps do it because a new street feels more promising than a street that already produced nos, which is a feeling rather than an argument.

The second pass is where the value is

If most doors end with nobody home, one pass has mostly measured who is out at that hour. A second pass at a different time reaches a substantially different set of households in the same area, with no additional travel and no new territory needed.

This is the single most under-used move in canvassing, and it costs nothing but the discipline to go back somewhere that feels used up.

Records make everything else possible

Every strategy above depends on knowing what happened at each address. Without that, the second pass is indistinguishable from the first and you will re-knock the household that already said no while missing the one that was out.

Common questions

Should I work a big area or a small one?: Small enough to finish and re-work. A large area worked once is mostly a sample of who was home at that hour.
How many times should I work an area?: At least twice at different hours before treating it as exhausted. The second pass reaches a different population at the same addresses.
Is it worth going back to houses that said no?: Not the same season, usually. Going back to houses that never answered is a completely different proposition and is where the value sits.

More on canvassing

Canvassing as a discipline — planning coverage, working a neighbourhood, and the difference between canvassing and knocking.

All of canvassing