Most political campaigns, advocacy organizations, and nonprofits do at least some level of audience research before launching a campaign. But this research typically looks inward, at supporter data and past campaign results, or it looks at demographic data for the new audiences they want to reach. Both types of research have value. Neither helps you identify what kind of message will actually persuade new audiences.
- Demographics provide statistical characteristics about an audience, but they don't reveal much about what people believe, how they see themselves, or why they're still on the fence about your issue.
- Internal data has the opposite problem. Lean on it too heavily and your outreach becomes an echo chamber, talking only to people who already agree with you.
With Grow Progress, organizations can use Audience Understanding Surveys to map the values, identities, and worldviews of the people they need to persuade, then test the messages built from those insights before campaigns go live. Here's how to approach audience research so it changes what you say, and who you reach.
What is audience research?
Audience research is the process of learning how the people you want to reach think about your issue, cause, or candidate. Successful research goes beyond age, geography, or political affiliation to uncover the beliefs, motivations, and the language people use themselves.
Audience insights are the output: the specific, actionable findings that tell you who is persuadable, what moves them, and what to avoid. Research is the work. Insights are what you act on.
Why demographics alone fall short
Two people with identical demographic profiles can land in opposite places on the same issue. One cares about fairness, the other about freedom. A message built for the average of the two may persuade neither.
When teams skip audience research, message strategy defaults to 'gut feeling' or last cycle's playbook. The cost shows up later: budget spent on people who were never going to move, and messages that quietly backfire with the people who could.
Common audience research methods
Most organizations use some mix of these methods. Each answers a different question.
- Focus groups. Rich, conversational detail, but small samples and a room dynamic that can skew what people say.
- Traditional polling. Good for measuring where opinion stands. Less useful for explaining why, or what would change it.
- Social listening. Shows what vocal audiences are saying online, which rarely reflects the persuadable middle.
- Audience segmentation research. Groups people by shared values, identities, and worldviews, then explains what drives each segment. This is where usable audience insights come from.
How to run audience research before your next campaign
1. Start with identifying the core of your message
Audience research works best when it's tied to a real choice: entering a new issue area, launching a new campaign, or building a messaging strategy from scratch. Name the core issues you're trying to solve first, then design the research around it.
2. Find the conflicted middle
Your base and your opposition may not be the most valuable audience for your next campaign. The people worth understanding are those who are undecided or conflicted about your issue, as they are likely the most easy to persuade.
3. Uncover the values and identities that drive them
Ask what people care about, how they see themselves, and how they define the issue in their own words. Values like accountability, compassion, or freedom often explain more about persuadability than a demographic characteristic such as age or ethnicity.
This is where a deeper level of research earns its keep. Instead of grouping people by who they are, it groups them by why they think the way they do. Each segment comes to your issue with its own mental model: different frames, different reference points, and different ideas about what's at stake. A message built around accountability might land with one segment and fall flat with another that responds to compassion or achievement.
Qualitative listening at scale is the most direct way to get there. Letting people describe the issue in their own terms, across a representative sample, shows which values and identities cluster together and which segments are actually movable. The result goes far beyond a demographic profile. It's a creative brief: who you're talking to, what they care about, and the frame that will make your message make sense to them.
4. Turn insights into messages, then test them
Audience insights tell you where to aim, but don't prove which message will be most persuasive. Once you've completed your audience research, then you can pre-test them with Rapid Message Testing to see which one actually moves people, with results in as little as 24 hours.
Planning a new campaign? Our Pre-Launch Playbook walks through how to pressure-test your audience and messages before launch.
How Grow Progress Audience Understanding works
Audience Understanding surveys are qualitative listening surveys of representative groups. They identify the people who are undecided or conflicted about your issue and surface the values, identities, and worldviews that drive them.
Every study delivers insight in four areas:
- How different segments define the issue, and the frames and reference points they use
- Where the persuadable middle sits, and the conditions under which it shifts
- Which words signal trust with each group, and which trigger skepticism
- A creative brief your team can write from immediately
Audience Understanding is the exploratory step. Rapid Message Testing is the causal one. Used together, they take you from "who are we talking to?" to "which message wins?" before campaigns go live.
Know your audience before you write the message
The organizations that win persuasion fights don't start with copy. They start with a clear picture of who's persuadable and why. Audience research gives you that picture. Audience insights turn it into a strategy your whole team can execute.
Want to see what an Audience Understanding study would reveal about your audience? Talk to our team.