This guide will take you through the basics of testing. Specifically:
OVERVIEW DOI: http://doi.org/10.62372/JDVN6905 As an organization dedicated to behavioral science in pursuit of poverty alleviation, we feel that pressure from all around us. There is pressure from the outside world: climate
Civil society organizations (CSOs) connect communities and the systems that govern them. The primary role, particularly of advocacy-based CSOs, should be to empower communities with the tools to advocate for
Civil society organizations (CSOs) like yours often work with limited funds, time, and resources. There’s also a misperception that testing is expensive. We’d like to show you that this isn’t always the case. This guide presents some simple ways to test your messaging and campaigns to identify how to best achieve your desired results – all while preserving your resources. This guidebook is meant for advocacy, communications, research and programs teams. These can be officers, managers and directors working with nascent or even established CSOs, social enterprises and other non-profits. It is particularly useful to officers and teams that take up the roles of program and project implementation, communications, public affairs, research, stakeholder engagement and advocacy. These can be Communications Officers, Research teams, Communications Leads, Project Managers, Program Managers and Coordinators, Grant Managers, Advocacy Leads, Engagement Managers and Directors, Chiefs and Directors of Advocacy and other similar roles. Executive Directors and Board Members of these organizations also have a role to play as they are the custodians of the overall organizational strategy and vision. When communicating to an organization’s primary stakeholders and partners, this guidebook is a free resource that can be used to complement the communications and advocacy strategies. The guidebook therefore can be used as a tool when crafting advocacy messages and campaigns, when releasing project information on interventions, reporting implementation and communicating impact.
Yes. At the end of this guide, we will provide you with online resources to assist you in testing.
Testing is a series of investigations that evaluate your assumptions on why something might or might not work. In CSO messaging, testing measures your priority audience’s reaction and helps determine whether they will find your message understandable, believable, and appealing.
As people who work in communications we are under pressure to create ideas that will resonate with our audiences and change how they think. Testing lets us know whether the idea we pick works before we roll it out.
You should test the elements in your campaign that you think could drive the most impact with your audience to see how they respond to them. On the right are some elements that matter in how effectively you communicate.
Here are some framings below you could try when creating messaging:
As humans we tend to follow behaviors that are largely accepted or desirable in our society. The goal of using social norms framing is to show that a majority of people within a group are doing something. This makes the thing desirable to do as it is now “acceptable”
Social norms can backfire if it highlights the wrong behavior, so only use this when there is an overwhelming majority, e.g. 60% of women doing Action X (which suggests 40% don’t!). It is also useful to highlight personal stories and testimonials and bring them to life with color and photos.
Remove jargon and reduce text;
Give very specific instructions, not requests e.g. ‘Call 999’ instead of ‘Please Ring’;
Break actions into steps using numbers, bullet points or checklists;
Use colours, images, bold or larger fonts to highlight key phrases.
There are two types of framing;
Gain framing is where you emphasize what the recipient of the message could gain from taking the desired action. E.g If you report gender based violence today, you help by saving a life.
Loss framing is where you emphasize what the recipient of the message stands to lose by not taking action. E.g If you fail to report gender based violence today, you are responsible for the harm caused to the victim. It is important to test whether gain and loss framing to see which gives you better results.
The first thing you need to know is what you are looking for.What are you trying to understand? This is what will go into your research question
The first thing you need to know is what you are looking for.What are you trying to understand? This is what will go into your research question
This guide will take you through the basics of testing. Specifically:
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Does it give you more insight into what you need? After this you might have to make some adjustments.
There are two scenarios to think about here
Low-Cost Message Testing.
Message testing is a process that helps CSOs evaluate the effectiveness of their communication strategies. It’s essential for ensuring your messages resonate with your target audience and drive your desired outcomes.
You can learn more about testing, the different components of your message that can be tested as well as qualitative and quantitative testing methods using the Low-Cost Message Testing Guide. You can visit our website to access other resources on communication testing.
Testing is instrumental in enabling organizations to curate clear messages for its intended audience. Through message testing, you can identify components of a message that can be enhanced to effectively reach the intended audience.
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