Message testing during an epidemic or pandemic
During a health crisis, decisions have to be made quickly. People need accurate information that can change rapidly, so communications need to evolve. During these challenging times, it’s more important than ever to know if messages are understood and used by your key audiences. This is where message testing comes in.
A message that works for you won’t necessarily work for your audience. Testing helps you examine your assumptions about what will work and why. It helps you learn more about the people you communicate with.
Even during an epidemic or a pandemic, basic level testing can be conducted that, in the end, will provide the needed evidence that communications are working or how to adjust them. It’s an important process that actually saves time and money by not wasting efforts on ineffective communications.
Before testing: developing your messaging
Make sure your message/product is accurate and reviewed and approved technically before any message testing. You don’t want to waste time with something that will later be rejected because of inaccuracies.
Identify what your communication product is designed to achieve. Some examples:
- Create or increase awareness
- Create or increase support
- Change behaviour (intent)
- Debunk a dangerous myth
- Share and/or connect to more information
Identify your audience. Consider:
- Age
- Sex
- Culture
- Geographical regions
Check that the tone, voice and writing style match the audience you are focusing on. For instance, if you are trying to reach young women, make sure images of people match the target group. Does this group use certain styles of language? Do they respond to positive, threatening, authoritative or humorous messages? Try to match the tone, voice and style of writing that is known to resonate with your audience, and then test this.
Communication checklist from the University of Cambridge Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication.
Preparing for testing
There are a number of ways to test. For a good overview, read How to test your communications. It includes tips for when you have little or no budget or time using door knocking, a workshop, telephoning and email.
Both focus groups and in-depth interviews can be done in most settings. For both, develop a script of questions to assess:
- Comprehension—Does the intended audience understand the message? Are there confusing terms of concepts?
- Message strong and weak points—What parts of the materials are effective, such as attracting attention, informing, or motivating to act? What parts are not effective?
- Personal relevance—Does the intended audience identify with the materials?
- Confusing, sensitive, or controversial elements—Does the treatment of particular topics make the intended audience uncomfortable?
How to reduce message test costs in time and money
- Borrow questions from other pretests when possible. See resources below.
- Work with partner organizations to recruit participants and conduct tests (such as a church, patient educators, a clinic).
- Keep the questions short and to the point. Use as many close-ended or multiple choice questions as possible (for easier tabulation analysis).
- Use the 5-5-5 guide: Interview 5 people who fit your target audience, ask 5 questions, take no more than 5 minutes to do the survey. You can do this in person, over the phone, on email or through messaging apps.
Quick and proven test questions
Some common testing questions during epidemics.
Does the product/message:
Resources
How to Develop and Test Materials (Source:
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
How to test your communications (Source: European Public Interest Research Centre)
Data for action: achieving high uptake of COVID-19 vaccines (Source: World Health Organization publication that includes surveys, interview guides and related tools)
COVID-19 Vaccination Communication Toolkit (Source: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)