Evidence-based Strategies
We help political and advocacy groups use social science to better understand, connect, and communicate with voters.
Evidence-based Strategies
We help political and advocacy groups use social science to better understand, connect, and communicate with voters.
Read about our impact
Getting the Message Right
Learn how we applied state-of-the-art message testing techniques to identify the most motivating GOTV slogan for the 2018 mid-term election.
Winning in Your District With A GOTV Campaign
Find out how we worked with one NC precinct to maximize voter turnout through the application of evidence-based motivational messaging, resulting in the highest turnout in the state.
Understanding the Hopes and Fears of Overlooked Voters
Polls lack depth, and focus groups miss voters who can’t travel to a focus facility. Find out how and what we found when we talked to North Carolina voters that fall through the cracks, and how those insights informed candidates statewide.
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Finding the Most Effective GOTV Message
What is the most effective message to encourage Democratic-leaning, infrequent voters to vote? (These were the voters we needed to come out.) This was the question as we approached the November 2018 midterm election. We saw examples of slogans that ranged from alarming to benign. But what really resonates? What really motivates voting behavior?
To find out, we used state-of-the-art message testing techniques to assess 11 messages in a nationally representative sample among Democratic-leaning infrequent voters. The tag line that won across all age groups and ethnicities was, “Your vote is your voice!” We used this message in canvassing, letter-writing, and postcard writing campaigns to support the “Blue Wave” in November 2018. Contact us at info@voterstrategygroup.com for the full report, which includes some surprising “losing” messages!
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Bringing science-based tactics to a key NC precinct
In preparation for the 2018 midterms, we partnered with a precinct in Durham, NC to bolster their canvassing and postcard writing campaigns. We used the science-based VSG Identity, Community, Competency (ICC) guide to help canvassers know what to say and how to say it. We used the same ICC principles to guide messaging for the precinct’s personalized postcard campaign to 500 democratic-leaning infrequent voters (the voters we most wanted to motivate). As a result, this precinct had one of the highest voter turnouts of all 2700 precincts in North Carolina in 2018.
Conducting a canvassing and postcard writing campaign within a precinct can have impressive results. No wonder, since the people knocking on doors and writing postcards are neighbors who share a bond of community and home. To harness the power of community and social science for your neighborhood, contact us for the VSG ICC Guide and/or the VSG Postcard Campaign tool.
Read More
Understanding the Hopes and Fears of Overlooked Voters
Any marketer or salesperson knows that you can’t make a sale until you really, really know your customer. And in politics, your customer is a voter. The problem is, traditional political methods for understanding voters can’t compare to the techniques companies use to get to know their customers. So in 2017/2018 we set about to change that in North Carolina. Working on behalf of a coalition of progressive organizations, we took the sampling and research methods honed in the corporate world to the political world, and we learned about voters that polls and focus groups too often ignore. The insights gleaned from this work helped progressive candidates, canvassers and grass-roots groups craft messaging that resonated and engaged voters. And perhaps more importantly, we learned what themes and messages to avoid. Can you put business tools to work in politics? You bet. And it might be just what your team needs to win.
Read about our impact
Getting the Message Right
Learn how we applied state-of-the-art message testing techniques to identify the most motivating GOTV slogan for the 2018 mid-term election.
Read More
Finding the Most Effective GOTV Message
What is the most effective message to encourage Democratic-leaning, infrequent voters to vote? (These were the voters we needed to come out.) This was the question as we approached the November 2018 midterm election. We saw examples of slogans that ranged from alarming to benign. But what really resonates? What really motivates voting behavior?
To find out, we used state-of-the-art message testing techniques to assess 11 messages in a nationally representative sample among Democratic-leaning infrequent voters. The tag line that won across all age groups and ethnicities was, “Your vote is your voice!” We used this message in canvassing, letter-writing, and postcard writing campaigns to support the “Blue Wave” in November 2018. Contact us at info@voterstrategygroup.com for the full report, which includes some surprising “losing” messages!
Winning in Your District With A GOTV Campaign
Find out how we worked with one NC precinct to maximize voter turnout through the application of evidence-based motivational messaging, resulting in the highest turnout in the state.
Read More
Bringing science-based tactics to a key NC precinct
In preparation for the 2018 midterms, we partnered with a precinct in Durham, NC to bolster their canvassing and postcard writing campaigns. We used the science-based VSG Identity, Community, Competency (ICC) guide to help canvassers know what to say and how to say it. We used the same ICC principles to guide messaging for the precinct’s personalized postcard campaign to 500 democratic-leaning infrequent voters (the voters we most wanted to motivate). As a result, this precinct had one of the highest voter turnouts of all 2700 precincts in North Carolina in 2018.
Conducting a canvassing and postcard writing campaign within a precinct can have impressive results. No wonder, since the people knocking on doors and writing postcards are neighbors who share a bond of community and home. To harness the power of community and social science for your neighborhood, contact us for the VSG ICC Guide and/or the VSG Postcard Campaign tool.
Understanding the Hopes and Fears of Overlooked Voters
Polls lack depth, and focus groups miss voters who can’t travel to a focus facility. Find out how and what we found when we talked to North Carolina voters that fall through the cracks, and how those insights informed candidates statewide.
Read More
Understanding the Hopes and Fears of Overlooked Voters
Any marketer or salesperson knows that you can’t make a sale until you really, really know your customer. And in politics, your customer is a voter. The problem is, traditional political methods for understanding voters can’t compare to the techniques companies use to get to know their customers. So in 2017/2018 we set about to change that in North Carolina. Working on behalf of a coalition of progressive organizations, we took the sampling and research methods honed in the corporate world to the political world, and we learned about voters that polls and focus groups too often ignore. The insights gleaned from this work helped progressive candidates, canvassers and grass-roots groups craft messaging that resonated and engaged voters. And perhaps more importantly, we learned what themes and messages to avoid. Can you put business tools to work in politics? You bet. And it might be just what your team needs to win.
Using Behavioral Science to Win Elections
Voter Strategy Group is a specialty consulting firm that helps political and advocacy groups harness the power of behavioral science to better understand, connect, and communicate with voters. With years of marketing research and advertising experience, we are grounded in the belief that voters are people – the very same people advertisers persuade every day.
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Reach Us
(919) 870-6465
info@voterstrategygroup.com