Getting the Jump on 2026: Why Testing in Q4 is a Strategic Advantage
The case for designing a message testing plan at the end of the year
In a recent virtual strategic session, two things were universal among a group of people whose work varied widely. Everyone wanted to have some certainty about what they’d be doing next year, and everyone had some type of hang-up about where and how to start.
In this blog post, we’ll connect the dots between why testing in Q4 matters and how you can make the most of it — whether you’re planning your first test or refining a long-term strategy.
Robust Research is Layered and Repeated
Good research is a continuous process that occurs over time. So why not start now?
It’s not just about throwing messages against the proverbial wall and seeing what sticks—it means uncovering which values to tap into for each audience type, learning which arguments are most effective, identifying the best messengers, and crucially, tracking these over time.
Your goal is not just to pick a winning message, but to understand why it won. Furthermore, you should also know when a message stops being the best choice, and for what reasons.
Waiting until later to test often means missing opportunities to discover why messaging works, as the focus shifts to just picking the one that wins amongst what you have. Not what would have been the best had it been created. This lack of context can lead to missteps in the future, and questions of “Why didn’t this work like last time?”
The fourth quarter is a perfect time to take a look at the state of your organization’s institutional knowledge around your key persuadable groups and start planning a research roadmap for 2026.
Understand the New Social Landscape
Part of your research roadmap should include gaining a clear understanding of the here and now. While the future is always hazy, we can say with certainty that the political, social, and economic landscape of today is nothing like last year’s, last month’s, or even last week’s.
Historic knowledge and experience are important, but instead of relying on them as your North Star with no data to back them up, the fourth quarter is an excellent time to treat them as hypotheses and test to see if they still hold water.
This might involve conducting initial rough message tests to gauge reactions and determine where to focus, uncovering the baseline effectiveness of your current messaging with key audiences, running opposition campaigns to benchmark how your messaging compares, and conducting Audience Understanding Surveys to learn about your audience’s current feelings on relevant topics.
For example, Grow Progress implemented our own best practices this year to gauge the approval or disapproval of key Trump Administration policies so far in 2025. We identified some interesting opportunities for persuasion among individuals who generally approve of the Trump administration, including the fact that 49% disapprove of actions to cut Medicaid.
This up-to-date understanding of the landscape, particularly as public opinion continues to shift, positions you to learn even more once 2026 arrives and to pivot based on current data.
Rapid, Iterative Testing is Key
The best messages and creatives aren’t created whole, fully formed, and immediately impactful; instead, they are shaped iteratively over time. Which isn’t a surprise, given how much is changing at such a rapid pace. This is why it’s essential to start the process as soon as possible.
Early messages may miss the mark and fall flat, but that’s a part of the iterative process. Give yourself room to rework and test, mastering both the art and science of persuasion for each of your key audiences. Rapid Message Tests can deliver results in a day or two, not weeks, so you’ll be able to make confident, data-backed decisions in less time.
A major benefit of this agile testing approach is that you can react and respond quickly as circumstances change, as our partners at A Better Wisconsin Together Political Fund experienced during their 2025 Supreme Court election.
Initial rounds of testing showed that attacks on Elon Musk and his outside spending in the race weren’t moving people towards Judge Crawford, so they focused on public safety. But this changed as voters reacted to the ongoing news cycle and disruptions of Musk’s DOGE work, and subsequent testing showed Musk-focused messaging significantly outperformed the rest.
This is just one example of the importance of quickly adapting to a shifting narrative and rapidly testing and iterating on winning messages.
Conclusion
Using your end-of-the-year capacity to prepare for 2026’s needs gives you a strategic advantage over those who aren’t. Testing now builds a foundation you can rely on for quick, evidence-based decisions, enabling you to plan intelligently and act swiftly when the time comes.
While others are reacting to what’s going on, you can be proactively managing and tracking changes with your early frameworks, data points, and tested messages.
