You Ran an Audience Understanding Survey — Now What?
Turn your new deep insights into strategic messages and campaigns
Congratulations, you completed an Audience Understanding Survey with Grow Progress! You now have rich insights about how your target audience sees the world, what they value, and what motivates their decisions.
But like many teams at this stage, you may be asking: What’s next?
This guide outlines the most high-value steps to help you turn your data into action.
Step 1: Identify the Most Actionable Insights
Audience Understanding Surveys provide you with many valuable insights. However, we recommend not trying to boil the ocean and narrow in on 2–3 key findings.
Consider looking at findings that:
- Reveal unexpected audience values or identities
- Highlight barriers or emotional reactions to your issue
- Show meaningful differences between audience segments
A recent Audience Understanding Survey focused on working-class attitudes toward the economy revealed a major insight: Most respondents didn’t believe the economy worked well, and many didn’t trust either political party to fix it.
So instead of framing messages around political leadership or generic economic data, creative teams were able to build concepts rooted in shared frustration and economic identity, unlocking targeted and powerful storytelling.
These findings are your launch points, the raw material for message development and creative decisions.
Step 2: Translate Insights into Message Concepts
Use what you learned to craft initial creative concepts that reflect your audience’s actual motivations and worldview.
For example:
- “Left Behind” vs. “Hard Work Pays Off”
Insight: Many respondents said the economy “only works for some,” and felt that hardworking people like them were being ignored or left behind.
Message concept: “America works for the wealthy — it’s time it works for everyone who puts in the work.” - From Partisan to People-Powered
Insight: 47% of those who said the economy is broken didn’t believe either political party was helping, revealing deep disillusionment.
Message concept: “No party has fixed the economy for working people — but we can build something better together.” - Pride in Resilience
Insight: Even among respondents who were struggling, some maintained a strong sense of pride in surviving tough times and being self-reliant.
Message concept: “You’ve done your part. You’ve kept going when it got hard. It’s time for an economy that has your back.”
Think of this stage as building your message hypothesis — you’re not finalizing creative, just generating informed drafts.
Step 3: Test Your Draft Messages
It’s time to validate which messages actually persuade your intended audience. Grow Progress’s Rapid Message Testing is designed to pair seamlessly with Audience Understanding Surveys.
Use a Rapid Message Test to:
- Test the resonance of different value frames or narratives
- Compare messages across segments to find the most persuasive approach
- Refine language and creative direction based on real-time feedback
Step 4: Share and Apply Insights Internally
Your Insights from your Audience Understanding Surveys, and following Rapid Message Tests, are most powerful when shared. Distribute key takeaways and recommended actions to:
- The Communications teams shaping the message
- Digital or paid media teams managing audience targeting
- Stakeholders who need confidence that decisions are data-driven
These survey insights can do more than just shape one specific campaign: they can shape strategy across the board.
Need help interpreting your results or planning your next step?
Connect with your Grow Progress Client Success Manager or email [email protected] for more information on tailored guidance.
