Effective messaging and communication are important parts of public health. Helping people understand complex health concepts, such as vaccine safety, is key to building healthy communities. But crafting public health messages is not as simple as saying, “Get vaccinated!” It requires a deep understanding of the issue, the values and beliefs of populations, and developing a clear, simple, and persuasive message. 

An important, though often overlooked, step in the process is pilot testing messaging with the population(s) of focus. Pilot testing provides valuable insights that can inform and improve your communications. It can help assess:

• Clarity and appropriateness of the message
• Audience response to the design or delivery channels
• Message preference and effectiveness
• Comparative performance of different messages or designs

By testing messages in advance, local health departments (LHDs) can identify what resonates, what confuses, and what motivates action. The lessons learned during testing can be transferred to other messaging campaigns, reducing the amount of testing needed while ensuring messaging still resonates with the population. Pilot testing also ensures that public resources are being used in the most effective way, by increasing the likelihood that campaigns will lead to the desired change, such as increasing vaccine uptake. However, according to NACCHO’s 2023 Immunization Profile Study, nearly half of LHDs (44%) rated their ability to test messaging as “poor” or “fair.” To address this knowledge gap, NACCHO developed a tool to help guide LHDs in creating a pilot testing plan.

Getting Started: A Tool for Local Health Departments

As part of the Strengthening Immunization Program Communications and Outreach Capacity project, NACCHO’s Research and Evaluation and Immunization teams developed a communications pilot testing plan template. This template helps LHDs outline:

• Population(s) of focus
• Campaign goals
• Messaging materials and delivery strategies
• Key activities
• Success measures
• Anticipated challenges
• Timeline 

Ten LHDs used this template to create and implement their own plans for testing vaccine communications materials. Their experiences highlighted how structured, intentional testing can lead to messaging that resonates with the population of focus and more successful campaigns. 

Each of these health department’s experiences will be shared on NACCHO’s blog over the next month, so others can learn from them and implement message testing in their own LHD.