Strategic guide: Speaking to Persuadables during the general election

In the climate sector, it's usually part of our jobs to stay on top of the news. So it can be easy to assume that everyone engages with climate change and politics in a similar way. The truth is, most Persuadables – who are crucial to the future of climate action – experience an election year very differently from active participants in the climate movement.  

It’s important to reach Persuadables where they are during this period, so a mandate for climate is strengthened no matter who wins. To reach and engage with Persuadables, we need to understand as much as we can from their perspective. 

In the first of this two-part article, we will explore Persuadables’ relationship with the general election and outline how we can better engage with them on climate change at such a crucial time. Inside you’ll find: 

What’s going on? What factors during this intense campaign period influence their support of climate action?

Who’s involved? Four segments to look out for this election period. 

Tips for engaging with the Persuadables this year. Depending on their attitude towards politics.  

The Persuadables have great voting power. At roughly 69% they make up most of the general population and their opinion is vital to shaping policy. This is not shaping up to be a climate election, with issues like the economy, health, and immigration taking priority. The ITV debate on the 4th of June was noticeably lacking in terms of its focus on climate.

Things change quickly though, and climate will feature due to its intersection with other key policy areas like the economy, water, and housing. Therefore Persuadables are likely to be susceptible to an increase in anti-climate narratives whether they are political or not. Generalising a person’s attitude to voting or their political alignment is impossible. Many – although not everyone – will know that an election is happening. However, some will not understand the distinction between local, mayor, county, and national. Most are unlikely to know specific policies. We must consider the wide range of factors that can influence how someone might engage with politics: 

Social and cultural factors 

Social and cultural contexts, such as family, religion, or friendship circles, are more likely in many cases to shape political leaning than media campaigns or policy. If you’ve got politically proactive parents, you’re four times more likely to be politically proactive yourself, and if you have politically proactive grandparents, you are eight times more likely to be. Going to a private school makes you twice as likely to vote Conservative, perhaps due to the circle of influence associated with attending one.   

A lot of political engagements take place around the dinner table, down at the pub, or in online communities like Nextdoor. These social spaces are highly important, and could partially explain the power of culture wars, as contentious subjects centred around identity tend to drum up more discussion. If you want to talk about climate, often considered a political topic in these spaces, messages must be easy to understand and ‘sticky’-i.e. memorable.  

Lack of trust towards politicians 

Trust towards politicians in the UK is the lowest it has been in 40 years. Just 9% of Brits believe politicians will tell the truth, down from 12% in 2022. This makes politics the least trusted profession in Britain. This can lead to apathy to engage in politics whatsoever.  

Persuadables vary in political engagement. Those who read, watch, or listen to the news occasionally will have a surface-level knowledge of political parties. This is likely to be limited to attitudes to the leader, party manifestos, or heavily communicated campaigns, such as Rishi Sunak's 'Stop the boats'.   

Meet our voter segments

When it comes to audiences we usually speak about the Persuadables. We know they are likely to be politically moderate in their views, but their political engagement can vary drastically. For this guide, we are using the House of Commons segments to dissect the way the UK population engages with politics. Confident participants and interested voters overlap the most with Persuadables in terms of attitudes and behaviours in that they are relatively engaged.  

Let's look at all of them in a bit more detail:

• Confident participants
  This is the most political cohort in the UK. They have high interest in politics, high trust in politicians and high trust in their political influence. This is reflected in their high voter turnout. They are more likely to be older and/or female, highly educated and in paid work. They might value trying new things and being exposed to new perspectives.
• Interested voters
  This group is moderate, with moderate to high interest in politics, moderate trust in politicians and you guessed it, moderate confidence in political participation. ​They are more likely to be older, from ethnic minorities, and to be women. They also less likely to have higher education and to be in paid work.
• Indifferent voters
  Indifferent voters have low interest but moderate voter turn out. They have little trust in politicians and low confidence in political participation. Demographics wise they are ​more likely to be younger, have higher education, in paid work, and white.
• Uninterested bystanders
  This group most resembles the disengaged segment we tend to exclude in climate comms. They have very low trust, interest and engagement, and are very unlikely to vote. They are more likely to be young, white and hold a strong belief that people are trying to take advantage of them.

All the segments are guided by issues other than climate

Climate remains a significant concern but often comes lower on the list of priorities and concerns for Persuadables. Issues that impact them daily, like the cost-of-living crisis and the state of the public health system, put the economy and health up top. An ongoing, loud debate about immigration puts this issue third (the same happened to the environment during the Extinction Rebellion protests in 2019.) Right now, during the election campaign, the environment is joint fourth along with crime and housing. When it comes to the environment, Persuadables' concerns are likely to intersect with more immediate, visceral issues, like sewage and flooding. 

For confident participants – cut through and empower 

They are more likely to binge on multiple media sources and see value in content that interrogates issues and policies and challenges them deeply. They are interested in expert opinions and multiple perspectives and aren't afraid of thorough context. The challenge for this group is to cut through with climate messages. To engage them we can: 

• Lean into detailed policy analysis that focuses on climate action​
• Empower them through action
• Facilitate the power of community through IRL or online networking

For interested voters- demonstrate the benefits

Interested voters also consume a lot of media but their intention is different: they are more likely to seek out politics content to learn and develop perspectives. As they are less trusting than confident participants, they are likely to look for more guidance on what’s going on and which parties can support them with the challenges closest to them. We need to show this group how climate policies can support their needs. 

To engage them we should:

• Amplify experts through Q&A sessions, live chats et cetera
• Create in-depth content that links to climate but never assumes knowledge
• Tailor comms for specific interests and concerns

For indifferent voters and uninterested bystanders- reach and raise awareness

These are the hardest groups to engage. They do not actively consume news and political media. Indifferent voters might come across it during their general online consumption, largely made up of social media, whilst uninterested bystanders are likely to avoid any general election content altogether. Our challenge with these groups is to engage them with any climate messaging at all. To help, we can:

• Use interactive formats they're used to engaging with and target with digital ads
• Use relatable language and cultural references that cut through
• Set the right expectations from any climate messages you do put out. Prioritise just reaching and informing this audience rather than asking them to do too much