The Science of Congressional Engagement

Why Engagement Needs Data, Not Guesswork

Jessica’s team sits within the Evidence-to-Impact Collaborative, a research group that studies how to make scientific insights more actionable for policymakers. Their goal: improve the use of evidence in decision-making without taking sides. That neutrality gives their findings unique credibility for advocates and lobbyists alike.

Their experiments—over one hundred of them—test what makes outreach effective. “Engagement,” Jessica explains, “is really just a conversion rate.” Whether it’s getting a policymaker to open an email, take a meeting, or act on an ask, engagement can and should be measured.

The key is choosing metrics that are both meaningful and trackable in a short time frame—like whether an office replies, not whether a bill passes years later. From there, Jessica’s research identifies two pathways to improvement: refining how you communicate, and refining who you target.

What the Data Says About Better Outreach

Across years of testing, three simple principles rose to the top: be brief, be normal, and be authentic.

1. Be brief. Keep emails to roughly five lines. “No one wants to read long emails,” Jessica noted with a laugh. “Not me, not you, not them.”
2. Be normal. Don’t over-engineer your tone or lean too hard on emotional appeals. “Just sound like a person,” she advised.
3. Be authentic. Authenticity, Jessica argues, is about showing up as yourself—a principle that’s becoming even more valuable as AI-generated content floods inboxes.

These rules apply beyond email. They improve the tone of any interaction—from fly-in prep to follow-up communication—and they become critical differentiators in an era when personalization is often automated.

The Unexpected Power of Meetings (and Thank-Yous)

When Jessica’s team tested whether written materials could replace meetings, the results surprised them. Staff who were offered a meeting—even if they didn’t accept—were seven times more likely to engage with future emails and five times more likely to schedule another meeting later.

“Politics is relational,” Jessica reminded attendees. Data backs that up. Even small personal gestures, like a quick thank-you note after a meeting, have measurable impact. Offices that received a thank-you were three times more likely to respond to a later email and four times more likely to schedule a second meeting. No elaborate messaging required—just sincerity and brevity.

Targeting That Actually Works

Once the outreach strategy is set, the next question is who to engage. Jessica’s research offers data-driven guidance here too. Among congressional staff, mid-ranking aides such as legislative assistants or policy advisers were most likely to meet. Senior offices, by contrast, were slightly less responsive—likely because they already have established information sources.

At the state level, the picture shifts. Committee members were far more likely to meet than nonmembers, but leadership titles didn’t make a difference. Social media activity, interestingly, had no measurable impact on engagement—contrary to what many teams assume.

The lesson: tailor targeting based on your context, not conventional wisdom. “You have to test this for your own team,” Jessica emphasized. “What works for us might not work for you—but the method will.”

How to Put It Into Practice

Jessica outlined a simple workflow for teams ready to start measuring their own engagement:

• Send outreach through a centralized system—like Quorum—so you can track opens, replies, and meetings automatically.
• Log every interaction using notes or tags to capture meeting quality and conversion outcomes.
• Export and analyze the data to identify patterns by staff seniority, committee, or issue area.
• Adjust strategy based on what the data reveals—and revisit the analysis whenever priorities change.

Teams without an in-house analyst can tap Quorum’s Professional Services team for help understanding engagement trends and optimizing outreach strategy.

From Intuition to Impact

Jessica’s work proves that improving government engagement doesn’t require more effort—it requires better measurement. By treating outreach as an experiment, teams can replace guesswork with evidence and build relationships that last. “Be human, be brief, and be yourself,” Jessica said. “Those small changes compound into real results.”

About the Speaker

Jessica Pugel is the Associate Director of Insights and Analytics at Penn State’s Research Translation Platform within the Evidence-to-Impact Collaborative. Her work focuses on evaluating how research can be more effectively communicated to policymakers and advocates through data-backed engagement strategies.

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