Any tips on writing good headlines based on rating tool?

[sylviad]

I recently discovered a free tool that rates your headlines: Advanced Marketing Institute - Headline Analyzer

The explanations they give as to how your headline rates does not tell you how to improve them. For instance, they say your headline has an emotional rating of 30% based on the words used, but they don't tell you anywhere what words are considered emotional for their rating. From what I can gather, it's based on research into which words elicit an emotional response.

Now, while the emotional rate receives the % score, it does tell you that your headline fits into other categories as well: intellectual and spiritual. It also says that the higher % you can get, and if you can cover all 3 categories, the better.

You'd think it sounds straightforward, but even when I insert headlines that use emotional words, it doesn't improve the rating. In fact, most often it makes the rating worse, like 10% or 20%.

The average score for most people is between 30% and 37%, while really good copywriters register up above the 50% range. One of mine came up 57% but I really don't know why.

Does anyone have any idea what I can do to improve my headlines so they get a better score (and response from the reader)?

Here are some that I tested:

My top scorer:
"Is Your Anxiety Disorder Caused by Insomnia" - 57%
"Dog Nutrition Tip - Choose Dog Bones Wisely" - 37.5%
"Dont Seek Anti-Depressant Drugs For Depression Help. Self Treat Naturally Instead" - 36.36%
"Is The Linden Method The Right Anxiety Treatment For You" - 30%

And one I just threw together for this test:
"Discover how the linden method will cure your anxiety" - 11.11%

As you know, the headline is of prime importance and I sure could use more readership. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Sylvia

[zephyrwriting]

"Be Free to Do What You Want to Do, Work When You Want to Work, and Enjoy Life the Way Life Should be Enjoyed" - 55% (it cut off after 20 words though)

"Who are you what do you want and where do you come from" - 66.67%

"Damn You For Not Doing This" - 55%

"Every Damn Secret You Need to Know" -85.71%

(I think they like the word 'damn')

"Every Damn Secret You Need to Succeed" - 100%

Well, I really think they just play off the 'key' words that can evoke an emotional or psychological response in people.

-Vish.

[in2it]

That's hilarious, Vish. These programs really don't help that much, it just requires common sense.

I will be using "Every Damn Secret You Need to Succeed." That's a good one...

[sylviad]

That sounds more like poetry to me. Maybe I should try rhyming instead of going for emotional words (like suffer, pain, anxious).

The site does specify that 20+ words will be cut off, and that headlines with 5 words or less will come closer to the 100% because there isn't enough for the software to go on. So you have to play by the rules, Vish.

Sylvia

[zephyrwriting]

Yeap, I know lol. Still, how is this for interesting.

Taking that 100% one: "Every Damn Secret You Need to Succeed"

Now add words:

"Discover Every Damn Secret You Need to Succeed" - 87.5% (same as 'Discovering'
"Unearth Every Damn Secret You Need to Succeed" - 87.5%
"Uncover Every Damn Secret You Need to Succeed" - 87.5%
"Determine Every Damn Secret You Need to Succeed" -87.5%

"Revealing Every Damn Secret You Need to Succeed" - 100%
"Realize Every Damn Secret You Need to Succeed" - 112.5%
"Revealing Every Damn Secret You Need to Succeed Really Fabulously" - 110%



Edited in: "Revealing Every Damn Secret You Need To Succeed Instantly, and Really Fabulously Realize Dreams" - 107.14% (yeah this one stretches the realm of readability quite a bit)

Edited in: "Conveniently Revealing Every Secret You Need to Succeed Instantly and Fabulously Realize Each Dream You Never Thought Possible" - 18 words, 100%.

Essentially what this program really does seem to be doing is assigning a 'weight' to each word, the values seem to range from 0 to 2. A word like 'discover' gets 0, a word like 'revealing' gets 1, and a word like 'realize' gets 2.

I'm guessing this is based on their research or something.

After that it just seems to total up the weight, divide by the number of words, multiply by 100, and output the percentage.


-Vish.

[sylviad]

Well, Vish... You obviously have the knack! Congrats.

But (uh-oh)

"Realize Every Damn Secret You Need to Succeed" - 112.5%
"Revealing Every Damn Secret You Need to Succeed Really Fabulously" - 110%

Over 100%? How does THAT happen? LOL!

And yes, the headline does have to make sense - and it does have to relate to the product you're promoting.

And... you're still using poetry.

Sylvia

[zephyrwriting]

Well actually, it seems that it should be possible to get 200%, all you need is a list of 20 words with weight 2. That way for a 20 word headline you'd have (40/20)*100 = 200%

It seems a nice tool if it the weighting is actually based on words that have been proven to perform better.

On the other hand, it doesn't appear to weigh 'phrases', some of which can do very well in headlines. i.e. if you used something like 'a pot of gold' it would weigh each word individually and only assign a weighting of 1 to the word 'pot'.



-Vish.

[Hakim]

Hi,

Thanks for your interest in the AMI Headline Analyzer.

From the AMI Headline Analyzer FAQ...

"About Emotional Marketing Value (EMV)

The Advanced Marketing Institute's Headline Analyzer calculates the Emotional Marketing Value (EMV) of a headline. This short Q&A has been assembled for you to better understand the EMV system.

Q: How do you determine the Emotional Marketing Value (EMV) of a headline?

A: We have developed a software program which has access to our EMV impact words. The program uses special alogorithms to quickly compare the words of your headline with the words from the EMV Impact list.

Q: How did you determine which words have Emotional Marketing Value?
A: Our research started back the late 1960s and early 1970s. Dr. Hakim Chishti was a U.S. government research scholar, and was living in the Near East, studying the roots of several languages, Persian, Aramaic, Hebrew, Arabic, Urdu and several others.

His research found that there are these basic underlying harmonics, a tonality that flows through language, which are in many ways more profound and powerful than the dictionary meaning itself. Whereas sometimes meaning can be mistaken, the sound tones are always interpreted the same way by the emotions. These are better said as "emotional" reactions, although the effect is subtle.

He first presented his research findings and theory of the sounds patterns at an international conference of experts on sound and Persian poetry. That was in October 1977. Most of the leading experts of the world were there. In all, more than 90 countries had their top scholars there. Dr. Hakim Chishti was invited to represent the United States.

Q: Why is it important to have a high EMV rating?
A: Communication is the key of effective marketing. And the key to communication is being able to reach the client at an emotional level. Involving them in your copy, and invoking their deeper thoughts.

While many marketers 'guess' how people will react to various words and offers, we have determined a test which will give you an actual rating that you can use to judge how well received your copy will be to others.

Q: Which emotional impact group is best?
A: No group is 'best' or even better than any others. Each group appeals to different aspects of an individual, and each EMV impact group is suited to different types of people.

Balancing your headlines between two EMV impact groups or balancing among all three of the EMV impact groups can bring more power to your headlines.

Q: How can I improve my EMV rating?
A: Have you signed up for our free Newsletter? We give away a free report that can help you increase your EMV rating as well as change or balance your EMV impact groups. Sign up to receive your free copy as well!

We are in the process of releasing an instruction course which will give you deeper knowledge of the EMV Impact words and how to create emotionally rich copy!"

Now, having said the above, I can tell you that it would help to know the specific "profile" of your intended prospect. It is likely if selling a technical product, they will respond better to a more overtly Intellectual appeal, than say Spiritual one.

Also, if your headline sentence gets an EMV rating 35% or above, it is practically guaranteed to get a good conversion (unless you purposefully just write meaningless drivel) --- and vice versus, low ratings below 25%, are almost always sales duds.

We have analyzed many thousands of performing headlines; you may wish to sign up for our newsletter, because we are going to offer lists of words that can highten or enhance the various "emotional" component -- heart, mind and soul.

About AMI: Visiotrs to the site process more than 30,000 analyses of headlines each month. More than 1 million headlines tested in past 3 years (Source: Google Analytics).

Hakim Chishti
Director
Advanced Marketing Institute
Home of the FREE Headline Analyzer
Advanced Marketing Institute - Marketing Education & Research

[Christie Love]

Sylvia,

You are an awesome writer. You don't need a program to tell you the "emotional rate" of your headlines. Use what you've already got. Go deep into the mind of the customer... feel their need... know where they are coming from... then write a few headlines. The perfect headline will stick out like a red flag. That's the headline to use and the one that will give you the best results.

[J.Knight]

This is fun...

I just tried out the headline of my new squeeze page, and got 46.67%:

“When You Discover These ‘Secrets’ You’ll Realize Why Most People Will Never Make Money Online…”

Then I tried the subhead and it got 55%:

"This FREE Report Reveals How You Can Prosper In The Current Economy, If You Grasp The Secrets Of These 10 Successful Online Marketers And Bloggers!"

Interesting!

JK

[sylviad]

Originally Posted by Hakim

Hi,

Thanks for your interest in the AMI Headline Analyzer.

From the AMI Headline Analyzer FAQ...

"About Emotional Marketing Value (EMV)

Thanks Hakim. I already saw that, but it really doesn't give you any idea what words to target, which words it assigns emotional value, etc.

Originally Posted by Christie Love

Sylvia,

You are an awesome writer. You don't need a program to tell you the "emotional rate" of your headlines. Use what you've already got. Go deep into the mind of the customer... feel their need... know where they are coming from... then write a few headlines. The perfect headline will stick out like a red flag. That's the headline to use and the one that will give you the best results.

Thanks Christie While you might think it would be easy for me to write good headlines, I do struggle with them. I have no idea why they are so difficult. Maybe I try too hard, or don't let my mind go and do its thing. I feel like I'm always trying to force it to go my way. The headlines I tested and thought were really good had pathetic ranks - 11%!

Originally Posted by J.Knight

...Then I tried the subhead and it got 55%:

"This FREE Report Reveals How You Can Prosper In The Current Economy, If You Grasp The Secrets Of These 10 Successful Online Marketers And Bloggers!"

That's a good headline for reading. Also interesting that you got 55% when the program only registers on 20 of the words, and you're over that.

I agree. It IS fun.

I was trying more headlines today and actually shocked myself. All the ones I tried were over 60% and about half were up in the high 80% range. I feel much better now. It would seem that rhyming does the trick (most of the time).

Sylvia