Are you message testing the 'words that work' in your communications?

Knowing the "words that work" is key to refining your campaign, marketing or fundraising actions.

You've set up your campaign, booked ad space and produced reams of collateral, but have you tested your messages on an audience, to see how they react?

Is there a cost effective way to analyse how an audiences is likely to respond to an advert before pressing "go" on an actual campaign?

These are the some of the questions our online messaging app "Words That Work" sets out to answer.

When marketeers, campaigners or fundraisers want to understand what a target audience thinks, they can turn to opinion polls and focus groups.

But what if an audience is reluctant to say what they think? Many people are uncomfortable admitting they are wealthy. Others are shy to reveal the "guilty pleasure" of reading the Sun or eating a Pot Noodle. To paraphrase the advertising guru David Ogilvy:

"People don't always think what they feel, or say what they think, or do what they say."

Introducing: our "Words that Work" dial test

A dial test can help remove these inhibitions. In such a test participants move a dial or slider in response to messages to indicate in real time which parts of a message they agree, or disagree with. It's a private test allowing participants to continuously express their feelings about a message as they experience it.

For those of us who need to know how people might respond to a message, an online dial test can reveal unique information that it's otherwise impossible to know. Giving an alternative perspective to the one provided by polls or interviews.

The test generates hard data about the words that work to motivate audiences and provides pointers as to how a message can be refined to become even more effective. Here's a quick overview of how our "Words that Work" app works.

Play, listen... dial!

Participants who use the app press "play", listen to a message and move a slider right or left to record their agreement or disagreement with the message they are hearing. Their reactions are plotted in real time, with the data recorded and saved for further analysis.

Try out a simplified version of the "What words Work" app here.

Our "Words that Work" app allows the public to listen to a message, move a slider in response and record their reactions for further analysis.

Analysing the data

Once the test is completed every micro-response is recorded and analysed. The test gives granular insights into specific moments within a message, identifying peaks and troughs and patterns of audience interest and insights into emotional responses.

Want to know how 25-year-olds in Stoke responded to a message? The app allows us to perform multi-level analysis, meaning we can segment the data by town, age, gender or income. The test allows us to understand how different audience segments responded to the same message.

Below is a series of line charts (using fictional data), showing how different age groups responded to the different parts of a message over time.

The charts show how dial test participants from different age groups responded to a message

How can online message testing help you?

Fundraising messages, product adverts, political or campaign messages. These are all examples of messages that can be tested. If you want to gain an insight into how an audience is likely to respond to a message, then a test using our "Words that Work" app, might be a good option.

By the end of the process a picture should emerge about the words that work in your message. What's working, what's not. Which audiences were activated and which ones turned away.

If you want to learn more about our online message testing app or want to arrange a test, get in contact: infor@campaignsalience.co.uk