Content aggregrator Upworthy.com is one of the few websites that’s clearly changed the way the internet does business. How? Through a ruthless process of testing, they discovered the power of those teasy, clever headlines that absolutely make you want to click them…and which were promptly copied by every online publisher alive. Unfortunately, most of those publishers did NOT share Upworthy’s focus on quality content with a progressive slant, meaning that most of the copycat headlines pointed to articles that thoroughly disasppointed. But at least the headlines worked! (for a while…).
The folks at Marketo have put together a nice infographic explaining how Upworthy did it and what you can learn from them: the absolute keys are testing and being open to change. As Upworthy’s Adam Mordecai put it in a listserv discussion about this infographic, “we’ve been testing lots more descriptive headlines and they are working. (and in fact, if you tested one of our old headlines now, I imagine it would test poorly. That’s why we always test, because people grow weary of a specific style over time.) So while some copycats may poach our style from 2012, I assure you we aren’t in the business of pushing meaningless content.”
Check out the infographic below. I guarantee it will change your life forever.
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– cpd