Use Upworthy headlines for growing sales? It can do wonders.

The semi-famous Upworthy process

Upworthy grew through Buzzfeed type headlines and content. Their now semi-famous process was to sit a team down and write 25 headlines each for a new article within 20 minutes. Then they’d ruthlessly cut out the weak ones until they had a few of the very best.

Their headlines might appear to be a bit clickbaity

This incredible speech shows why Harvey Weinstein was the biggest loser at the Oscars.

There’s a historic teachers strike going on across West Virginia schools right now.

11 facts about women-run businesses that prove the future really is female.

You get the picture…

One particular headline was striking.

It began with ‘You will probably never know…’

Imagine never knowing something. Now I have to know.

We use it within Anymail finder to persuade people to read a key article that is essential to them not wasting time. We tried all sorts of methods and eventually came up with:

“You’ll probably never know the right way to find 1000s of emails today”

Result?

10% of people clicked on it and read it. The previous figures for other non-upworthy attempts were around 3%. That’s a shocking difference.

They then understood how best to use Anymail finder. They understood that they don’t have to do things manually one by one. Sales went up by converting a couple more people per day than normal. They benefitted, so did we.

Everything was rosy. Well, until we put a big giant ‘read more’ button at the top recently to test out if it works better… so far… don’t know.

But click bait headlines are evil…

Do I like click bait article titles that lead to some nonsense? No.

Do I like click bait headlines that are really pointing to something useful to me? Yes! That means they were not click bait.

Have a look at some more Upworthy style headlines to use

• Watch a Student Totally Nail Something About Women That I’ve Been Trying to Articulate for 37 Years
• Where In London Should You Actually Live?
• This Short Film Shows Just How Terrifying Life Is For LGBT People In Russia Canada’s Response To Russia’s Anti-LGBT Propaganda Law Is Totally Awesome
• 22 Messages From Creationists To People Who Believe In Evolution What’s Your Hidden Talent?
• 10 Pictures That Prove Bruno Mars Is Actually Powerline From “A Goofy Movie”
• Why Are You Single?
• This Might Be The Scariest Trail In The World. But You’ll NEVER Guess Where It Leads. Unbelievable.
• A Man Takes A Single Rake to The Beach. And When You Zoom Out And See It… Mind BLOWN.
• He Was Found Freezing And Dying. Yet Somehow The Last Photo Made My Entire Year.
• A Concerned Mother’s Letter to Teenage Girls
• This Young Mother Has Something Serious To Say. You Might Not Like It, But You’ll Probably Love It.
• Here Are 12 Unborn Animals In The Womb. They’re Absolutely Beautiful…Especially The Dolphin.
• At First, I Felt Sorry For The People Who Live In This Tiny House. Then I Looked Closer…Now I’m Jealous.
• The Growing Trend That Should Terrify Walmarts Everywhere
• He’s Trying To Make Buses Sexy, And It’s Working
• Watch This Incredible Young Woman Render Jon Stewart Speechless
• Watch A Lesbian Attack The Word ‘Gay’
• Everyone Should Know What This Cop Has Done
• This Is How You Kill An Attack Ad

Checkout Upworthy

For your next headline or add, take a look at Upworthy first. There are other sources such as Buzzsumo and Buzzfeed. Also, if you have SEMRush topic research then that also provides a list of winning headlines though not always Upworth type.