9 Out Of 10 Marketers Are Completely Wrong About This One Mind-Blowing Fact

We all need more clicks. Who doesn't?

The problem is oversaturation. There's SO MUCH stuff out there, it's difficult to stand out in a crowded marketplace. And if you haven't noticed, Facebook is extremely crowded and noisy.

So what are marketers wrong about? They are wrong about writing headlines.

Most marketers write a headline that is descriptive, and summarizes what their post is about. There's no element of mystery.

The mystery is what gets people to click!

Fear not. All is not hopeless. You can boost your CTR yet!

Luckily I came across this brilliant article on Shock Marketer, outlining some of the best headlines from UpWorthy.com.

The thing is, UpWorthy spends a ton of time and money split testing headlines. So you can find some of their best performing headlines and adapt it to your business.

In fact, that's exactly what I did for this post.

If you see one on Facebook with tons and tons of shares, that's probably a winner.

Check it out:

Nearly everything that is shared from UpWorthy.com is just an embedded Youtube video… but there is one major and very important difference.

The writers use headlines that get more clicks than the normal Youtube video would have received. Studying these headlines could change your entire perspective on copywriting.

Gossip

Upworthy Headline 1

Bully Calls News Anchor Fat, News Anchor Destroys Him On Live TV

Upworthy Headline 2 

Bullies Called Him Pork Chop. He Took That Pain With Him And Then Cooked It Into This.

1 and 2 use gossip and story. How can your headline use gossip or story to connect to your ad?

This one is the most difficult to use because you’d have to change much more than one word to adapt it, but the next items are very easy to use.

Specific audience appeal

Upworthy Headline 7 

BOOM, ROASTED: Here’s Why You Don’t Ask A Feminist To Hawk Your Sexist Product

Upworthy Headline 9

Elizabeth Warren Asks The Most Obvious Question Ever And Stumps A Bunch Of Bank Regulators

Let’s look at #9 as a template:

[CEO, famous person, or you] Asks The Most Obvious Question Ever And Stumps A Bunch Of [Target Consumers’ Enemy]

Your target customers probably have some greedy, selfish group of people, that he/she blames for many problems.

Here’s a simple example, let’s say you’re writing an ad for E-Trade:

• CEO of E-Trade Asks The Most Obvious Question Ever And Stumps A Bunch Of Professional Investors

New product or service

Upworthy Headline 5

Move Over, Barbie — You’re Obsolete

Move Over, [Famous, competing product] — You’re Obsolete

This is easiest one to adapt:

• Introduce a new diet or a laptop mount for treadmills: Move Over Boring Treadmill — You’re Obsolete

Upworthy Headline 8

Some Strange Things Are Happening To Astronauts Returning To Earth

Some Strange Things Are Happening To [Target audience] Using [Product/service]

Write about product faults or lack of benefits in competitors’ products and how yours is better.

• If you’re selling anti adware or parental controls: Some Dangerous Things Are Happening To Windows Users That Only Rely On Typical Anti Virus Software

You can read more at Shock Marketer.