If you check out both Buzzfeed and Upworthy, they have a very clever technical tactic that makes it easy to share different parts of the article.They include hovering share buttons that pop up as the user scrolls down the article. The result according to Upworthy’s research is a 398% increase in traffic!
David Ogilvy was famous for having written over 100 headlines for one advertisement. Upworthy have taken this practice and woven it into their editorial process. Their first step and instruction to all their content creators.“You HAVE to crap out 25 headlines for every piece of content”If you are serious about content marketing this is one of the “biggies”. Learn and keep learning to write the best headlines you can.
We all want all our content to succeed every time. But that doesn’t happen. UpWorthy have published a Slideshare presentation that shows that only 0.3% of their articles reach the top level. Over 1,000,000 views!The reality is that you will only have some of your content go viral or hit a home run. So you will need to persist.
When you have written multiple headlines then you need to test them. Upworthy tested two headlines for one article and the difference between them is not just a few clicks but 36 times more views!The two headlines were:“A Public Service Announcement on Behalf of All White Dudes” vs “Put Yourself in a White Guy’s Shoes. Comfy, Right?”Below is the one that won the popularity contest. Tools like Buffer and it’s analytics can help you with that testing. Check out their article on how they do that.
As content marketers we are often trying to reach a broad audience to get that mass appeal. What is interesting to see is that Buzzfeed is tapping into niches and causes because they are often much more passionate about their group.Here is an example of how Buzzfeed approaches this tactic.
Trying to be unique all the time will make your brain fry and often means you are reinventing the wheel and you don’t have to. Keep reading and hunting and see what sort of content works well on the web and your competitors sites.Upworthy sum it up with some tips on what they are looking for.A heroA villainAn emotional storyAn inspiring messageUpworthy have published a Slideshare presentation that provides further insights.
You have to love the relentless pursuit of squeezing every piece of viral sharing capability out of readers.Upworthy have two ways they do that.They add a popup that appears after you have finished watching a video that politely inquires whether you want hang out with them on Facebook. This produced 419% more likes.Not content with that they also added a hover banner that asks you to “like” the Upworthy Facebook page. This added an increase in likes of 620%
As content marketers we are often trying to reach a broad audience to get that mass appeal. What is interesting to see is that Buzzfeed is tapping into niches and causes because they are often much more passionate about their group.Here is an example of how Buzzfeed approaches this tactic.
Upworthy doesn’t try and break the news but is on the constant lookout for what works and then curates it. They then improve the framing on their site so that more people see it.Curation is often underrated and should be an important part of your content marketing.Buzzfeed does the same.They see what is pumping and then add their own spin to it.
Trying to be unique all the time will make your brain fry and often means you are reinventing the wheel and you don’t have to. Keep reading and hunting and see what sort of content works well on the web and your competitors sites.Upworthy sum it up with some tips on what they are looking for.A heroA villainAn emotional storyAn inspiring messageUpworthy have published a Slideshare presentation that provides further insights.
