How to Write Know-It-All Headlines

This is the 3rd post in a series on How to Write 7 Types of Catchy Headlines

A “Know-it-all Headline” is best for web and landing pages containing content offering practical tips or advice about some known topic. The know-it-all headline is therefore best-suited for how-to articles and other easily-digestible content that readers can quickly reference. Here are some examples of know-it-all headlines:

• Where to Sell Your iPhone 3G: Gazelle vs. NextWorth
• Social Media Use Cases: Arcade Fire
• How the Old Spice Videos are Being Made

There are several indicator words that often show up in know-it-all headlines:

• How to
• Where
• Examples of
• Use cases
• Studies

When know-it-all headlines do their job, readers should instantly be able to tell if this page contains interesting content. The header describes exactly what is going to be found out by visiting the page. They are often lists or steps that readers can quickly follow along with. Unlike content described by headlines that teach, which digs deeper, know-it-all content is usually quick to read.

If you are having trouble coming up with a concise, specific know-it-all headline, try writing a one sentence summary of your landing page and then removing everything but the nouns. The nouns should indicate what the landing page is trying to convey.

Here is an example of this technique in action. Suppose you’re an ice cream expert in Boston and you want to share your knowledge with the world. Your one-sentence summary might look something like:

“I want to write an article about the best ice cream stores in Boston”

If you remove everything but the nouns, the words that are left are:

• Article
• Stores
• Boston
• Ice cream

An effective headline for this page could be simply:

Where to Find the Best Ice Cream in Boston

It uses the two most important nouns from the sentence summary, as well as an indicator word from the list above, clearly communicating exactly what you will get. But it also communicates the value for the reader…you will find the best ice cream in Boston…something you may not have been able to do before. For anybody who values ice cream and lives in Boston, this headline is a sure winner.

View more examples of effective know-it-all headlines in my piece on how to write different types of headlines.

Ten Easy Ways To Improve Your Landing Page Conversions

We’ve put together a compelling list of ways you can improve your landing pages and conversions. These tips are easy to implement and, more importantly, can start improving your results immediately.

1. Landing page headlines and ad copy should match

Google AdWords determines cost-per-click in part based on the quality of your landing page. You can improve your score, and bring down your cost-per-click, by making sure your landing page’s content aligns with your ad messaging. Not only does this make acquiring leads less expensive, it also improves the effectiveness of your pages: customers who click on your ad will be get information relating directly to what they clicked on. Learn more about landing page quality here.

2. Your headlines must be clear and concise

Your landing page headline is one of the first things a visitor reads. Make it clear what you’re offering in a compelling way. A poorly written headline will bore or confuse your visitors into leaving, while a well-written headline can compel your visitors to take a closer look.

Test Case:

When Carelogger, a Diabetes logbook application, redesigned it’s homepage, it tested two different headlines against each other. The headline “Maintain your optimal health by keeping tabs on your diabetes” converted more than 31% better than an identical page with the headline “Keeping tabs on your diabetes just got a whole lot easier.” A stronger headline that addressed a specific pain point (maintaining optimal health).

The Optimizer’s Guide to Google AdWords: Location Targeting

If you live in a large town or city, chances are you have seen a form of advertising kindly referred to as “human billboards“. It’s also know as “human directionals”, “sign walkers” or “spinners”. Advertisers place spinners in the general geographic location of their their target audiences. What do spinners have in common with Google Adwords? They are great ways to target customers based on their location.

Why use Location Targeting?

Google AdWords’ location targeting is one of its most valuable tools. By identifying a user’s IP address, it can show specific ads to people in locations as specific as a particular neighborhood.

There are a number of reasons a business might be interested in location targeting:

• You are a small, local, business, and you may not be able to deliver pizza 3 states over.
• You have stores all over the country but are only having sales in certain locations. (Liquidation sales, regional products, weather focused products like snow blowers)
• You don’t ship your products and only use your website and ads as a way to attract walk-in customers. (Salons, gyms, dog groomers)

Taking advantage of AdWords’ location targeting can limit unqualified clicks and help you laser-target potential customers.

How do I use Location Targeting in Adwords?

1. Sign in to your AdWords account at https://adwords.google.com.
2. On the “All Online Campaigns” page, click the name of the campaign you wish to edit.
3. Click the “Settings” tab.
4. Click “Edit” next to “Locations.”

What are my Options?

1. By bundle (english-speaking countries, Latin America, etc.) - Google has prepared ready-made, practical, location collections that are easy to set-up.
2. By country (United States, Canada, Australia, etc.)- Simply select the countries you are interested in targeting and
3. By region (New York, San Jose, Boston, etc.) - E
4. By radius – Choose a point on the map and then select a radius around it where your ads will be shown.
5. By custom shape – Draw an area on the map, and even exclude certain points within the shape.

Google also uses query parsing to do location based targeting. In this case, Google extracts the location out of the query.  For example if you search for “Colorado Skiing” you might see Colorado targeted ads even if you are physically in Mississippi.

Making the Ad Copy more Local

Google also allows an address to be shown when it is relevant to a user’s location or search query. This great way of making your ad more personal and accessible in addition to easy to navigate to if the user is searching on the go. In the example below, you can see a few different formats.

You can learn more about implementing Location Extensions and best practices here.

If you are interested in learning more about what Google has to say about there location targeting service click here.

Have a location strategy? Share it in the comments!