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Writing A Call to Action |
| Stokes Adams, MBA |
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| A call to action is perhaps the most important part of your marketing materials — flyer, brochure, web
page. A call to action is an image, a graphic or part of your copy that tells your reader what action to take. The action is what
you want the reader to do as the next step. Some examples — call you for a free consultation, sign up for your newsletter,
register for an upcoming workshop. |
| Each marketing piece you do should have one and only one call to action. If you offer your reader too many
options for actions, you are likely to confuse them with the result that they end up doing nothing. |
| There are many approaches to writing a call to action. I recommend that you try different approaches and see
what kind of results you get. Then you can adjust what you’re doing based on that. |
| Let’s take a look at some things that make an effective call to action. |
- Does your reader understand how they will benefit from taking the action?
Your copy before the call to action needs to clearly state what the reader will receive from what you’re offering, how it
will help them solve their problem. This provides motivation for the reader to go ahead and take action.
- Does your call to action fit your audience?
In your copy, you’re establishing an emotional connection with your readers by talking about their problems, needs and
desires. In doing that, you’re building rapport and establishing a relationship so that the reader feels comfortable with you.
You want to maintain that connection and rapport when you write the call to action so that the reader stays in the flow of feeling
engaged with you.
Let’s look at an example of that. Say your call to action is that you want people to call you for a free consultation.
You probably want to avoid a call to action like this:
- Limited spaces available!! Call NOW before they’re all gone!!
A more effective call to action would look like this:
- Call me and let’s chat about how EFT can make a difference in your life.
- Is your call to action specific?
I can’t stress the importance of this enough! We all know that everybody scans written material whether it’s a piece
of paper or something on the computer. When we’re scanning, we’re not completely engaged with what we’re reading.
So you want to be sure your call to action is totally clear, leaving no questions about what to do.
Here’s a couple of examples of being specific.
- Call me at YOUR PHONE NUMBER so we can arrange a time to talk.
- Enjoy this article? Subscribe to my newsletter to read more like this one. (Make “subscribe to my newsletter” a link.)
- Is it easy to find your call to action?
There are several things you can do to ensure that your call to action gets noticed. On a web page, place it above the fold. That
way, your visitors will see it as soon as your page opens. The right side of your website header is a good place. You can also use
contrasting colors for the actual sign up button.
For a flyer, you can make the call to action a little bigger than the other text. Do remember to keep the size in proportion to the
rest of the flyer. Also, you can put white space around the call to action. That will make it pop out to the reader.
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