The call to action has an important and crucial role to play in your marketing and advertising material. The call to action is what prompts your readers to take action of some kind. You may want your readers to call a telephone number, mail a coupon, request more information, make a purchase, visit a website or in the case of my article to read this post!
Now a lot of businesses make the mistake of assuming that their readers/target audience will know what to do once they’ve landed on your website or read your compelling email/sales letter.
Well I’m afraid that’s not the case. Think about it, you receive a letter in the post or your inbox. It has an intriguing and attention-grabbing headline, you open it and read the gripping sales pitch but as you get to the end it just fizzles out without a specific call to action. So now you’re totally annoyed, confused and uninterested and you trash the letter.
There was nothing in that letter to prompt you into action. Yes it was a gripping enough sales pitch but without the call to action to direct you to either: find out more information, take up a special offer, make a purchase or call a number, you’re left feeling puzzled as to the purpose of the letter.
And even if you were interested in whatever the letter was selling it’s all too much bother to do anything about it except bin it!
Every piece of advertising/marketing material has to have a clear call to action. Without it all the clever sales copy is a waste of time and effort.
The call to action statement encapsulates the purpose of your website, sales letter, email campaign or other advertising medium.
You want your target audience/readers to act and take up an offer, whether it’s to buy, request more information or sign up to a subscription. You need to tell them what you want them to do, how and when, while maintaining the tone and style of the rest of your content.
BUT, and this is a BIG but – inserting “Click Here” or “Buy Now” is not enough of an incentive to motivate your readers to buy. You need to tell them why they should buy or subscribe and what to expect when they do.
It could be that your prices go up soon, you may have limited quantities or have a time limited offer all these reasons create a sense of urgency for your prospects to act quickly.
You could also offer a free trial, a free gift or a free upgrade to help sweeten and encourage your target audience to buy. It all depends on who your target audience and the nature of your business as to how you approach your call to action.
Just make sure that you don’t have too many calls to action that end up confusing your audience. Make sure it clearly directs and guides your target audience to the desired outcome.
Your call to action should prompt, lead and “virtually” hold your readers’ hand along the entire sales process.
Keeping the connection with your readers/target audience through to the very end ensures a much easier transition from potential prospect to buyer, resulting in far more sales, subscriptions or phone enquiries.
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