What is a Call To Action?
You may have heard the term Call To Action (CTA), even if you haven’t you will have seen them in their millions. So in this blog we are clearing the fog with Calls to Action explained. So, what is a call to action? Exactly what it says on the tin – you are asking your prospects (the call) to take action (verb). It is the phrase that will appear at the end of every communication you have with your audience. The role of the CTA is to drive your potential clients closer to purchase whilst building trust.
Calls to Action are an essential part of your marketing and advertising, they help generate leads and take customers from passive interest to getting your attention through showing interest in your products or services.
B2C (Business to consumer) businesses are more adept at incorporating these into their adverts but two thirds of B2B (Business to Business) businesses aren’t using them at all.
Why use Calls To Action in a Blog
Writing interesting articles that educate and inspire your audience are what blogs are used for. Putting the meat on the bones of your proposition. Websites need to be clear, easy to navigate and succinct. This means getting to the core message of what it is your selling and the benefits of your product or service. This leaves little room for narrative. Blogs allow your personality, authoritativeness, passion and expertise to shine through. It builds trust, it smashes myths and misconceptions that may surround your industry.
All the hard work that goes into creating a blog, getting people to find and read it must not be wasted. This is where the Call To Action comes in. Ask the readers to take action, for example ‘If you like our blog, please subscribe’ or ‘Head over to our Facebook page to see some of our happy customers’ or ‘Would you like to find out more? Register to receive our newsletter’, ‘Follow us on Instagram’, ‘Book a free consultation today’.
Calls to Action in Advertisements
The same rings true for your advertisements, they also follow the same structure and the call to action should always be included. After all getting someone’s attention long enough for them to read your adverts in such a noisy world is an achievement. You will never know who reads them and is interested in what you are offering if you don’t guide them on what to do next. ‘Call us today and receive a discount’, ‘Pop in today to find out more from our friendly staff’.
Using Calls to Action in Flyers/Local Magazines
Yes the offline world still exists! Flyers if strategically used can yield an instant return of around 1% and a longer-term brand awareness benefit. Promoting through flyers or local magazines delivered to housing estates is still a great investment because readers may not be instant buyers but may keep your details knowing they may call upon your services in the near future. So, calls to action should encourage readers to get more information for the future – ‘Follow us on Twitter’ ‘Call for a brochure’ ‘Visit and bookmark our website’ ‘Subscribe to our newsletter’.
Social Media Posts
Planning posts on social media should be targeted to particular client groups and form part of a campaign. Whatever the overall objective of the campaign is will determine the call to action. It may be to raise awareness of your brand or send more traffic to your website, it may be to carry out research or get feedback on products. Directly tie in your call to action with what the objectives of your posts are. Examples are ‘Download our free e book’ ‘Buy Now’ or ‘Start your free trial’.
Positioning
Calls to Action are always placed at the very bottom of posts, advertisements, flyers, articles, web pages and ideally not too crowded with text. Put space between the main body text and call to action.
Video
Don’t forget for image-based media or video to still include your CTA. This can be put in text at the beginning or end of the video. If using You Tube you can embed links to specific associated articles and web pages to drive traffic to your site.
Call To Action Examples
Bents Garden Centre – Find Out More – focusing on delivery given lockdown adapting to times
Lush – Subscribe – trying to generate regular business due to Lockdown restrictions – not seasonal specific
Boots – Shop Now leading on topical – valentine’s day
Calls To Action can also tie in with Landing Pages, particularly effective for building email lists or sending traffic to a particular product, service or event and getting them to sign up.
Thank you
For taking the time to read our blogs. Positive Sales and Marketing is a small business in the North West of England passionate about educating the UK hospitality and freelance artist sector on understanding their marketing.
We offer training and education to enable businesses to take control of their own destiny rather than blindly relying on agencies. We can also offer transparent website design services and copywriting should this be taking up too much of your time.
We work with clients all over the UK and also operate directories for the holiday accommodation sector.
We would love to hear from you, give us a call on 01257 433331 or 01744 670055 or email Caroline@positivesalesandmarketing.co.uk
You can also find us on Twitter @Psalesmarketing or Instagram possalesmarketing please follow us to read our blogs or receive daily inspiration.
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