The typical human beings are screaming to be led by a leader. As a marketer, it is your job to take your visitors by their hands and guide them towards taking the actions that you want them to take. The good thing is, we marketers know this very well. Hence one of the most famous marketing tactics that we see being used today is call to actions. Humans are not prone to take actions instead the average human needs to be lead into taking actions. This explains why the use of call to actions has been seeing great results throughout the history of marketing.
It is safe to say that the call to action is almost as important as your headline. Your sales headline is what gets your average prospect to start and read your sales message and your call to action is at the very end of your sales message to get them to actually take action. Where there is a strong beginning we should always end it with a strong ending and there is no better tool to get the job done than a simple yet effective call to action.
Why do we need call to action?
One of the most obvious reasons why we need to use call to actions is that we want to make sure that the site visitors know what to do next. That is why call to actions is usually very detailed in what the users need to do next. For example you will use a call to action that says ‘Click here now to grab a copy of my extended … before it’s too late’. We can see clearly here that the call to action actually has a sense of urgency to it as well.
The more precise and clear your call to action is the better response you will be able to get from it. Be careful not to use confusing call to action. The more simple it is the better because we do not want to get anyone confused with what to do. Without a call to action, most of the time people will just move intuitively and on the internet the intuitive ‘x’ button is just one click away. Therefore make sure you always have a good call to action to avoid people from closing your website intuitively.
Where should you place your call to action?
There are many places you can use a call to action. The short answer to this question is that you will want to use a call to action whenever you want someone to do a specific task on your website, blog, sales letter or emails.
You will use call to action when you want people to subscribe to your newsletter. A good example to get people to subscribe is to use a call of action that sound like this ‘Just fill in your name and email address below on the white box and we will send you this wonderful gift right away’.
Take extra note of all the details on the call to action. Since they are required to fill in both their name and email address in the opt-in form to subscribe, we will explain it on the call to action. Some call to actions is shorter and some are longer. Whether it is long or short, it should be precise and understandable for the site visitors.
If you have a blog and not selling anything on your blog post, you should always end your blog with a call to action to get them to read more of your other posts or get them to subscribe to your website’s newsletter or etc. This is so that they do not just use the close button and leave your website. If you do not provide a path for the visitors to move on to, you are essentially leaving your blog visitors hanging and not knowing what to do. Hence, try to use a good call to action at the end of your blog to direct them to more good content or get them to leave their contacts so that you can reach them again in the future.
If you want your visitors to contact you directly for more information, you need to show them where to do it and how to do it. All these details do make a difference. Imagine yourself in the shoes of a site visitor that is desperate for help to solve their problem. They will arrive on your website in a panic and in their search for aid, they will quickly move on to the next website if they could not figure your website out. However, if you place a huge button that says… ‘Need Help? Click here to contact us now!’, the visitor will know exactly what to do and contact you via your support form or phone contact that you provide on your website.
On a sales letter, you will need to use a strong call to action to close your sales each time your visitor reaches the end of your sales letter. Let them know that they are in good hands and that their purchase is secure and then slap them with a definite call to action that goes ‘Don’t hesitate anymore, get yourself a copy of Product X now by clicking on this BLUE button below. Don’t worry because your purchase is secure and protected by our money back guarantee’. Note that not only are you showing them how to purchase, you are also reassuring them that they are not making a mistake. When used correctly, a single call to action could make a huge difference to your marketing efforts.
