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Truly, it is that simple. Yet I cant tell you how many ads, Web sites, brochures, sales letters, etc. are floating around out there that arent asking. So, what is a call to action? Its telling people what action you want them to take. Typical calls to action include: Hurry in today. Buy now. Call now. Visit now. Click here now. Nothing terribly sexy, I agree. However, if you want to see an increase in your customers, leads, income, etc., this is an essential component. But, you might be thinking, isnt it obvious? Why else would you be running an ad if you didnt want people to buy what youre selling? Good question. And its true, people do know (if they stop to think about it) that you would probably like them to buy from you. However, the unfortunate truth is your potential customers arent going to spend that much time thinking about it. People have too much going on in their lives to spend very much time and energy on your business. If they do read your ad or promotional material and it doesnt contain a call to action, theyll likely say, Oh, thats nice and go on to the next thing. And even if they were interested in purchasing your offerings, they may not know what their next step should be. Do they pick up the phone? Go to a specific Web page? Visit a store? And if they dont know what they should be doing, chances are they wont do anything at all. So you need to tell your potential customers what you want them to do. (Remember, people are busy, and if you dont make doing business with you easy, they probably wont do business with you at all.) So, back to the above call to actions. Did you notice they all had something in common? The word now (or, in the case of the first one, today). If people think they can buy from you anytime, theyll say oh, I can do this later. And later rarely comes. You need to give them a reason to buy from you right now, while theyre interested. Adding the now or some other urgency or scarcity technique (maybe a limited time offer or few copies left statement) is a great way to push people into doing what you want them to do right now and not later. While were on the topic of calls to action, I want to talk about one other type of advertising campaign where you rarely see calls to action. These are called branding campaigns. Typically theyre shown on national television by big corporations (MacDonalds, Nike, Starbucks, Target). In those instances, the businesses are building a brand that will cause you think of that business first when youre interested in purchasing their products. For instance, when youre hungry, you think MacDonalds. You need new athletic shoes, you think Nike. Youre dying for that cup of joe, so you think Starbucks, etc. While theres nothing wrong with branding campaigns, they are tougher to track than campaigns with a specific call to action (Sale ends Saturday, call before Friday to receive your free gift, etc.) Those campaigns are also called direct response because youre asking the customer to respond directly. Direct response campaigns can be tested, so you have a good idea whats working and whats not (and can tweak the campaign accordingly). And, if the campaign doesnt require getting a salesperson involved (i.e. if the call to action is for the customer to whip out his wallet right there) the campaign will just run itself (and make money all by itself). (One note: You do need to do more than add a call to action to have a strong direct response campaign, but that doesnt negate the power a call to action can bring to your campaigns.) Branding campaigns are nearly impossible to test, track and tweak. They either appear to work or dont appear to work. And if they dont appear to work, its very difficult to start tweaking to improve the response rate. However, branding is still very, very important. As a business owner, you need a good brand and you need to communicate that brand effectively. And sometimes it makes sense to run a branding campaign. However, my advice for most situations is to combine branding and direct response. Your brand is clearly communicated in your ads and promotional materials, but you also take advantage of some direct response techniques at the same time. If nothing else, make sure you dont forget the call to action. Creativity Resources -- Write Your Call to Action Want to include a call to action in your promotional materials but dont know where to start? Heres an easy step-by-step formula: 1. Figure out your purpose for the ad or promotional material. Why are you running this ad, creating this Web site, printing this brochure? (And no, an acceptable answer is NOT because everyone else has one.) Is it to generate leads? Get your name out there? Get people to buy? Or what? 2. Now write it down. 3. Thats it. Thats your call to action. Whatever the end result you want for the campaign is what you should be asking people to do. |
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