|  14 Tips to Write Powerful Calls to Action
Your time is precious, so it always strikes me as odd when Expert Authors don't dedicate a little more time to the call to action in their articles. A call to action is a pitch to motivate your audience to take action. Calls to action commonly appear in the form of buttons or graphics on a website. In article writing, a text-based call to action occurs twice in article submissions: 1) in the summary where the reader is compelled to dive into the article and 2) in the Resource Box where the reader is encouraged to visit your highly relevant website. In her article, How to Write a Call to Action - 7 Tips for Creating a Call to Action That Works, marketing and media relations specialist Megan Tsai states: "Marketers should always be asking themselves one question: 'What's next?' After all, you invest significant time and money into every marketing effort. But if you don't include an effective call to action (CTA), you'll have little to show for your work." To help you create a powerful call to action that delivers, we've highlighted Megan's insights and added a few of our own to provide you with the following 14 tips! Megan Tsai's 7 Tips for Creating a Call to Action That Works - Create a logical next step ... that will be comfortable for the prospect and in line with the information they are viewing.
- Capture the lead ... For example if a prospect is reading one of your organization's blog entries, the call to action may be to download a free white paper on a related topic in exchange for an email address.
- Play up the benefits ... For instance, the call to action for your email newsletter sign up might be "Stay up to date on industry news in just minutes a week."
- Consider the context [by making] sure your call to action is in sync with the content around it.
- Place it right ... make sure the call to action doesn't interrupt the flow of the content.
- Let it stand out ... from the surrounding copy. The goal is to draw the prospect's eye without being annoying or distracting.
- Deliver what you promise ... a prospect following through with [your call to action] should get what you promised quickly and easily.
7 More Methods to Implement in Your Call to Action In addition to Megan's above tips, we'd like to add an additional 7 methods to create a great call to action: - Be relevant by ensuring your call to action is related to the article.
- Create a sense of urgency. For example: "On my website you will find time-saving resources" vs. "Stop wasting time! Subscribe now for free tips that will save you time" provides urgency.
- Use active language. For example: "You can try it for free" is a suggestion vs. "Try it for free" is a stronger command that will provide better results.
- Provide incentive that tells readers they're getting a bargain, such as 2 for the price of 1 or subscribe to a newsletter and receive a free ebook.
- Keep choices simple by providing one call to action in your summary (compel them to read the article) and one call to action in your Resource Box (compel them to visit your website) in order to avoid overwhelming your readers.
- Make your call to action exclusive by tying in your UVP (unique value proposition).
- Make your readers feel special or rewarded. For example: "Visit Your-Company-Name.com to pamper yourself with VIP priority."
Try any or all of these powerful call-to-action tips to test what works for your audience and your platform. You'll soon be on your way to incredible results that build your exposure and drive traffic back to your blog or website. What other elements are important to writing a great call to action? Click here to let us know in the comments section of this post online - we'd love to hear from you! Don't forget to visit Megan's original article for an extended description of her great call-to-action tips and scroll down to the Get Involved section to share a comment or question. | 
To Your Article Writing Success & Passion!
No comments:
Post a Comment