A call to action, or CTA, is an essential way to end any piece of content associated with your business. Whether it be a blog post, a social media post, a press release, or an email newsletter, you need to give people a push on what to do after interacting with that content. Here’s how to make a better job of it, and see better results.

Consider the action

Some companies make the mistake of sticking any old call to action on a post because they have been told that it’s the right thing to do. Therefore, they ask people to book a session with them or sign up to their newsletter without giving them any reason to do so.

Consider the action that you want your readers to take, the ideal outcome that would result from them reading the content. Consider also the message of the content and how that aligns with what you are asking them to do. A big mistake that can happen in content writing is not knowing the reason behind the content – not having a specific goal when producing it.

If you are writing a piece about the latest innovations in the vegan cheese industry, it will not make much sense to ask customers to sign up to your newsletter to buy your vegan cheese. Why? Because they have come to your site for news about the cheese industry, and that is therefore what they will expect from you.

On the other hand, creating a recipe using your vegan cheese would bring in your ideal customer. They will want to try your cheese if they are interested in making the industry. Therefore, asking them to sign up to your newsletter makes total sense – they will be looking forward to receiving more news in the future, and will likely turn into a customer. You can even instead directly ask them to go to your store and buy some cheese, as they now have a good reason to do so.

Consider the aim of your content, and draw your call to action from there.

Use compelling language

Consider the following examples. What makes you more interested in taking action?

‘Call us for a free consultation.’

Or:

‘Call us today for a free consultation to discuss how you could be taking your business to the next level, increasing your earnings, and beating the competition.’

See the difference? Don’t just tell people what to do. Sell it to them. Make them actually want to go and do it!

Make it easy

You should also make it as easy as possible for people to follow the action that you want them to do. If you are directing them to visit another page, hyperlink it. If you want them to get in touch, include your email address and phone number right there on the page. If you want them to share the post, make sure that there is a clickable link which will allow them to create shares on popular social networks.

If you are asking your customer to do something which takes more effort than this, you might be disappointed. The motivation has to be very strong for someone to take action on their own. Recent research suggests that we need to interact with something seven times before we decide to spend any money – which means that if this is the first time a customer hears about you, they will need a massive push to go any further.

Call to actions can work like magic, getting you incredible results – but only when done right. Try these tips, and you will see an uptick in uptake.