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If you are marketing your business online then I would hope by now you have come across the phrase call to action or CTA. A call to action is simply an instruction that is included in your marketing that is actively asking the content consumer to take an action. Call to actions are essential for moving someone along in the journey from prospect to customer to fan. As a business owner, you want to be including call to actions in your marketing that help you to achieve your overall objectives.
There are lots of different call to actions examples that you can use depending on what stage in the buying process an individual is in and the types of channels you use to market your service and/or products. However, belong I have highlighted some of the common call to actions examples that I use in my own digital marketing or have recommended to clients.
Buy
As a business owner or entrepreneur, your ultimate goal is to get someone to buy your service or product so it is important that you including call to actions that encourage the prospect to buy. I know this seems very obvious, but in the world of content marketing I see people who are providing so much value via social media, podcasts, videos and blogs. Yet, they hardly ever ask anyone to buy!
People won’t buy from you unless you tell them to do so. The most obvious call to action to encourage sales is ‘Buy Now’, but you depending on what you are selling you could also consider phrases that include the words ‘Book’, ‘Register’ or ‘Purchase’.
Send me a reply
If you are using email marketing then this is a call to action you should definitely consider. Getting someone to reply to an email to an email has numerous benefits. Firstly, it helps your email not to end up in the spam folder because if someone is sending you an email it shows that you are an important person to them and it is a two-way conversation. Secondly, if you have asked a question before telling someone to reply then you are gaining insight to help understand your (potential) customers more. Thirdly, if offers you an opportunity to develop a 1:1 relationship. Obviously, if thousands of people respond you might have an issue, but if your list is still small enough then asking for your subscribers to respond to your email is a great way to turn a 1-to-many relationship into a 1-to-1 relationship.
Read the full post
This is a call to action to consider if you run a blog. Whilst it is often used in email marketing, you can use it in other forms of content marketing. You will put the beginning section of a blog post and then direct people to your blog for the full post. This is beneficial because you are getting people on to your site. Maybe in the blog post you offer a content upgrade that gets them on to your mailing list or you could have a pop-up to join your mailing list. And even if they don’t join your mailing list you will hopefully have the Google Adwords Pixel and/or Facebook Pixel setup so you will be gaining information about that person and have the ability to retarget them with advertising in the future.
Join my Facebook Group
If you run a Facebook Group as a central part of your marketing strategy then you will want to drive people to the group.
For example, I run Superstar Solopreneurs, which is a Facebook Group dedicated to solo business owners to talk about business, marketing and joys/struggles of running a business by yourself. If that is you, then come join us – click right here!
Facebook Groups can be a great way for you to serve potential and existing customers but Facebook Groups don’t grow by themselves. You need to be actively reminding people that your Facebook Group existing and pointing people in the right direction (Just like I did above). You can include this call to action in your emails, with any free content you create or in social media.
Tag xx
This is a great way of getting engagement on your social media content and hopefully getting more people to view your content. Any call to action that gets people commenting on your content is key. Social media platforms like people to see content that is relevant to them and by people commenting on your post it shows that it is valuable. In addition to getting that engagement, you are also widening the number of people who will see your post. If someone is tagged into a post they will receive a notification and in most cases check out the post. This means the potential audience is wider than your followers.
Swipe Up
For anyone who uses instagram for business, then it is likely that you are dreaming of gaining 10,000 subscribers so you can say those two little fantasied words ‘SWIPE UP’ (I know I am. So if you don’t already follow me then come check me out at @charellegriffith).
Unfortunately, this feature is only for those who have a business account and have over 10,000 subscribers. Once you have hit that level, someone who is watching your Instagram Story will be able to swipe up and go directly to a URL decided on by you. This offers lots of opportunities for you to create Instagram Stories that directs people to your own platforms (your website, landing pages, sales pages, email sign up etc).
Comment Below
As I mentioned before, with social media platforms you want to be getting people as engaged as possible. Whilst you can sit there and hope people comment, the smart business person asks people to comment. This is most frequently used on Facebook and Instagram, but it is also great to include on YouTube videos and blog.
TIME FOR YOU TO TAKE ACTION
Above I have shared a number of call to action examples to get you thinking.
One extra tip – Ideally each piece of content should have one clear call to action. Keep it nice and easy for the content consumer to know exactly what you want from them.
The important thing to remember is that when you create content for your digital marketing, it is marketing! Yes you want to provide value, but you are making it in order to move people along the customer journey and therefore you need to be including call to actions.