I genuinely never thought I’d be writing a blog post about The Village People. But here I go…
Today I’m focusing on the much-loved marketing staple: the Call To Action (CTA).
But, first of all, what is a CTA? Well, it’s marketing speak for the part of the text or dialogue where you ask your audience to do something. So, it could be to buy, it could be to read something else, it could be to share a piece of content, it could be donate, it could be to start collecting tokens, visit you online – whatever, really. The point is, there needs to be a call to action in every single communications piece you create.
I don’t know if it’s just me but, whenever I think of the phrase, ‘call to action’, a soundtrack pops into my head and it starts, ‘Young man, there’s no need to feel down…..”
I genuinely have no idea why this happens, but I guess it’s because the CTA in this song is MASSIVE. It’s the main point of the song.
It’s pretty obvious what The Village People want us to do. They want us to get a hot meal and a bed for the night at the YMCA. (They also want us to “…hang out with all the boys”, but I might cover that another time.)
Take a look at your website, email marketing campaign, Facebook post, whatever you’ve issued recently on behalf of your business, and see if it’s anywhere near as obvious that you have a desired next step for your audience.
I’m not asking you to start dressing like a builder/native American etc. But, if your CTAs are missing, you could definitely take a leaf out of their book.
Because every communication you have with your clients is one more chance for you to ask them to move a step closer towards working with you. Each time one of your prospects reads or watches something you’ve created, you only need to ask them to take one more baby step towards your end goal. You don’t need to ask for a sale in every single communication; you just need to keep them in your ‘area’ and engaged with your brand.
So, have a path in mind that you want your prospect to take. And then, for every Facebook post, blog post, email etc, make sure you have figured out which part of the path you are moving your prospect down, and what your call to action should be BEFORE you start writing. It could just be to click on something else to read, or could be to make an offer. Just make sure you don’t let any opportunity go past without adding a CTA that keeps your prospects moving closer towards you.
I’m going to give it a go right here. How about this as a great example:
Need help figuring out what should be your next call to action? Why not book a free, no-obligation Marketing Review and pick my brains for 30 minutes? I’ll give you my top three marketing recommendations for your business. Book here.
Don’t forget to let me know how you get on if you decide to check out the YMCA next weekend…
