Sunday 20 May 2012

4 Kickass Call-To-Action Ideas


Loyalty is a rare commodity these days. So is standing out from the crowd. A good Call to Action allows you to stand up and above your competition, and get loyal followers, who not only read your content but subscribe to it, ‘like’ and ‘tweet’ it on social mediums, share it via email and so on. Having an effective CTA won’t turn you into a super-blogger instantly, but it’s a good way to start.

Trust and loyalty has to be earned. In order to be someone the people give their email address out to, you need to give them something that is valuable to them, in return. Doing so will allow you to connect and build a loyal base of subscribers and regular visitors who are eager to read what you say, purchase what you offer, subscribe and like your posts, share your content, and in general, do what you want them to do. Because that ultimately is the purpose of an effective CTA right?

So without further ado, here are 4 kickass Call-to-Action ideas that will allow you to achieve all this:

1. Be Clear and Present a Tangible Offer: It is a proven fact that when you provide a tangible benefit to your customers, they will be inclined to take the action you want them to. Creating a tangible offer is a 3-step process: (i) in the first step, you create an interesting and precise headline, for instance instead of a headline that says ‘get more Facbook likes’, go for one that says ‘Get 1000 Facebook likes in less than a month’. It’s a compelling headline that tells the audience exactly what benefits they get. (ii) Secondly, tell your readers the true value of your service, e.g. ‘get material for $100 for just $9.99. This tells your readers that you are offering them a bargain, increasing their interest. And finally, (iii) make use of visuals (such as pictures and images) to show what exactly it is that you’re offering, a webinar, manuals, eBooks, access to videos, etc.

2. Have Someone Endorse Your Products: Pick up any New York Times Best Seller, flip it around, what do you expect to see on the back? Snippets of reviews from at least a couple of well-renowned critics or experts on how good the book is. Similarly, many adverts on TV are endorsed by celebrities and athletes. Almost all successful CTA’s are endorsed by authority figures – not necessarily celebrities but it depends on your niche – for instance if you’re selling Wordpress themes and plugins, you could get a well-known developer to endorse the product and put it up along with the CTA. When users see that an authority figure endorses your products, it will make it more likely for them to subscribe to your list, like your page, buy your product, or whatever it was that you intended them to do.

3. Give Your Readers what they Really Want: Take a step back, and think what your readers really want. What is it that someone who would visit your website really want, what would he be looking for? How can you give your readers value? How can you speak with them, and truly connect with them? For starters you could give your subscribers free stuff, because everyone loves free stuff. Other ideas include discounts, special offers and giving your readers important tips. Solve their problems, provide them with solutions, and speak to their desires.

4. Be Relevant: Every good CTA is relevant to a post, and in coherence with the blog’s material. If you’ve finished writing a blog post about how the new iPhone will change the cellular phone industry again, why not include an optin which lets people subscribe to your blog which covers the cellphone industry? If you’re writing about how to use analytics to get conversions, wouldn’t it be a good idea to add a link at the bottom of the post, which offers an eBook or a video course on the same topic at a discounted price? Being relevant allows you to increase conversions, and offers people a way of receiving more information on a topic that they are clearly interested in. 

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