Today I want to talk to you about the most practical bit of any type of marketing copy. In fact, omitting it is a huge pet peeve of mine.
Cast your mind back. Consider the last piece of small business marketing copy you came across – you may have even crafted it yourself. What note did it end on? Did it just sort of… end? Or was there a direct instruction on what to do next?
What is a Call to Action (CTA)?
When you provide a straightforward message at the end of your copy declaring “this is how you can do the thing we’ve been talking about” it’s called a CTA, or “call to action”. It’s an essential part of getting your readers to do what you’d like them to do. I mean, if you don’t ask, you don’t get, right?
It makes sense to end all copy on at least a suggestion of what next steps to take. If you have a longer piece of copy or a landing page that has different sections, you may even find it useful to pepper appropriate calls to action throughout the piece for skim readers and those who are already on-board, especially online. Here’s some advice about creating a cracking CTA.
So stay on the lookout for CTAs out in the wild. Which ones make you feel like taking action? Which ones just seem to fall flat? You might even find ads or web pages in dire need of a good call to action, so keep your eye out…
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