Written by For those who don’t have much of a marketing background you may be wondering, “What Is A Call To Action In Marketing?” In today’s blog, we’ll not only describe what a call to action is, we’ll also discuss why you need it, how to use it and provide you with examples of what they look like. So let’s get started with a brief discussion on what a call to action is.
What is a Call to Action?
In marketing, the goal is always to be directing people where you want them to go. Whether that be to your website, your social media profiles, to call your office to set an appointment or to make a purchase, your focus is somewhat of a traffic controller. So, a call to action is a message in your marketing material, be that a blog post, social media post or advertising and marketing material, it needs to convey the action that you want your readers to take.
Why do you need a Call to Action?
The obvious answer to this question may be that if you don’t tell your readers where you want them to go, then they’ll never know, but it goes a bit deeper than that. A good call to action will be very specific and often contain a link of some sort. It can be a link to your website, a download button, a form, a number or instructions. Calls to action also tell your readers a bit more about who you are and what you do. For example if your call to action says, “Call the office to schedule your Free 15 minute therapy consultation” it’s obvious to your readers that you provide therapy services. It conveys who you are and what you provide. A call to action that says, “Download my FREE report on 5 signs you need a coach” will tell your readers more about the kinds of services that you offer and exemplifies you as a leader in your industry. These calls to action also provide potential clients valuable content for free which draws them even nearer to you and brings you that much closer to obtaining them as paying clients.
How to use a Call to Action.
As we mentioned above, a call to action can be used in social media posts, blogging, marketing material and advertising. However, this can also be found in some subtle places as well. One example of this might be the signature line of your email address. You can easily add direction to anyone you come in contact with via your email with a simple statement that is simple as, “Call our office for a FREE one time only 15 minute consultation.” Or “Download my FREE eBook here” and a link to what content you are offering. Calls to action can also prominently be found in email marketing. If you don’t already have a sign up for a newsletter on your website, I would encourage you to do this right away. However, to encourage people to sign up to be on your newsletter list, you will want to give them something of value that is related to your specialty niche for free. That can be as simple as a one page report, article or cheat sheet that you offer that can be downloaded when they follow your call to action and provide their name and email address. For example, “Download my FREE article, Five Signs You Need A Coach” Once they fill in their email address they are added to your list and you now have a captive audience with which to market your private practice. The key to a good call to action however, is using strong keywords that are specific to your specialty niche.
One way of assuring you have a good keyword is to use a good keyword search tool. StoryBase, is a keyword research tool that is incredibly easy to use and can provide you with millions of keyword content that is specific to your industry and when linked with your website, can help strengthen your search engine optimization or SEO. Storybase, even has a free version to help you get started delivering rich SEO content to your readers in a suitable call to action.
We hope that you’ve found this information helpful and would love to hear how you are using a strong call to action in marketing your private practice. Do you need assistance with creating a call to action to set up your email campaigns? We would love to help. Just call our office and schedule an appointment today.
I have struggled with this idea of, do I do this or not, for months. Mostly because I didn’t understand what I would actually be doing. Fantastic article for explaining this call to action.
Good for you Miriam for taking this leap of faith and stepping outside your comfort zone to try something new. My guess is that you may be doing it more than you think but I’d love to hear about your success once you put this plan into place!
Fabulous article! Very informative and useful information!