How to Write a Great Call to Action

When you write posts and you forget to make a call to action, you leave your readers in a passive mode. Some of them will not respond to anything, they will not take action, because you doesn’t make it clear enough.

I bet if you include some of these “techniques” your blog readers will be less passive, and start interacting with you.

If you don’t call your readers to action, they are less likely to take action.

• If you want your readers to subscribe, ask them to do it – show how to do it too
• If you want them to buy something, give them a way to do it
• If you want a rate/vote on YouTube ask them to vote for you.

What Exactly is Call-to-Action?
Some people are confused with the term ‘call to action’ it is what you want people to do. Like clicking a link in the end of a blog post, reply your email, or whatsoever you want the person to do, after they’ve read your call to action.

You can call it a request to ‘do something’ – it will often be the step that the consumer could take towards the purchase of a product.

Why Call to Actions are Important

I have experimented with some call to action methods. I know some great techniques, that works on my blog, and I have compiled a short list consisting of two things why call to actions are important

• Action Cause Action – when people see, that someone else is taking action (comment, etc.) they will also be more likely to take action. They see that it’s normal to write a comment, it’s normal to retweet, it’s normal to dugg.

• Some People Need to Get a Shot in The Arm – some people only respond to comments if they are told so. If they see the author is encouraging them to take a comment, and express their opinions, they might do so.

Tips for a Better Call to Action

The following call to action “techniques” are from my experience and that means that it may not work on your blog, with your audience, though it works on this blog and,you should, from these techniques I give you, be able to customize them to make them fit your blog.

1. Use a Mix of Call to Actions

You need to keep experimenting, though you can’t use the same call to action, because that would not have the same effect every time, and the effect will probably be all gone if you use the same call to action every time. If you keep making different call to actions you will also notice that you will know why one will work, and why another one wouldn’t work.

You will get more experience on the topic, which definitely is important. You need to experiment, that’s the key when working with copy-writing. You need to keep tweaking.

2. Build up The Call to Action

A call to action doesn’t have to be at the end. You can build it up in the post. So you keep building up the call to action. Then the last line you give the last call to action – this have been very effective to me.

When you build a call to action, you will keep talking about stuff that leads to a call to action at the last point. You should talk about the call to action in every sentence though,

3. Make the Call to Action Obvious

We make our headlines big and we want people to see our headlines. The headline good headline makes people read the content, but what is a good headline without a good call to action? With a bad call to action, the good headline would have definitely no effect. Make it obvious what you want them to do and where the call to action is. Make it big and clear.

4. Make the Call to Action Simple and Obtainable

A good example is when you want to host contest. if the prizes are good, great audience, though the following rules: write a blog post linking to them, comment on their blog 10 times, retweet 3  of their articles.

Why do you think no one entered the contest? It wasn’t simple nor was it achievable. If you have a simple and achievable call to action the action will be much more likelier to be completed, thus a better result.

What Was Your Most Effective Call to Action?

I just shared my experience of call to actions, but I am still learning the aspects of copy writing, especially on this topic. I would love to hear what you have learned on this topic? I would love for you to give an example in the comments below, then we can all improve.

(Photo credit: Hiddedevries)