What is a Call to Action?

The online Business Dictionary defines a Call to Action as:

"Words that urge the reader, listener, or viewer of a sales promotion message to take an immediate action, such as "Write Now,” "Call Now,” or (on Internet) "Click Here.” A retail advertisement or commercial without a call-to-action is considered incomplete and ineffective."

Well put.  This is a valuable lesson we have learned - a customer is less likely to act on a product or service offering without a perceived constraint encouraging them to act on the promotion.

Call to Action Pointers

Early advertisements we created centered around a display of information and an explanation of the service or product. While this helped for brand awareness, it did little to spur a customer to act. This model is close to that of a typical TV commercial showing the latest wares from a consumer goods company. The key in this day and age is to encourage a sale by pushing the customer to make a decision.

Examples would include:

• Act now while supplies last
• First 50 customers get an additional 10% off
• This offer expires February 1st
• Join our mailing list to receive a free ebook on ...

Tracking Call to Action Effectiveness

Online tracking

While creating a sense of urgency is important, it is also important to gauge effectiveness.  Google offers it's analytic tools with the ability to funnel through goals to determine if your online calls to action work.  Watching what keywords bring customers to your site and judging the offers by click through is an excellent way to test online call to action effectiveness.

Email marketing

Try sending different marketing emails to customers with different promotions regarding different products.  See which one has the greatest effect on your sales.  Use this to move distressed inventory or to boost sales of poor selling services.  Give away the "dogs" when customers purchase premium offerings.  You are interested in "conversion" or the amount of sales you get off the total number of emails sent.

Constant contact (among others) helps you get your email campaign started and keeps track of who opens your email - getting more "funnel" information.

Traditional marketing

For traditional marketing campaigns there are a couple tricks to try.  Some of our customers set up special toll-free phone numbers that relate to certain campaigns.  You can get local phone numbers through a couple of different sources including Grand Central (though this will take some time).

Steering your customers to a particular website works as well.  MediaVision has it's main landing page, however we also have a site at www.mediavisionfl.com/mediabuyers which is only meant for targeting media buyers.  This way you can talk directly to the customer without the clutter a generic main page puts forth.

Our Mobile Advertising service is a great way to judge the effectiveness of an ad.  Immediately when a customer is interested they text our server, giving us feedback on the time and the quantity of responses.  Try it out:  text scooter to 407-437-5178.

Finally, the easiest way to track is to ask.  Asking every customer how they found out about you is a great way of finding out if your call to action efforts are working.  The problem is having a systematic way of tracking such information and being consistent in your asking.

Finally

People today are looking for value.  They are fickle when it comes to customer service - today the power of the dollar rules.  Give them good reasons to buy from you and track what is working so you can put your efforts towards call to actions that work.