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The call to action in your marketing materials—whether on a printed flyer or in an email campaign—is one of the most important elements in a campaign.

If you do not include a solid call to action, you are not telling your customers the next step they need to take. And just as important, without a call to action, your marketing materials fail to create a sense of urgency. When your audience is left with no direction and no urgency, you'll probably receive little or no return on your investment.

Of course, if you have been doing business for even a small amount of time, you probably already know the importance of a solid call to action, but you may be wondering how, exactly, to write one that works.

Every call to action must be customized to the specific campaign, so no one can give you a rulebook full of the right calls to action for every situation. However, a few tried-and-true writing tips can catapult you from "beginner" to "intermediate" in your call-to-action skill level.

Keep in mind, though, that to reach "expert" level, you will need to test, test, and test some more before you find that perfect phrase that will generate the highest ROI for each marketing campaign.

Among the tips you will learn in this article are the following:

  1. How to use the right words
  2. How to lead into your call to action
  3. How to test your call to action

1. Verbs

The first thing to consider when composing a catchy call to action is the introductory verb you will use. The very first word of your call to action should be a hard-hitting, action-calling, no-nonsense verb.

Keep the verb short and to the point, such as read, call, and click. Don't distract potential customers by throwing in nouns and adjectives that describe them; they know who you're talking to.

Describe what you want them to do, and do so with confidence.

2. Show, Don't Tell

Do not, however, simply demand that a person do something. Tell her how to accomplish whatever you're telling her to do. For example, if you are presenting your call to action via a television commercial, and you're telling customers, "Call now, or forever hold your peace," then display the phone number at the bottom of the screen. If your call to action is delivered via the Internet, link customers to the appropriate page, or, even better, use a fancy call-to-action button. Depending on your market, customers might feel much more excited about clicking on a large, shiny, colorful button than a boring, everyday link.

In other words, spoon-feed your customers. Don't give them a chance to excuse themselves from contacting you; otherwise, they will most certainly talk themselves out of the purchase with thoughts such as, "Well, I would call, but I didn't catch the number," or "I don't feel like searching all over this website to complete this offer."

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Writing a Better Call to Action

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

image of Tara Hornor

Tara Hornor writes for PrintPlace.com, an online printing company offering flyers, brochures, business cards, posters, postcards, and more print media.

Twitter: @TaraHornor