Are your calls falling on deaf ears? Is your list stagnant? You might be ineffectively calling people. The call to action is a link, opt-in form or banner directing readers to do something. Like sign up for blog updates. Or download your free marketing boot camp. Or subscribe to your newsletter. The words you use can inspire, bore or deflate readers. You want to inspire of course. But how?
Intend to make things simple. Simple is powerful. Simple works. The issue lies in making things complicated. More is rarely better. Clarity counts most. Clarity. Simple. Replay the mantra in mind. Over and over. Inspiring calls grow your list at a breakneck pace. You can expand your presence, gain the trust of your target market and prosper quickly. But you need to make your calls top notch.
Think through your campaign. Feel through your question, or directive. Imagine yourself to be a general. Tell people to do something they do it. Establish authority around your call. Feel good about it. People sense this feeling on a deeper level. You can automatically increase calls taken by checking your energy around the call.
How can you craft an inspiring blog call to action?
1 – Short Works
Short calls snag attention spans. Short and punchy snares a reader for one moment. You need this moment to grow your list. Keep it punchy. Forget drawn out calls. The average attention span just left town. Think of how you read a blog. Even mindful people tend to scan and rush. You are busy. Short makes a point. 5 or 10 words. Play around with the numbers. Never go beyond a mouthful. Your readers appreciate it and your calls will increase.
2 – Practical Works
Sign up for tips to make money online. Learn how to generate 22 free leads daily. Stuff like this. Put yourself into a practical frame of mind. Short and practical. What problems need solving? Solve them. Call them. Stray from practical and you lose conversions. Stick to practical increase conversions. Grow your blogging list. Make money online. Make your call usable. This means focusing on making your call to action as practicable as possible. So readers take it. Because you all crave content you can digest and put into use immediately for your benefit.
3 – Repeat
Post your call multiple times. Maybe once in the header and once in your widget. Or once in your post body and resource box. People need to be asked multiple times. Readers focus on different areas of your blog. Make calls visible in multiple areas. Observe the fear of being pushy. Let it go. This fear is a liar. So stop listening. Ask multiple times. Inspire but don’t abuse.
4 – Reduce Other Calls
Make your primary call primary. Avoid posting too many calls. No liking this page, doing that, doing this. 5 or more calls confuse. Reduce widgets. Reduce bells and whistles. You want readers to do one thing mainly. Sign up for your list. Or buy your product. Make this your main call. Reduce other calls. Make your one call more inspiring.
5 – White Space
Include white space around your call. Avoid crowding it. Make it stand out. White space makes your call more prominent. Take time to gauge your white space. Enough on your website? If not it’s time to de-clutter as noted in Tip 2. White space is one secret to boosting your list. Makes your call to action stick out. That’s the goal.
6 – Never Craft a Hurried Call
Never write your call under some stress, or while feeling desperate. The energy deflates or repels, instead of inspiring. Set your alarm. Get up early. Make money online in the prospering, quiet zone of early morning time. You feel calm. Your mind feels fresh. This is the space to be in when crafting your call copy.
7 – Have Fun with It
Poor calls are rooted in low energy. Good calls are rooted in high energy. Make it a game. Move away from the life and death mindset. You likely seek to improve. Most of us do. This improvement, whether on your blog, or wherever, should be accompanied by a playful air. Have fun with improving your call. Write a more inspiring call.
Your Turn
How do you craft an inspiring call to action? Please share your thoughts in the comments section.
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Ryan Biddulph
Thanks for sharing the opportunity with me DiTesco.
I appreciate it 🙂 Have a great day.
Ryan
Brankica
Hey Ryan, great list, I always experiment with white space and calls to action, trying to keep it as clean as I can. I for example never have more than 3 to 4 share buttons on my posts,try to put my sign up forms in visible places and so on. I do have to say that the best results so far (after testing a pile of different things over a long period of time) are definitely – pop ups. Yes, I know everyone says they hate them, but they sure do work!
Ryan Biddulph
Aha! Perfect Brankica, I just started with pop ups again 2 days ago.
Thanks for sharing and stopping by. Ryan
Suresh
Thanks for these reminders, Friend. I find that I usually forget things like giving examples, which is a simple way to illustrate your point. I’m definitely going to include examples in as many posts as possible from here on out.
Ryan Biddulph
It’s my pleasure Suresh. Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing. Ryan
David Hobson
Thanks for the tips, creating call to actions is not one of my strong points.
Gabriel Killian
These tips are huge. In a world of information overload it is extremely hard to stand out when getting pile-driven with over-written calls to action. Keep it clean (I like how you mentioned the white around your call to action), concise, simplified and repetative, but not too many calls. This is a great example of information people can actually use.
Ryan Biddulph
That white space is huge Gabriel Thanks for sharing. Ryan
Anton Koekemoer
Hi Ryan,
Great points / tips that you’ve mentioned in the post. And yes – Uniqueness of CTA Images is an aspects a lot of webmasters don’t get. As the most of webmasters tend to use images from the web as their CTA images. Taking the time to create a CTA image / Button for your website and or blog can contribute quite a lot of value in terms of SEO and UX (user experience).
Aasma
Nice points Ryan,
But I think the best way you can find by experimenting yourself. Before it’s not possible that one tip work for everyone. Your niche and audience could be different and so as their taste.
Suzanne
Good pointers. I am guilty of having too many call to actions at times. I have learned to keep it simple on my blog. My new mantra: Just do ONE thing.
Fahad
I have no call to action in my blog except asking to share the thoughts.
I write an informative post and ask reader to leave comment if they need further discussion.
Fahad
Keith
Great list Ryan and I must say the tips you gave are very useful. I believe your call to action is a very important part of your blog and like you have already said, people should be inspired and not bored, if a call to action is very dull and lengthy, readers are going to be bored. I have learnt this by making this mistake with my own blog, I wondered then what was wrong with my blog but slowly and gradually I understood the working mechanism.
I am completely in favour of keeping your message short to gain more impact, as you say short and practical, with one really inspirational call to action.
I have a good judgemental friend read my blog before I publish, helps with continuity.
Thanks for the great tips, now to put them into action while the energy flows!
Philip A.
Hi Ryan,
Honestly thanks for sharing this information, lately I’ve been struggling to come up with a Call To Action on my blog but my ideas where not that great. I just hope I can incorporate what you teach in this post.
I’m gonna go with 3 versions to see which is more effective.
Have a nice day Ryan, looking forward to your next posts.
~Philip