Using a Call to Action

When you place an ad, make a commercial, or send out a sales letter, you want potential customers to respond. And in order to get them to act, you need to create a sense of urgency in their actions. Clothing sales do this all the time by creating a window in which customers must act to get a deal or a bargain. Online courses do this by limiting enrollment or offering the class for a finite amount of time.

To create that sense of urgency, that push to act, you need a call to action. Without a call to action, your marketing will not urge customers to move, to do something besides move past your message. Do you want customers to keep you in mind for “someday” or do you want them to contact you now? Are you going to hope they remember your later, or are you going to encourage them make the contact while you’re fresh in their minds.

An effective call to action will create that sense of urgency to call now, visit your website or go to your store. Don’t give them time to forget about you. Close out your interaction with the next step. Act now. Call today. Visit our store. While supplies last. Limited time offer. Offer limited to the first 50 customers. Expires 8/10/09.

Don’t forget to make it easy for your customers to make the next step. Include your phone number or email, physical store address and quick directions (or a simple map). Customers don’t want to look you up in the phone book to find your store. Tell them in the ad. Give them an easy way to find you.

There are a lot of examples of a call to action. What are the ones you like best? Which ones do you find to be the most effective? A ticking clock — a time deadline — is the one that is effective for me. Maybe college made me deadline sensitive. Or maybe I hate missing a good deal. What’s yours?

image: sxc.hu