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5 Ways To Make Your Calls-To-Action More Effective

"Include a call-to-action at the end of every blog post." You've heard it before, but you're not quite sure that it's helping. After all, it seems like nobody is activated by your calls. Are calls-to-action just myths perpetuated by content marketing gurus? Are they only effective for people or companies who already have large followings?

Surprisingly, calls-to-action can be very effective, even if you don't have a large following. They can actually be a great way to get more followers, if you know what you're doing. The following five tips can help you to make your calls-to-action more effective.

1. Take baby steps.

See if this sounds familiar: "For more information about maintaining your air conditioner, or for information about any other HVAC questions, contact us at Miller Heating and Air Conditioning." This is a very common ending to a typical business blog post, but you should be aware that if your call-to-action is to contact you, you're asking a lot. Most people aren't ready to contact a company the first time they visit a website. Usually, if someone has stumbled across your blog via a web search, they're doing a little research, maybe trying to figure out why their air conditioner is making a funny noise.

It's best to lead your potential customers to you with baby steps. Otherwise, if you ask them to take a running leap into your arms, they'll just turn and baby step to someone else. What are some good baby step calls-to-action?

  • Like us on Facebook
  • Visit this page for more information
  • Check out our Pinterest board
  • Vote in our survey
  • Comment below if you've run into the same problem

2. Be friendly.

If your call-to-action sounds like a demand instead of a friendly request, you're not likely to get many people following through. Keep your tone friendly, as if you were the reader's well-meaning friend offering suggestions instead of a driver's ed teacher barking at them to keep their hands at 10 and 2.

3. Keep your cues clear.

If your call-to-action is to have your readers fill out a survey, don't make them hunt for the survey or the link. Keep everything graphically and semantically clear, and run your layout by several objective people before you publish.

4. Use action verbs.

If you want someone to do something, describe it well. Take a look at the five calls-to-action in the baby steps example above. Each of these calls-to-action starts with an action verb: "like," "visit," "check out," "vote," "comment." These verbs make your call-to-action clear and concise. It's something the person can do immediately and be done with. It's a step to take, an action to execute. It doesn't leave ambiguity.

Related: Mastering the Call-to-Action: How to Write Content That Converts

5. Use white space to draw attention to your call-to-action.

If your call-to-action comes at the end of a bunch of long paragraphs, it's not likely to get much notice. Online readers often glaze over when it comes to long blocks of text. By putting a nice buffer of white space around your call-to-action, you'll draw your readers' eyes exactly where you want them. Remember that, like graphics, text can be visually appealing if you design it to be. And if your call-to-action is the most important item on a page, it ought to be the loveliest text of all.

So if you haven't had much luck with calls-to-action yet, don't give up. Use these five tips to make your calls-to-action more effective. Effective calls-to-action lead to greater followings, more click-throughs, and ultimately, an improved bottom line for your company. It's worth the effort.

Topics: website content - content marketing - call-to-action

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