The Call To Action - What Is It And How You Can Use It To Improve Your Marketing


by Michael D. Black - Date: 2007-04-27 - Word Count: 367 Share This!

What is the call to action? Before I explain that I want you to open the nearest phone book or newspaper and look at some of the advertisements in them. You'll notice that they pretty much look the same. At the top there will be the title of the business, possibly with a brief tagline about the business. Next you will likely some type of fancy looking graphic and some bold print. Finally towards the bottom there will likely be the hours of operation, phone number, address, etc. That's it.

This type of "traditional" or "institutional" ads can be easily improved by simply adding what we in the direct response marketing world refer to as call to action. The call to action is essentially some sales copy whose purpose is to tell your prospect what you want them to do. It's that easy. By adding this simple change to your advertisements you change them from vague image-building statements to specific directions that tell your prospect what to do.

For example, you might tell them to call and leave information, to visit your store at a certain time, or to ask for a free report. You will need to adapt your call to action to your specific circumstances, but the point is that you want to tell them what to do, when to do it, how to do it, and why to do it. By incorporating these elements into your advertising you will boost your response rates significantly.

A good structure for your call to action is to summarize the offer and build value. If you haven't already done so you will also want to include your guarantee. You can never mention your guarantee enough. Include your payment options (the more the better), and add bonuses as an incentive to respond. Clearly, you may not be able to fit every one of these into every advertising medium, but you should try to fit as many in as you can. If you incorporate the call to action into your marketing you will go a long way from transforming your ads from costly image based to effective direct response marketing. That is a shift that will ALWAYS put more money in your pocket!


Related Tags: money, help, marketing, advertising, tips, copywriting, how, call, ads, action, copy, ad, response, hints, direct

Michael Black is a Direct Response Marketing Guru located in Colorado Springs, CO and Co-founder of Direct Results Marketing. Along with co-founder Jarrod Cash they have created comprehensive marketing kits, systems, and promotions for all kinds of businesses and services. If you want to make more money in less time then you need to be talking to us.

We work with entrepreneurs and companies to cut all the fat and waste out of their advertising and make their sales efforts at least 500% productive - guaranteed.

Find out how you can boost your profits at: http://www.DirectResultsOnline.com

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