We need to go beyond organic traffic and hashtags if we want to convert from a Marketing relationship, into a Sales relationship. One bridge for this transition is a Call to Action post.

If we think of a campaign as a series of content posts with a single aim. If the aim is anything beyond attention then we need to issue a Call to Action to achieve the result.

Trying to get people to:

• sign up to your newsletter
• visit your site
• leave a comment
• subscribe
• buy your book
• hire you for consultancy

All of these require an Ask. A call to action.

• implied calls to action
• embedded calls to action
• overt calls to action

Implied Calls to Action

An implied call to action is the branding on your Instagram image where you added the URL to your web site, or the “@” for you handle.

The implication that the reader can follow you or learn more, if they realise that it is a URL.

Embedded Calls to action

We can issue embedded calls to action when someone is engaing with our content:

• the button click in a landing page
• the “Remember to Subscribe” message in a video
• the popup on your blog post

An embedded call to action occurs when someone is already consuming your content.

Overt Call to Action

This is:

• asking for the sale
• asking for someone to take action

Outside of any other content.

i.e.

• a series of content tweets, followed by a tweet that asks you to do something
• a series of instagram posts, each of which might have implied calls to action in the images and embedded calls to action in the caption. Followed by a post that is pure Call to Action.

An Overt Call To Action is unmistakable.

Value

But we have to balance all of this with value.

A sales transaction only happens if the Call to Action itself is a value proposition:

• you have priced the product effectively
• you have presented the value that results from the transaction in terms that make sense for the purchaser

You can add as much value with run up content prior to the call to action, but none of that counts if the perceived value of taking action doesn’t outweigh the transaction cost.

If you add a lot of value in the run up to the transaction, then the consumer might take that into account during the sales transaction, but it isn’t guaranteed.

Comfortable?

Asking is the essence of sales. And we have to learn to become comfortable with it.

If we don’t. Then we don’t ask. And we don’t get.

Its hard to feed yourself with someone’s attention. We feed ourselves by converting their attention into a Sales transaction with a Call to Action.