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Sail the 7 C’s to Better Blogging- C #5- Call to Action
Today we are going to talk about C#4 – Call to Action.
This is a continuation of a series that started with “Sail the 7 Cs to Better Blogging”. (This post was also featured in Ann Sieg’s TheRenegadeBlog.com) You can read about Call to Action in context here.
Six of the seven topics have been covered. C#1 was Find Your Core , C#2 in Consistent Blogging, C#3 is Congruent Blogging, C#4 is Content is King, and C#7 – “Connect with your Audience” was covered in a series of seven posts (it started as four and kinda grew )
Creating blog traffic has four distinct phases –
- Things you do before you start posting in your blog – covered in a post about Phase 1,
- Things you do while you are writing a post (SEO and HOC) – covered in a post about On-Page Blog Traffic
- Things you do after you write a post and press Publish Blog Traffic After Publish 1 and, Blog Traffic – What the Experts Do
- Checking the results on your efforts. There have been several posts on this and more to come.
Note: My mission is to help Network Marketers who are struggling to move online, especially those buried by overwhelm. You will find information that will HELP you find leads and access to the finest mentoring system on the Internet today (Ann Sieg’s Renegade Team and Inner Circle). You will learn how to avoid the bright shiny things, effectively use blogging, Facebook and LinkedIn, A free 30 minute coaching call is yours for the asking. Take action today! When you are ready Join the Team
C #5 – Call to Action
I’m going to make an assumption here and yes I know that’s silly. I’m going to assume that you are blogging with a purpose. A purpose that involves people taking action. You want them to buy your products, use your recipes, join your group, support your cause, or – oh yeah – buy your products. If you are using your blog as an online diary, you can skip this post, it’s not for you.
You developed your CORE before your started. You have a reason for blogging and a target audience. We know that you need to blog consistently and your topics must be congruent. Further, you know that you must give good content; both from your target audiences point for view AND the search engine’s point of view. Now it is time to make sure that you have a CALL TO ACTION (or maybe two or three or four) in your blog. Every post does not have to have a Call to Action (CTA), however there needs to be a consistent, congruent and frequent CALL TO ACTION where you tell your readers exactly what you would like for them to do.
I like the concept of a Persuasion Shell which is material that you cut and paste at the beginning and end of every blog post. This consistent and congruent message is the same every time a person reads your blog. The repetition carries a much stronger impact than you can get with the same message being delivered using different words every time. In your posts you can have a different Call to Action that is unique as you talk about different pain points, however the Persuasion Shell can be your best CALL TO ACTION tool.
Call to Action – Three Different Tiers
Mark Sherbin in his article on CTAs identifies three different types of Call to Actions. These can be thought of a tiers – top tier, middle tier and bottom tier.
Call to Action – Top Tier – Make the Sale
The top level – and for most of the us the most important level – is the BUY NOW tier. This type of Call to Action is designed to ask for an immediate purchase. The psychology of making a compelling offer, emphasizing pain points, telling stories, showing benefits and not features is far deeper than we can go into here. At its heart and soul, this is what marketing is all about. The main point is: If You Never TELL the Reader to BUY NOW, You Will Never Make a Sale. This should be self evident, but too many bloggers never make this connection. Lots of us do NOT want to be pushy, but let’s face it if you have a quality product that will solve your customers problem, then the sale is the point of connection and you HAVE TO ask for it somewhere. You may never thought about this, but there are several different ways to craft this call to action. Here are a few
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Subtle Calls to Action
You craft a message that tells the person that they have seen the information and at this point they know if the offer is right for them. If the offer is right for them, then go ahead click the Buy Now button. There are a number of ways to do this, but in general they are all calm and rational.
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Motivational Calls to Action
Here I think of the old Charter Hospital ads. “Here are the symptoms of depression 1), 2), 3). If you can’t get help here, get help somewhere.” You are stirring up the reader’s emotions and calling for action. It doesn’t have to be here, but you MUST TAKE some kind of action. Of course, here would be nice 🙂
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Direct Calls to Action
You are blunt. This is the right choice and you should take it right now.
More Information on Call to Action
If you are uncomfortable writing something that asks the customer to buy then I would suggest a couple of things.
- Figure out why you don’t believe in your product and find a way to change your mindset or change your product.
- Google Call to Action and read. There are some GREAT tutorials readily available.
- Create a Swipe File. When you read something that resonates with you, save it to your swipe file. When you need to craft YOUR offer, model it after the one that felt good to you. (Tip> When I get a compelling email, I often forward it to myself. I add the non-word “Swipecopy” or “blogmat” to the end of the subject line. Later I can search of these non-words and know that the only things that will come up are things I “Marked” earlier.)
Call to Action – Middle Tier – Capture the Lead
In this type of Call to Action, you ask for the visitor’s name and email address. Every blogger has heard somewhere “The fortune is is the List.” This is where you build your list. You need an autoresponder account with someone like aWeber and the names and emails are sent automatically to your account. Just so we are clear here, you create the list with the intent of doing TOP TIER Call to Actions in your later emails. Like I said, you gotta do that Tier 1 call somewhere. The nice thing about the list is that people have given you permission to send them offers and you can do it over and over. Again there are volumes written about Building Your List. It is certainly one of the most popular eBook and Private Label Rights (PLR) eBook topics.
Without going into this is great depth, when you make this type of offer, you buy the person’s name and email address. You just don’t buy it with cash. You need to understand your target market and REALLY understand their pain points. Once you have identified their problem you develop a FREE product that will help them with their product. Obviously it shouldn’t completely solve their problem, but it MUST provide real value.
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Dr. Hale’s Middle Tier Call to Action
By looking at my blog, you will see that I have all three levels. Most apparent are the Bottom Tier (The Persuasion Shell) and the Middle Tier (the Build Your List tier). My target audience is primarily people who are coming online looking for leads and after some study they are frustrated and Overwhelmed. I offer Dr. Hale Foolproof Method to Crush Overwhelm – an eBook, my coaching and a Training System prepared by a Top Tier Marketer. (The third tier is like Preggo spaghetti sauce: “It’s in there.” 🙂 )
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Common Mistakes
There are a number of common mistakes we see people make when they go shopping for their reader’s names and emails. Here are a few.
- The offer isn’t clear. For example “Sign up for my newsletter” or “Get 10 Great eBooks” or “Sign up for My Secret”. The reader really needs to say “Yes! I’ve got to have that it is JUST what I’m looking for!”
- The offer isn’t congruent. For example the blog might be on Skin Care and the offer is for a Great eBook on Marketing.
- The move common of all – the offer is invisible. There is NOT offer.
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Change your Offer and Track Your Results
As you gain a loyal following, they will see you offer day after day. Either they are already on your list OR the offer wasn’t compelling for them. Switch it up and try something different. Be sure to track what works and what doesn’t.
Call to Action – Lowest Tier – Nurture the Relationship
This is what I called the Persuasion Shell above. Here you are encouraging readers to comment and share. This type of “I like you and want to engage with your” Call to Action should be on every post.
Tip: I use a plugin called “Duplicate Post.” I have a post that is never published, it is always a draft and it is called “Dummy for Cloning” All that is in this post is my Persuasion Shell. I start each new post by cloning the Dummy post and inserting the new material.
Before we Leave – Additional Tips
Power Words: There are “power words” that the expert copywriters have discovered and use. You can use them too. Google for “Power Word” and “Felling Words” and “Persuasion Words” and you will see several lists. Here are a few:
- Discover
- Explore
- Examine
- Download
- Find
- Uncover
Command Words: You also want to use Powerful Command words like:
- Download now
- Buy Now
- Order yours here
- Start your trial now
- Sign up today
- Subscribe today.
Words to Avoid: There are also words you should stay away from: For example:
- But – this is taken to mean “everything I said before this is something I don’t believe” For example, “You may have a good system now, but…” can be heard and “I think your current system stinks.” Use “and” and “however” instead of “but”.
- Learn – Learning is work and we don’t want to work. Use “discover” and “uncover”.
- Tell – Don’t tell you readers something, expose it or reveal it or discover it together or disclose it or at the very least share it. 🙂
- Things – Don’t talk about “things.” Use Tips or Tricks or Secrets. People don’t get excited about things.
- Stuff – Stuff is even worse that things.
- IF – You need to assume the positive and you certainly don’t want to force an either or. Use “when” as in “when you claim your place in our system”.
Crafting a compelling Call to Action is a professional topic, but one that every blogger should study. The Call to Action is where the rubber meets the road.
Until next time, you have a Great Day!
↓ ↓ If this post gave you some ideas – Go ahead & comment below. ↓ ↓
Hale Pringle – Hale Yes!
Skype hale.pringle
Email: HaleYes@HalePringle.com
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P.S. If you are working to move your business online and it all seems overwhelming, I can help! Take a look at http://HalePringle.com, or sign up for the free coaching call. You can email me or give me a Skype call. I’ll give you the benefit of my years of experience and many thousands of dollars in training and searching the rabbit hole called Internet Marketing and Network Marketing. I can help you with Lead Generation, the feeling of overwhelm, blogging, and even career change. Add that to the finest mentoring on the Internet (Ann Sieg’s Team and Inner Circle) and you have a Winner!
Hey Dr Hale!
Another fantastic post. I think the reason so few bloggers are a financial success (by their own definition) is that their calls-to-action are rarely tier one. When they do infrequently use tier one the call-to-action is almost an apology for raising the subject.
You are providing very important information here. I look forward to installments six and seven.
Cheers,
Caylie
Caylie Price recently posted..Small Business Ru!es – A Book Review
Thanks Caylie,
Of course you just gave me more motivation to product stellar installments and that means more work. Thankfully this work is done.
BTW I actually have done several installment 7 posts. After the original Sail the 7 C’s post I went to Traffic since I think way too many bloggers press Publish and think they are DONE. If you go to my site and look at the BLOG/Archives you will see several. I actually spent quite a bit of time looking for posts by top bloggers where they had talked about Blog Traffic. I talked about that in the “C#7 Connect with you Audience” posts.
Thanks Again,
Dr. Hael
Dr Hale, this is a terrific post. I like your concrete examples and:
“If You Never TELL the Reader to BUY NOW, You Will Never Make a Sale.” How true. I will be implementing these strategies…
Sigrid McNab recently posted..The Five Financial Goals-Saving Money
Super Glad that I could help!
Regards,
Dr. Hale
Wow what a fantastic post with plenty information. I will have to re-read this post and plan some actions steps according to the tips you have given here. I have found a treasure!!!!!!!!
Retha Groenewald recently posted..Who are these Women?
Retha,
Thank you for the VERY kind words. Sometimes I’m not sure if I’m stating the obvious or stating things that have become obvious because of a boat load for learning.
Hope to see you again here soon. 🙂
Regards,
Dr. Hale
Hale,
It’s very rare that I’ll stop to read an entire article and/or post. Today wasn’t that day for me. 🙂
Your advice is solid and Internet marketers need to read, take action on, and follow through on it. I’ve bookmarked your page so I can return and read the other six c’s of blogging.
Thank you for sharing.
Bonnie Gean recently posted..How to Clone Your Blog With WP Twin
Thanks Bonnie,
I’m certainly glad you liked the post. I got one more to do and that series will be complete (Check and Adjust). I’m still researching that one.
If there is a topic you would like for me to tackle, please let me know. 🙂
Regards,
Dr. Hale
Fantastic post and content! I love the, Power Words, Command Words. I will definitely subscribe for updates.
Bright Blessings,
Maggie
Thanks Maggie,
I have a saying “Google and YouTube are my friends!” Of course you have to know what to ask my friends. They never volunteer anything (thank Goodness!)
I hope I can continue to give you info that you find useful.
Regards,
Dr. Hale
Hi Hale
Great information you have given in this post, there is a lot to digest so I will be coming back to read it over again and the other parts to this series.
Thanks for sharing
Pauline
Pauline recently posted..Forum Marketing
Pauline,
I agree that the CALL TO ACTION section can be a bit confusing. It is something that most of us get into very late in the game. I know I didn’t study marketing when I was in IT and programming., so it was a bit of a mind shift when I did get there.
Thanks again,
Oh Hale Yes!
Fantastic post. Didn’t know this, thanks for letting me know.
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