I had an amazing opportunity to make a brief appearance a number of years ago in a television series, called “Life Story” that was hosted by the Oprah Winfrey Network. I was interviewed for about half an hour regarding my experiences with “Love and Regret,” and about five minutes of footage featuring me appeared in the show. It was an incredibly exciting experience and I was honoured to take part! My first novel had just been published and you can imagine that I was aching to promote it, somehow, during the filming. I mean, this was for Oprah!

I did find a way to nonchalantly fit a mention of my book and its title into what I had to say that day, and the producers just as aptly found a way to leave it on the cutting room floor. After all, it was their party and they got to set the rules. When I’m creating my own videos, however, I am a little more direct. And that brings me to the topic of today’s blog, which is your Call to Action.

A call to action is an invitation for your audience to do something and it’s important that you include calls to action in your marketing. You are creating a pathway to a conversation that will lead to a sale and It’s easy to forget this step. I see it often, however: a business owner will create a piece of web content, even an entire website, and not invite visitors to do anything. What might a call to action look like? Here are some general ideas – your calls to action should be more specifically related to the results you can offer:

• • Click here for more information
  • Email us for more information
  • Download our Guide to avoiding problems/creating success with ________

When you are creating video content, you can either film yourself inviting your viewers to take an action or, if you are embedding the video into a landing page or other page on your website, you can write the call to action in text beside or under the video. “Watch our Video” is a great call to action – and sometimes you are providing video content strictly to inform and educate your web viewers. But look for appropriate opportunities for giving people another step they can take after they watch your video. Know what your path to a sale is. If you are using your video content to further your credibility, that’s different from using your video to support revenue generation. Both are important. And here are a couple of examples of how you might use video in your sales path:

Watch Our Video > Download Our Free Guide > Email Our Sales Consultant > Sale

OR

Watch Our Video > Register for Our Free Webinar > Watch our Free Webinar > Purchase a Spot in Our Program

It’s important to tell people what action they can take next in order to see if they want to create a deeper sales relationship with you. Otherwise, they probably won’t take any action.

Would you like to find out more about how Crossman Communications can help you create Content with Clarity? Contact us at info@crossmancommunications.com and let’s find a time to talk about that!