Every post you make should end with a call to action (CTA). A CTA instructs your audience to do something. A call to action can be as simple as double tapping to like an Instagram post or as complicated as scheduling time on your calendar. Whatever it is, each call to action should encourage your audience to engage with you in some way. Look at your last five posts. Is your call to action working?
How to Tell If a Call to Action is Working
Compare the performance of each call to action against the rest. This will tell you which CTAs worked best and you can create a strategy that uses your highest performers.
An excellent way to compare CTAs is to calculate an engagement rate. Look at your analytics and see how many people saw the call to action. Then count the number of people who actually acted. Divide the number of people who completed the CTA by the number of people who saw. Now you have your engagement rate.
Remember that not all calls to action are the same. If you compare the engagement rate of a CTA that asks your audience to comment their favorite emoji with a CTA that asks your audience to purchase a $500 product the engagement rate of the emoji will be way higher. You should expect a lower engagement rate when you ask for a $500 commitment.
Instead, compare the engagement rate of a CTA that asks your audience to pay $30 for a printable planner with the engagement rate of a CTA that asks readers to sign up for a $30 strategy session phone call. This gives you an opportunity to learn something about your audience.
Say the engagement rate for the planner is much higher than the strategy session. You just learned that your audience consists of DIY planners. Now that you know this about your audience you can create products and services that align with their taste.
What if My CTAs Aren’t Working?
If you know that your CTAs aren’t working but are unsure of what to do, don’t worry. You have already taken the 1st step towards fixing this by admitting you have a problem. Calls to action that are not helping you reach your goals are just as much of a waste of your time as they are your audience.
One thing you can do if your calls to action are not working is something a good friend of mine calls ethical espionage. Look at your competition and see what is working for them. Are they asking people to watch live training sessions and selling a class at the end? Are they selling printable resources? I AM NOT giving your permission to copy a strategy or plagiarize material. This is where the ethical part comes in. Take the call to action that is working for them and build content around it that is entirely yours.
If you need help developing calls to action that work I would love to give you some tips. Book a free 10-minute consultation, and we can get started. Don’t waste any more time in 2019 writing content that does not convert readers into customers.
