Sometimes when business owners come to me and ask ‘what do I post on social media?’ what they’re really asking is ‘what is the point of posting on social media?’ Because the main purpose of social media is to connect with your customers, it can be hard to balance authenticity and salesy-pitches.

While it’s incredibly important to tell people what you have to offer them, it’s just as important to spend much of your time cultivating your relationship with your followers. As I always say to my students and clients, your content should be 80% educational, informative, engaging and entertaining and only 20% sales or self promotion.

So how do you handle when to add a call to action?

What exactly is a Call to Action?

As per Hootsuite “A call to action is a prompt to get your audience to do something specific. This is the part of your content, ad, or website that invites a reader to, well, take action.”

Call to actions (CTAs) nudge your viewers to take the right action after encountering your social media posts and content. It gives explicit instructions on what to do next. Studies have shown that adding a CTA button increased conversion rates by a whopping 83%.

A good call to action can do wonders for your social media posts! They can drive more visitors to your website, generate sales, and increase leads and conversion rates.

Typically, a call to action can be found at the end of a blog post or newsletter but can appear anywhere on a website, or on a social media post.

Examples of a Social Media CTAs are:

Sign up for a free trial
Download a PDF template
Visit landing page
Call/Email us
Request a quote
Enter the contest
Sign a petition
Register for the course

A call to action should be clear and to the point. I want you to buy this product, download this freebie, join this newsletter, etc. Don’t beat around the bush—be direct about the action you want the reader to take.

Getting strategic with your call to actions:

Now you know what a call to action is and why you should use them, how exactly do you start with writing call to action?

Understand your goals

Before you actually sit down to write the message, it’s very important to know what your ultimate social media goal(s) are and what you want the CTA to do. It’s important to think about what success means to you and what you want to accomplish. Do you want more visitors to your page? Do you want more newsletter signups? Do you want to sell your online course?

Create Urgency

Create urgency in your posts by adjusting your messaging.

“Call us today” implies urgency much more than simply saying “Call us.”
“Register for your spot in our social media workshop—before it fills up!” instantly makes you think that it will sell out and that the spaces are limited.

Make the benefit clear

Choose language that inspires. Go beyond just saying what your business does, and tell them exactly what it can do for them. What problem are you solving for them? What’s your unique selling point? What will your future customer or student get from you?

“Sign up for my course to earn up to $1,000 a day on your blog!” is a very clear benefit.

Stay true to your brand voice

Your CTAs should sound like you and should be consistent with your other posts and messaging.

Choose clear messaging

Keep it simple by ditching the filler words and jargon! Write a simple but powerful message so it’s crystal clear what you are asking for! Use quality over quantity when it comes to words and the length of your CTA.

“Check out the link in my bio to sign up for my newsletter to receive your free downloadable.” could easily be “Link in bio for your free downloadable.”

Don’t make your viewer search in order to buy or download

Whatever action you want your viewer to take, make it simple for them! Give them the button to click and make it super clear. If someone needs to search for what you want them to do they simply won’t do it.

Instead of telling followers to go from Facebook to Instagram to enter a contest, leave a link to Instagram and tell them to click to enter.

Make it stand out

Depending on where you’re adding your call to action, make sure it stands out from the rest of your messaging. Either with colour, placement, or wording.

Add emojis around your ‘Link in bio’ call to action on Instagram
Use a button with an alternative colour on your website for your call to action.
Use an image to stop the scroll and get people to click a link on Facebook.

In the end, a successful call to action may be the deciding factor of “will my workshop sell out or will it be a flop?” However, will each of your call to actions be amazing and increase conversion? 100% no! It’s important to do a little trial and error while also doing research on what your audience is looking for.

If your Call to Action isn’t working try switching up your words, change the colours, the placement, the images, or even the font to see what drives more engagement and traffic.

Still have questions about Call to Actions or your Social Media in general? Book a brainstorming session and let’s get you started on the right social media path!

Get Strategic With Your Call To Actions