How To Create The Next Step For Your Readers - Learn Online

Find the one action you want your reader to take

Lesson Details:
December 13, 2019

This course is brought to you by Appy Pie as part of our academy series in this video we're gonna talk about finding the one action that you want your reader to take as I mentioned in the beginning of this module it's so important that our copy is written in a way where it actually motivates the reader to take an action we don't want them to read it think to themselves oh that was a great read and then onto something else and they completely forget about what we wrote we usually want them to do something very specific whether that's signing up for our email list enrolling in a class purchasing an online course whatever it is there's an action that we want our reader to take because they read our copy and the example I used earlier which I want to reiterate because it's so great is the one of a slippery slide when someone reads our copy the first thing they see is the headline and that's them jumping on our slide now we want the copy to flow in a way just like they're traveling down that slide until eventually the end up at the end of our copy where they take that one action where that seems like the most natural next step for them to do after having read what we wrote so this is referred to as your CTA or call to action and if you've been in the world of copywriting or online marketing for any period of time you've definitely heard this term before it is very well known the call to action what's your call to action and here I'm going to show you an example of what a call to action looks like it's usually a button where it says in this example click here to get the copywriting cheat sheet so the one action that we want our call to action to lead someone to do is to click that button that's our call to action click here get our cheat sheet and the key thing here is we want to make sure your CTA or call to action stands out from the rest the page so if we go back to this example with the red button usually this would be on a page where there's not much read use and the only read is around the button that we want them to click on and the reason why I bring this up is the key underlined thing we want to keep in mind here is when we create a call to action we want to make it very obvious where that person is supposed to go next and how they're supposed to do it so if we have a big button at the bottom of our article that says click here to get this freebie that you're gonna want now that you've read all this copy it's very easy just like a slippery slide for them to click on that button it's the most natural next step and you want to make it as easy as possible for your reader to take the next action you want to describe to them exactly what they should do next even if it seems painfully obvious you want to say there's gonna be a big red button coming up below this copy when you see that button click on it that kind of stuff you don't want to assume that your reader already knows what they're supposed to do next you want to spell it out as clearly as possible and that action could be entering their email to get a piece of free content it could be purchasing your online course or it could be clicking on a link to your most recent blog post there are a thousand different actions that this thing could be but the important thing is you're clear on what action you want them to take before you go ahead and write the copy because it's going to help us focus our copy our copy is focused on eventually leading our reader to take that one action so for example this is a snippet from the Amazon Kindle Store where it's this book titled a copy writers handbook a step-by-step guide to writing copy that sells and the CTA our call to action is that orange button it says by now with one click now here's another example where I went to Melissa's website we saw some of her stuff in an earlier video and on the sidebar it said free 20 plus page blog business plan workbook with the taglines start turning your blog into a full-time business that's the copy at the top we have the headline or the title below that we have a little sentence snippet of copy and then below that we have the CTA or call to action send it to me click on that button and you get it sent to you now here's an example of a sign that I saw as I was walking through the street right outside where I live it said come drink mud for free with an arrow pointing to the right now this is an example of a strong call-to-action they're saying come drink this thing that we're selling for free and go this way now a lot of times when I see billboards in real life they don't do a great job of having a strong call-to-action so I was very impressed when I saw this sign as I read this I understand immediately what they're asking me to do and there's a strong benefit for me because if I want to drink something for free all I have to do is take a right and go into this store now here's an example of some other signs as I was walking down the street complete the classic look now this is an example of a ring where maybe it entices you to visit the shop but there's no call to action to it so this isn't to say that the copy is bad but just for you to notice the difference this is an example of copy that has a CTA a strong call-to-action where they're telling you and directing you what to do next and this is one that's just old-school simple advertising with no call to action now in most cases when you're writing copy when you're writing email sales pages Facebook ads you're gonna want to include a call to action but sometimes with these billboards it doesn't make sense to include a call to action so just something to keep in mind as we look through these examples but the reason I included them is because I want to include as many different real-world examples as possible because a lot of this stuff it's not black or white we're just trying to get an understanding of the core principles and then we're gonna use those principles to write copy in any form that we choose so here's an example of a website for a local hair stylist and this was the home page so when I clicked on the home page or I clicked it right off of Google it took me to this page and it tells you more about the hair salon and it gives you their information a phone number but this website would be so much stronger if there was a clear call-to-action if there was a big button in a different color that said click here to book your appointment or even click here to book your first appointment in half off that would bring way more business into this place and I like showing these examples because a lot of times when we're learning a new skill like copywriting we'd go to Facebook Ads and we look at some of the best copy out there we look at Facebook ads that have a million views and people have spent a hundred thousand dollars of ads spend on thinking that that's our competition that we need to become this world-class copywriter in order to compete with other people out there but the truth is there is no competition there are so many opportunities for you to use your skill of copywriting to add value and to help the people around you in this case with your copywriting knowledge if you were to work with this hair salon you could easily help them increase their business just with that simple copywriting thing of adding a call-to-action to their website and that's what gets me so excited about this skill once you start looking at the world around you through the eyes of copywriting you're gonna see opportunity in so many places that you've never seen before in this video we talked about finding that one action for your reader to take and how important it is to be clear on what that action is before you go ahead and write your copy.

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