Oh oh, I’ve done it again and gone ahead and made a video for you — but if you don’t have your headphones the transcript is below.
You are probably doing your calls to action wrong and there are billions of dollars in testing to back this up.
This applies to you
If you want to get people to do something
If you’re growing something
If you sell something
If you’re involved in the marketing of anything — if you’re making this mistake with your Calls To Action you are leaving money on the table.
It’s why campaigns don’t perform as well as they should
It’s why you’re not getting as many new subscribers as you think you should.
Or why you’re not getting more phone calls booked.
Or sales closed.
See, we work hard to ensure the product we offer to the marketplace is as good as we can make it… and when people don’t take action, we mistakenly internalize it.
We assume “Well, I guess it’s not good enough because no one wants it” and then do a ton of work to try to fix whatever 2 per cent extra we can squeeze out.
But what if it was way easier than that to fix?
What if a ‘mistake’ was stopping people from taking action?
I’m going to tell you what this mistake is
I’m going to tell you how to fix it
BONUS — I’ll show you how to appeal to a wider audience at different stages of the buying cycle.
And I’ll use examples in real-time.
What’s weird is that this shouldn’t be controversial. This applies to almost all content you’ll make where there’s a moment when you’re asking people to do something.
Don’t just take my word for it. Take the word of hundreds of thousands of ad managers, copywriters, direct response marketers, landing page developers and email marketing professionals…
That group of people ^^ represents BILLIONS of dollars in sales while testing.
And yet — almost everywhere I look I see people getting their Calls To Action, their CTAs wrong. Even big companies too. Corporate marketers make these same mistakes but their stuff always looks so nice that no one questions it, and they have big budgets to hide the error.
In my inbox, almost all email has this critical mistake.
On social media, people make the same mistake.
On YouTube videos, the same mistake.
On people’s websites and blogs, same mistake.
ONE: What’s the big mistake that everyone is making?
You’re purposefully making it difficult for people to make decisions.
You’re giving your audience, your prospects, your customers — you’re giving them decision paralysis.
Options paralysis, also known as decision paralysis, choice paralysis, or analysis paralysis, is a state of indecision that occurs when someone is presented with too many options.
When faced with many options, people may experience anxiety and overthink their choices. This can lead to a delay in decision-making, or even the decision to do nothing at all
From Google AI Answers which sourced from the following sources https://reclaim.ai/blog/prevent-decision-paralysis, https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/choice-overload-bias, https://www.forecast.app/blog/decision-paralysis
Ok, so how are you doing this?
With too many calls to action.
Watch, I’ll give you an example right now.
And this is perfect timing because I’ve just given you some insight, and you may be thinking “Huh, that’s really interesting” and if I were to go ahead and drop a CTA like
“If you like what I’m saying here, hit that like button”
…then there’s a chance, that while you’re reading your brain might go “You know, I DO like this, I’m gonna hit that like button.
And you might do it.
BUT
I, as the person who’s just made that CTA hoping you’ll take action — I can stop that process from happening entirely by simply adding a second CTA.
It’s what happens when people say on YouTube “If you’re new here, smash that like button, hit subscribe, and turn in the notifications bell blah blah blah”
I don’t know about you, but when I hear that, EVEN IF I AM ABOUT TO GO FOR THE LIKE BUTTON my brain interrupts and says weird stuff like “Wait don’t subscribe you don’t know yet if this content is even good” or “bell? There’s a bell? I don’t want to hear bells, I didn’t sleep well last night and I definitely don’t want bells”
And what usually happens is, by the time my brain cycles back to focus on the content again, I’ve lost interest in hitting like because… I don’t even really know?
Because remember?
When faced with many options, people may experience anxiety and overthink their choices. This can lead to a delay in decision-making, or even the decision to do nothing at all
TWO: How do we fix it?
So, there’s a spectrum.
Far left you have one single call to action.
On the far right, multiple CTA’s. For this example, we’re going to max out at 3 calls to action.
Now, I’m going to make this simple and place these common marketing uses you might come across on this line.
Almost all email should have one single CTA. Just make your case, and include your CTA. If it’s a link, you can repeat the same CTA elsewhere in the email for repetition purposes, but it should be the same CTA, the same link. IF people reading it feel like there’s a decision to make, you’ve done it wrong.
Social posts, one single CTA.
Landing pages, one single CTA.
You can use the same CTA multiple times
Oh, and you don’t want to have any other links on your landing pages at all.
Blog posts can have 1 maybe 2.
1) The body of your post should contain your main CTA. This is what you really want them to do, maybe get your lead magnet, or enquire
And then only if it makes sense at the end of the post you can have a 2nd CTA that links to the next logical piece of content
YouTube videos can have up to 3 CTAs
1) Halfway through you can ask for a like, offer a lead magnet, or newsletter subscribe, or if you’re selling something etc
2) Then before your video warps that’s a great time to use a CTA that’s meaningful, as the person has watched to the end and likely developed more trust
3) Then at the very end, your end screen. Speaking of end screens…
YouTube end screens, only one CTA, ideally the next video they might want to watch, and make the clickable area as big as you can.
And look, there are other places you’re going to use CTA’s.
Perhaps you have a restaurant and are using in-store marketing, or perhaps you are preparing a proposal and are giving clients options to move forward — use the same principle; don’t induce decision paralysis.
And if you’re in doubt, less is best.
BONUS: Now that I’ve simplified your CTA’s for you — let’s talk about how to break the rules.
And instead of just talking, I’ll show you.
See, I’ve been doing this for a few years and have helped my clients sell millions of dollars of products and services. Currently, I specialize in helping people get more clients.
And I know what moves the needle, and what’s a complete waste of time.
I’ve spent years with outreach marketing methods, and I’ve discovered my real passion, and that’s generating inbound leads. That’s where leads come to you because of the content you make, the audience you grow, and the intelligent CTAs you make.
If you want to get more clients use the “How Many Clients” calculator linked here.
And there you have it. That’s how you incorporate a 2nd CTA.
See earlier I asked you to hit the like button [There’s CTA #1]
I then made a point, I gave you context and asked you to use the How Many Clients calculator IF you wanted to get more clients. [That’s CTA #2]
By allowing time to exist between CTA #1 and CTA #2, it minimizes the chance of decision paralysis kicking in.
Now, I’m guessing you’re either in business for yourself or you’re into learning about sales and marketing.
And if that’s the case, I think you’re gonna get a kick out of this next video where I Debunk 33 Marketing Myths Even Professionals Believe! [Boom CTA #3]
See what we did there?
Wanna simplify your client acquisition? Use the calculator :)
In other news…
This is my last full week in Vietnam for this year, and this trip has included some epic experiences. One specifically (if you follow me on Facebook you’ll know) has inspired a piece that I’m working on for next week already, about what motivates us to reach, to try, to have ambition — and what fuels drive.
Stumble upon this?
Don’t miss next Saturday's issue.
See you next Saturday.
Cheers,
Pat Sgro
PS: Hit the ❤️ button on your way (if you enjoyed it) so I know you made it this far.