You can write the best sales copy in the world, but if you don’t include a call to action you’re missing out on countless sales opportunities. At its most basic, a call to action tells the customers what action you want them to take after reading the rest of the sales copy. A call to action can be liking the page on social networks, filling out their name and email address for more information, purchasing a product, or calling your support line. Learning the psychology behind a call to action makes the difference between you effectively targeting your sales pitches and falling flat.

Identify Your End Goal and Audience

The first step in writing an effective call to action is determining exactly what your end goal is. You want to keep it as simple as possible, since you do need to keep your call to action short, succinct, and impactful. Next, figure out who you’re talking to. When you know your target demographic, you can use the language that resonates best with them. The way you approach a 30 year old housewife is vastly different from an 18 year old college student.

The way each customer uses your website, perceives the value of your products, and interacts with your company is also different between wide ranging demographics.

Strive for Clarity

You don’t want to try the clever or subtle route with a call to action. If you aren’t straightforward, your customers are not going to feel a strong urge to follow through with whatever action you’re trying to get them to take. There is just a long bit of sales copy without any resolution, and without spelling out the next steps many customers are going to continue on their way on the Internet.

Placement

Once you’ve created a strong, actionable call to action, you need to figure out where you’re placing it within your content. Long sales copy benefits from multiple calls to action spread throughout the text or sidebar, although you don’t want to beat your customer over the head with it. For shorter pieces, a call to action contained within the content naturally lends itself to clicking, or you can wait until the end of the article if you’re asking customers to add their own opinions on the article.