Calls to Action. Subtle ones, tasteful ones, and the other ones.

Maybe it's a personality thing, maybe it's a universal mindset (doubt it), but the last thing I want is to appear pushy and overbearing when asking a customer to do something.  

In the biz (yes I said it), it's the call to action. In social media, it's a dangerous game. If there's an obvious sell, then the community runs for cover. In my own experience, and in viewing other firms' pages, engagement drops significantly when there's an obvious product placement or solicitation for a )

purchase. (In fact, Facebook has guidelines against obvious sales for Cover Photos, among other things.)

Heidi Cohen from Social Media Examiner breaks down effective calls to action like this:

1. Know what you want them to do.

2. Create a great hook.

3. Motivate toward action.

4. Optimize your C2A

5. Lots of Landing pages

6. Test, test test (to see what's working)

7. Measure

I agree with it.  I think it's really helpful.  I also think it's incredibly easy to seem like I'm begging for a response of any sort.  Enter Seth Godin's blog post on April 23, "You don't have to pander."  Now, he is the opposite of pandering.  Seth doesn't allow comments on his blogs. He doesn't need or want them.  And, in my opinion, he's not selling something...

[This is me searching for a clipart lightbulb]

...but he IS selling something.  Himself, his books, his speaking engagements. But he wins because:

1. Seth knows his audience.

-Trust me, every blogger thinks it's so cool and brave and boss that he doesn't do comments.  

2. Seth tells a story.  

-Not about his books or brand.  He just tells stories by writing like he would talk.

3. Seth is consistent. 

-He blogs every.single.day.

4. Seth's content is really, really good.

It's that last one that really gets it for me. It kind of takes the Apple mindset (back when everyone still loved Apple) in that you are left searching for ways to interact and buy from them.  Their stuff just seemed that good.  Their website was clear and didn't have prices and sales and tricks all over it (looking at you, Best Buy.)

So are we leading with content?  And are we leading with the content that people are expecting?  If people go to your site to buy insurance, don't make it hard to buy insurance.  You need to be intentional and make sure everything is on purpose, that what your prospect ends up doing is what you wanted them to do. Be intentional, be consistent, be transparent, and provide the absolute best content that fits your audience.