The right words or phrases encourage your audience to take the next step. A compelling call-to-action.
Words matter
What do you want them to do? Before developing your call-to-act, be clear on what steps you’d like your audience to take. Build the interaction/presentation around that call-to-action and point them to the next step. Having an entertaining presentation with wonderful slides is great, but without clear next steps the audience may not do anything with the information or ideas you share.
Use active language
Passive language doesn’t have the impact of proactive positive language. “I’d like to …” implies you may or may not. Small changes in the words you use can lead to big changes in your outcomes.
Remember your wording needs to be clear, specific, and next step-oriented. Leave the hype at home. Use active words that create a clear picture of what you’d like the listener to do – call, subscribe, learn, start, and order.
Create clear next action steps
When the person listening takes the step you want – what next? Plan through what happens next. What’s your follow-up process and is it immediate? The steps you want them to take, and the action you need to take must be as deliberate and carefully planned as the call-to-take-action itself. Unless the steps are clear change is less likely. When we remember the message and know what to do with it then the message becomes more effective.
A compelling call-to-action
Richard Riche
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