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Now more than ever, you need to leverage tools like Facebook, Live Streaming, Facebook Groups, Instagram Reels, Facebook, and Instagram Ads and create an actual plan to measure your success on these platforms. You can also use YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, and plug-ins like Comment/Sold to promote your business.
We have learned that having multiple sales channels is an essential defense against circumstances like the coronavirus pandemic. Independent retailers are able to leverage their social media by doing things like offering daily deals on Instagram to running a trunk show on Facebook Live. Smaller retailers have an advantage over the big box retailers as they can establish closer connections with their customers, enabling them to offer a more personalized social shopping experience.
What is a CTA (Call-to-Action)?
Let’s start with one essential aspect of your marketing: The “Call-to-Action.”
A Call-to-Action (CTA) is a marketing term referring to the text, or image, or button used to prompt users to perform a specific action. You have to grab your potential customer’s attention and guide them to the desired action you want them to take.
Bob Negen with WhizBang! Training has shared these techniques for creating an effective “CTA.”
One of the mistakes that store owners make in their marketing is not giving a clear “call to action.” Hope is not a marketing strategy. You cannot just hope that people will read your postcard, click on your website or Facebook ad, or comment on your posts.
Here are 5 things you need for an effective CTA
1. Tell them exactly what to do
You should not assume that just because you’ve explained something you’re offering (for example, a special event), your customer will then make the leap to know what you want them to do about that information (register or attend.) As you create your marketing materials, think about your purpose, decide what action you want the customer to take next, and then tell them exactly what to do, even if it appears obvious to you.
See also: How to Write Successful Emails for Your Business
2. Use a direct, active verb at the beginning of your sentence
Don’t be wishy-washy in your call-to-action sentences. Use the command form. Here are a few examples of direct calls to action that you might want to use.
Register now
Click here
Comment below
Call the store
Download your free guide
Watch the video
Sing up for
Come to the party!
Take a virtual tour
Join the club!
Buy now
3. Have one main action
Make sure that each marketing piece or post has one (or at most two) calls to action. Don’t ask your customers to come to the store for a clearance sale, register for a special event, donate to the local dog shelter, and save the date for your holiday open house all on one marketing piece or post. If you ask them to do too many things, they will do nothing. Say one thing, sell one thing!
4. Make it BIG
Don’t hide your call to action in tiny print a the bottom of your marketing. If you are creating any kind of marketing, it is because you want your customers to take and action of some kind – otherwise, why bother? Make it big, bold, and impossible to ignore!
(This isn’t a real button, just an example!)
5. Make it a contrasting color
One great way to make your call to action stand out (even if it’s not big) is to put it in a contrasting color. For example, if your webpage is primarily blue, don’t’ make your “Buy Now” button blue. You want that button to be in orange, lime green, or fuchsia so that it stands out on the page.
See also: 9 Things Every Retail Website Must Have
It is time to ReThink your Social Media marketing, and starting with your CTA on all of your marketing is one of the fastest ways to grow your click-throughs, comments, conversion rates, and more.
For more information and tips from WhizBang! Training be sure to join their Facebook page WhizBang! Retailers and check out their flagship product, The Retail Mastery System. This online program teaches the foundational eleven skills that every retailer must master in order to have a successful store.
