Call to Action

A Statement, Not a Question

One of the most common mistakes made when authors attempt to add a call to action is doing so in the form of a question; however, a question is not a call to action. As stated earlier, a call to action tells the reader to go and do something, so ending an order with “why not try us?” doesn’t meet that requirement. If you’re ever confused, remember that a call to action is to have someone do something, whether it’s buying a product, picking one company over another, or reading further into a subject. When you ask someone to consider a company or product -- or as in the image, ask someone "why not?" -- you open the reader’s mind to alternatives other than the client. An easy way to check if you meet this requirement is to check the punctuation; a call to action should never end with a question mark.

Call the Reader to Act; Don’t Suggest

Another mistake that authors make when trying to include a call to action is making it an open-ended suggestion. While you might be inclined to add a word like "maybe" or "consider" to make the call to action sound more friendly and less demanding, adding such words defeats the purpose of a CTA. Another way to describe this is by making sure your call to action has an imperative clause, which is a type of clause that instructs the reader to do something. When you add a word like "maybe," you no longer are telling the reader to do something; instead, the sentence becomes a suggestion. A trick to remember if what you wrote is an imperative clause is to think how you would respond to it if a loved one said it. When someone says "do the dishes," you feel the need to do them right away, but if you are told "when you have time, consider doing the dishes," it no longer feels as urgent, nor does it ask you to act, just consider acting.