Calls To Action That Convert

Heard about calls to action, right? CTAs. How important they are in order to convert and have people behave in the way that you want them to behave, whatever call to action that may be. Well, Allison Lex is here with us today. She is a sales copy expert, perfect person to join us on Cashing On Camera to talk about calls to action that actually convert. And there's a lot to unload with this because There are currencies that she's going to be talking about today. It's really phenomenal, the angle to which you take and how you look at calls to action, Alison. So I'm really excited to have you on the show. You know, do people use calls to action effectively in your opinion generally? No.

How was that for soundbite?

I love it.

So a lot of times What I see is frankly they're not using them at all. I know. They're using them so infrequently that when they do use them, it's a little bit of a whiplash moment for their audience because they're out there giving all of this amazing information, all of this content, all of this good stuff, but they're not asking for anything. And so by the time they ask, their people have gotten used to just taking.

Okay, let's unpack that because that's a really key important concept. How much is too much? Because we, you know, in the marketing space you hear like, you know, give and goodwill and, you know, don't be shy and don't hold cards close to the vest and the free line and all of that. Is there such a thing as giving away too, too much?

Yes, and— so that's from improv. I never like to say no, but yes, there is such a thing as giving away too much if you don't back it up with asking them for something in return. And that's really where those currencies that we talked about come in. And of course, this is going to happen on livestream, but my cleaners are here. So if you hear vacuums, I'm really sorry. No problem.

At least you're getting your house cleaned.

Oh my gosh, it's the best decision I've ever made. Um, so, but that really goes to those currencies that we talked about, because a lot of times we think, well, I can't just ask them for money 100% of the time.

Now, you and I talked about the currencies before we got on the live, and so we're gonna have to review that because I think this is a key, key, uh, concept is that you deal in and recommend that we look at various different kinds of currencies. It's not just fiat or not just like monetary, right? It's lots of different other types of currencies that you could ask for in exchange. So let's go through what those currencies are.

For sure. So number one— there are five. Number one is money, and that's the one we tend to default to. In fact, the term currency denotes that I'm talking about money because money is currency, but the other 4 are just as important, okay. So I've got them written down so I don't forget them or miss one. Attention. I'm asking for you to pay attention to me right now. That's a currency. That's something I have that you want. The second is information. So if you ask me to enter my name and email address into a landing page, perhaps an opt-in form. You're asking for my information and you're also asking for my attention, which we'll get to in a minute. Then there's time. You might ask me to come to a webinar right now. People who are watching this, I'm asking for your time and your attention. That's currency. And the last is relationship. This is especially true when it comes to to referral marketing. Hey, do you know anybody that could use a copywriter? I'm asking you to put your relationship, your name on the line for me. But this also goes when I say, hey, like and share, tag a friend. And so we do start to see some calls to action asking for that relationship to be leveraged, especially on social media.

I'm going to put out a scenario that we see quite a bit in marketing, and that is the gung-ho entrepreneur who creates a 90-minute amazing training, very thorough, 90 minutes long, putting everything they've got into this 90-minute training. And they think this is going to be it, this, the leads are going to be flooding in because I put, and this is a solid 90 minutes of like amazing, this is everything I know all in here. And so now I'm going to I'm gonna go out there and I'm gonna peddle this to people who don't really know, like, or trust me, but because I've put so much into it and because it's so valuable to me, I'm gonna ask all these people to— and they're going to be flocking, they're going to be flocking to this thing, it's going to be amazing. And then they go out there and it's crickets and they cannot figure out why. Explain to us why.

All right, so this is where if I had myself together, I would have a piggy bank in front of me. My kid has a piggy bank, it's in the other room. I won't go get it now, but just pretend I'm holding it in front of me and it's, it's full of quarters and dimes and pennies and nickels. And this is your relationship. Every give, every positive interaction that you have with your audience puts a coin in that piggy bank. If it's a really good positive interaction, it might put 2 or 3 coins in there, but you're filling up your relationship piggy bank. And then when you ask them to attend something, a workshop that's 90 minutes, a live stream, a, an event in person, there's a payment associated with that. If you haven't put enough into the piggy bank, they're not gonna have enough to afford it, okay? So I'm putting that in money terms, but really what it is It's a 90-minute workshop for somebody I don't know. That is a lot of time. That is a lot of time and attention you are asking of me, right? And if you're charging for it, now you're asking for time, attention, and money, and you need my, my name and email address at the very least. So you want 4 different currencies, and I've never met you. Yeah, you haven't put enough into the piggy bank yet. So really, when you're building your call to action, it's important to think about who you're speaking to, how much you need from them, and how much you've put into that relationship to begin with.

100%. And, and I love that you frame this around this idea of different kinds of currency because When you're going out there, you know, and you're trying, let's say, you have something amazing that you want to share with people, but then you wonder, why are people not flocking to this thing? Think about those currencies. What are you asking people to do? Because it is no small feat for any busy person, right, to spend 90 minutes watching something. They've got to be seriously invested and further down that customer journey than someone who's a beginner and doesn't know you yet. No one's going to be wanting to spend not, not, never mind like 5 currencies, not even 1 currency, one of these 1 currencies if they're not like invested in it yet, right? So, um, okay, so let's go back to the calls to action that convert. How do we get around that then? Because we do want to include calls to action in our social media and how we're interacting with people. What are the do's and don'ts that we need to be mindful of?

So the do include a call to action with everything, everything. I'll give you the way how. Tap into those 5 currencies. A call to action is literally you just saying, hey, do this thing. All right. So at the end of your email, check out this video I did. That's a call to action. You're asking for time and attention. And those two, by the way, are very closely related. So um, you know, there are some cases where you'll want time and not attention, but usually it's both. You're asking for time and attention when you ask them to watch a video, or, hey, come leave your feedback on this Instagram post. That's information. You're asking for information and feedback, right? Comment below, give me a— let me know what you think. Those kinds of really casual questions are actually calls to action. So it's not hard to include a CTA with everything you do. The reason you want to do this is it establishes from the get-go that this is now a give-and-take relationship, that you're happy to give, but you're also going to ask them to give back. It builds that two-way communication and that a two-way transfer of— we can call it whatever you want, energy, intention, right? That kind of stuff. But it trains them essentially that you're going to ask them to do things. Yeah. And we'll be okay with that.

Yeah. And I think that a lot of entrepreneurs, especially maybe early stage or people who are kind of in that hustle mode, that kind of bootstrap mode, they are frustrated because they're like, I'm doing everything. I'm, I'm listening to every coach and told— they tell me to make this amazing lead magnet and like, why aren't people not I'm talking to it. And, um, and I think it's because a lot of times we think of calls to action as literally the thing that I'm selling, right? The call to action is only related to the thing I'm selling, the product or the service. But to your point, the call to action can be any number of actions that you're asking people to take, and it doesn't have to cost money. It doesn't have to cost monetary money, but there is a currency that's being traded. And I love that angle. What is the biggest challenge that you're seeing people face right now when it comes to, to calls to action?

Really, the biggest challenge— and I think this is probably true in more of marketing than just the call to action part of it— is, is really just the amount of demand there is on your prospect's attention. To stop the scroll is a thing. It's, you know, and people say, oh, attention spans are getting shorter and the 7-second TikTok, and there is merit to that. I don't ever want to discount that kind of thing, but— and this is from somebody who does not watch video, I struggle to retain the information— I will sit and watch a 30-minute YouTube video if it interests me. Me too. If it's valuable, right? I'll read, I'll read a book that's not interesting just because it doesn't take that much effort for me, but to watch a video takes effort. So, but if it's interesting, I'll do it. Well, the same holds true for your people if you're creating things that give them, right? So just like there's currencies you ask for, they have currencies too. If you give them value in the form of attention, information, build a relationship with them, give them time, right? That's value to them too. Money, of course, we're just not— that's beside the point. But those are currencies you can put out to then ask for other ones back. And now you've got a trade. And that is how you get that attention. You build that relationship. And ultimately you work toward the sale. Yeah.

And the idea of thinking of it through the lens of these 5 currencies, I think is really powerful because then you as the creator, if you are putting something out there and you're asking people to trade, you know, one or more of these, the higher, the more currencies that you're asking for in return, the harder sell it is because you're asking so much of that person. I think a lot of times people think, well, gee, you know, I'm the one who put all this work into this. All they have to do is spend 30 minutes watching it. 30 minutes, you're asking a lot of someone to spend 30. You're asking a lot of someone to do something for 8 minutes, let alone 30, right? So you gotta really think about the other person and put yourself in their shoes. They're busy. They've got kids. They're running a business. They're trying to get exercise in. They're shopping, all these different things. But we're so insular and we're so kind of in our own head. And we're like, of course, all this value that I'm putting out there, people should be flocking. But looking at it through the lens of these 5 currencies, I think is really powerful.

Love it. And what you said I really like is that you actually want to respect what you're asking them to do. Right. So think about— and, and the example that I've always used, which does not work so much now because I keep my wallet right next to my computer, um, because I have an online shopping addiction. And yes, it has cats on it. But let's pretend I had a purse in the other room and it had my wallet in it and I wanted to buy something and I didn't already have all my credit cards saved in my little wallet thing, um, on the computer. But if I want to buy something, I have to get up out of my chair, I have to go into the other room, I have to navigate my family, my husband who's going to want to know what I'm buying, I have to find my wallet because I have no idea where I put it, I have to choose the correct account that I want it to come out of, I have to come in, I have to enter the numbers, I have to flip it over, get that little code, right? I've got to enter in— that's a lot of steps. Really break it down into the steps that I'm being asked to do. Do that for everything you're asking your people to do and then decide and determine objectively, have I put enough into the relationship to really ask for that whole list of tasks? Won't always be a—

What I heard in that example, the word friction just came to my mind. It's about friction. The more friction that you're putting between you and the outcome that you want, like, or the, the, uh, the thing that you're asking people to do, the less likely they are to do it. The more friction there is, the more steps, the more hoops people have to jump through, the less likely you're going to get those higher conversions. So you have to make it super, super simple, which is often what you hear. And I know that in your world with sales copy, and you've written the sales copy that have generated millions of dollars. I know you've generated hundreds of thousands of leads for clients and such. But it's that piece around making it as simple as possible. The more hoops you make people jump through, the less likely they are to actually do the thing you're asking them to do, to convert.

Correct. Correct.

And I think that's really powerful.

Yeah, that's exactly it. And also consider, like, you know, if a stranger on the street asked me to do a list of 10 tasks, my answer is likely no. But if my best friend or my husband asked me to, No-brainer, of course, right? The relationship matters in— and how, again, how much you've put into it.

Segment that we do called Stop Marketing Like It's $19.99. So, Alison, what is a tip, a tool, a tactic, or technique that's helping you to market for yourself for the year that we live in?

So it's stop marketing like it's $19.99. I actually thought about this because I knew this segment was coming. I want you to market like it's $18.99. I want you to create an online Mayberry where you know everyone's name, you have a relationship— is the big word of the day today— but you've really built up that kind of friendship and you understand them. Think about it. You walk down the street, Main Street, the grocer knows your name and he knows that you need bread today, and this person knows your name and you feel welcomed. I want you to create that for your people so they feel welcomed into your world, into your online Mayberry, and, and see what difference that makes for you.

Old school.

That's right.

Going back to old school. I'm loving it. I love it. That is fantastic advice. And on that note, I thank you so much for coming on Cash In On Camera and sharing your expertise and your wisdom. And your knowledge. I think these 5 currencies and the tips you've shared today will really help our audience. Thank you so much for coming on.

Thanks for having me. This was fun.