July 25, 2023 • 22 mins
You need your content to convert. Product and Agency Communications are all about offering your readers the chance to inform themselves about what you do, and convincing them to take the next step.
This week, we talk about guiding your audience to take action with Calls to Action (CTAs) and Calls to Value (CTVs). Carl Richards, Jeffrey A. "jam" McGuire, Christine Buehler, Chris Fenwick, and Felicity Brand peel back the layers on how these content components can enhance your narrative, drive readers' enthusiasm, and ultimately increase the effectiveness of your work.
We explore practical tips on where to place these crucial elements and discuss how they influence user experience. We'll also dissect different examples of CTAs and CTVs, from buttons to links and sentences. Whether you're an editor, a writer, or interested in digital marketing, this episode can help refine your skills and write more engaging pieces. Tune in now!
Welcome to the Open Strategy Partners podcast, "Communicate, Connect, Grow!" At Open Strategy Partners, we specialize in strategic product communication. We help you communicate the value of what you do, connect you with the people who need to know about it, and grow.
To get in touch with us, follow what we’re doing, or learn about our Writer Enablement Workshops, you can:
- Go to our website
- Email us at hello@openstrategypartners.com
- Hit us up on Twitter
- Subscribe to our podcast wherever you listen to podcasts
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carl Richards (00:07):
Hi, i'm Carl from OSP and this is Communicate,
connect Grow, the OSP podcast.
On today's episode, we'retalking about using a call to
action in your writing with theediting code CTA, if you want to
be a more effective writer, amore transparent editor, develop
clear strategic thinking orlearn from our network of expert
(00:29):
friends and colleagues.
that's what we're here for.
We divide our episodes acrossthree themes Communicate,
connect and Grow.
This is a Communicate episodeand we're talking about giving
your audience clear prompts forwhat to do next with our
editorial code CTA.
The CTA editing code falls intothe scope and narrative
(01:06):
structure phase of the editingprocess and it's about giving
your audience a prompt to act.
In our documentation about thiscode, it says close to with a
clear call to action.
Jeffrey A. "jam" McGuire (01:18):
Hi, i'm Jeffrey McGuire, you can
call me Jam.
Please subscribe to our podcast.
Go read our blog.
We have this code, cta, in ourediting codes, i think mostly as
a placeholder, because anyonedoing the writing and the
digital marketing is.
This is kind of baked into ourperspective Through writing
(01:40):
something to give someone anopportunity to learn more or to
download a thing or what haveyou.
I have my taste in where CTAsgo in articles and then I can.
If someone hasn't put one inthe places where I feel they
should be, then I can make alittle mark CTA, put something
like this in great And ha ha ha.
I did my introducing myself withcalls to action directly
(02:03):
because I thought that would bequote unquote, clever.
The slightly more interestingthing about CTA is that this
topic covers both calls toaction and calls to value, ctvs,
and the difference is worthpaying attention to because you
can use calls to value in somemore subtle ways and within the
(02:26):
flow of your text so you canchange things up and put in a
few more place opportunities forpeople to do something.
So a call to action in the endis click this button, book a
demo, download the white paper.
It's always do a thing That's acall to action.
You put it For me.
I like to put one in after theintroduction to the article,
where we've read the lead andit's you know.
(02:48):
You've summed up, for example,the challenge that the article
is addressing and the benefityou can get from solving it, and
maybe like a name check of howyou're going to solve it.
You introduce the context,you're talking again.
Boom, already convinced, wantto learn more, book a demo, boom
, cta, right.
And then when you get to theend of the article and you've
summed everything up again, it'sa good place to have it.
A call to value says start yourlearning journey today or begin
(03:15):
your personal growth, orsomething like that, where it's
not a specific action but it'sinviting someone into your
vision and like talking aboutthe end goal.
So you're showing them rightthe value of an interaction with
whatever you're offering, andboth of them have their place.
Cta is kind of often come inbuttons or very clear links.
(03:39):
Calls to value can be includedin describing bigger stories, i
guess.
Christine Beuhler (03:44):
I am Christine Bueller.
I'm a communications consultantat Open Strategy Partners,
where I work on writing andmarketing materials for many
different tech and open sourcecompanies.
Well, CTA is prettyself-explanatory Just means
close your piece with a clearcall to action.
Chris Fenwick (04:08):
Hi, I'm Chris Fenwick and I work as a content
writer and also editor at OSP.
I mean, if we're talking aboutediting longer form blog pieces,
then it's very much a kind ofstructural code.
It's just like here's a thingthat you need to have either at
the beginning, after theintroduction, or at the end,
(04:29):
where it's a leap off point tothe end client website.
I mean, obviously, if you'redoing social media tweets and
things like that, a lot of themshould have some sort of CTA in
as well.
But we're more frequently usingthese codes to annotate blogs
and so forth.
Felicity Brand (04:45):
I'm Felicity Brand.
I'm a communications consultantat Open Strategy Partners CTA.
Call to action.
So you've written some greatwords, you've engaged your
reader.
They're really enthusiastic.
Now what do you want them to do?
What is the point of thiswriting?
So you want to include a callto action.
(05:08):
That may be you want them tobook something, to download
something, to join something, toshare their story.
Whatever it may be, you want totell people what to do and make
it easy for them to do thatthing.
The moment fades fast, so youneed to make sure you've got
(05:28):
your CTA well placed.
At OSP, we tend to include oneearly, like generally after the
opening paragraph, and one atthe conclusion or at the end of
the article.
They're usually the same.
Sometimes they can be different, but the point is that we
include at least one CTA so thatthat writing is doing some work
(05:51):
.
We don't just write for thesake of it.
We want that writing to have apurpose.
That's what the CTA is allabout.
Carl Richards (06:00):
Now we're going to look at how this code is used
in your typical workday as aneditor.
Jeffrey A. "jam" McGuire (06:05):
As an editor.
there's a reallystraightforward part where I
want to check that CTAs are inthe places that I think they
should be and if they're not, iwill say please put one here,
based on whatever the goal ofthis campaign is.
I'll call to value.
Sometimes I'll say, hey, whydon't we swap this kind of dull
click the thing for start yourjourney to better golfing today,
(06:30):
right, it's a chance to openthings out a little bit.
In the end, this is a veryfunctional, very straightforward
code.
So are they there?
Are they aligned with the RECcampaign?
Go?
Christine Beuhler (06:39):
I would say that, as editors, we're always
checking that the CTA is bothspecific to the piece and also
very clear.
Vaganness does not serve youwell when it comes to reading,
writing or editing CTAs.
(07:01):
It's also a good place todouble check with your client
that you are 100% positive ofthe action they want the readers
to take, because there could beso many different actions.
You always want to make surethat you're directing the
readers where the client wantsthem to go.
Chris Fenwick (07:21):
I think it's a very simple code because from my
perspective it's just like astructural element that is
either going to be there or not.
If there's no CTA at the end ofthe article, then this is a big
problem, And likewise, in a lotof cases, especially for a
longer article, you'll want oneat the end of the introductory
paragraph as well, just so youhave these jump off points.
(07:43):
So for me, if it's missing,then it's just like a big issue.
Obviously, if it's there, it'salso great and you can commend
somebody on that.
Felicity Brand (07:51):
As an editor, when I'm working with the CTA
code, firstly I'm checking tosee that we have at least one.
Then I'm also going to look forhow we've worded it.
So I want it to be nice andactive, direct address using
verbs.
If it's for a client, i want tomake sure it's consistent with
the rest of the client's CTAs.
And then with my readeradvocate, hat on.
(08:15):
As an editor, i want to makesure that CTA is addressing
another editing code we havewith them.
What's in it for me.
So that's a way I can add valueas an editor, which just means
looking for the value for thereader and making sure the CTA
captures that and articulatesthat.
It's important that the CTA isin line with or is married to
(08:40):
some other codes lead and front.
So with our piece of writingwe've got a great title.
We've hopefully got a greatopening talking about what this
piece of writing is about.
As soon as we see that CTA, itneeds to be in that family, so
it can't come out of left fieldand get you to do something
completely unrelated.
(09:01):
They've all got to worktogether and that is going to
build trust with your reader.
So is no nasty surprises, you'remanaging their expectations and
you're hopefully getting yourreader to do a thing.
A call to action.
Jeffrey A. "jam" McGuire (09:19):
Let's explore how you can approach
this code as a writer the waythat we work with a strategy in
place and with a content briefin place that says this is my
audience, this is the challengethey're facing and this is how
we solve it.
The call to action is oftenlisted right in our briefing
material and it says the pointof this campaign is to get demos
.
The point of this campaign isto get people to read this thing
(09:41):
.
The point of this campaign isto get them on an email list,
whatever it is, and then,accordingly, i wanna put one in.
I wanna make sure that it'saligned with the goals and if I
can get clever and turn one intoa ctv that feels like it's, you
know, rhetorically more alignedor interesting than I, might
take that chance.
But For the writer to, when I'mwriting this is a checklist
(10:02):
item.
I have it.
Is it what it's supposed to be?
Christine Beuhler (10:04):
yeah, the the cta as a writer is an
interesting challenge.
For one thing, it kind of likesums up the importance of the
entire piece.
You know the cta should supportthe entirety of what you've
just written, so it's importantthat it's strong, relevant,
(10:25):
specific.
You know it is also challengingbecause Cta is not supposed to
be long.
It should be a sentence maybeto at most.
So really short and sweet, andas a writer I think you usually
know that it's almost alwaysharder to make things shorter.
(10:47):
Kind of getting your economy ofwords down is a definitely a
writerly skill that most peoplehave to work towards.
Chris Fenwick (10:56):
Expressing a lot with a little is always a
challenge yeah, i mean I thinkit's a necessary part of the
outline of a piece, so it's likeit's explicitly there in the
structure and in the plan thatyou know.
Cta goes here at the end of theintroduction and he is another
one at the very end of the piece.
In terms of how you write themDepends a little bit on the
(11:20):
nature of the piece.
If it's about a feature of someproducts, then I guess you just
sort of the first one will besomewhat subtle and you kind of
just mentioned the product andthen say you can try it and then
at the end, after the feature,you'll at the very end of the
article is we incorporated moreinto the conclusion?
Along the lines of if you need x, y and z, these things that
(11:42):
have already been discussed inthe article, then they are
offered by whatever which youcan try.
Here I mean, similarly, ifyou've got, if you've done like
a case study for B2B marketingand you've presented a client,
and then how well, and then howa company has helped them, you
can say you should have showedup, go through the whole
(12:03):
structure of the case study.
You can say something like well, you know, if you've got a
business idea but need a team todeliver your web app, or if you
think your website couldbenefit from a similar content
review, try it.
Felicity Brand (12:16):
You know, contact us here this sort of
thing so I'm technical writer,my background is in technical
writing and CTAs are foreign tous and that means as a writer, i
come to CTAs without amarketing background.
So I just approach them in areally straight forward way.
I think what do I want thereaders to do?
(12:37):
try to articulate that as awriter, and particularly a
writer at OSP, i can rely on ourcontent brief.
So the content brief will havealready included what we want
the readers to do.
So it's not going to give methe words to use for my call to
action, but it is going to giveme The action that we want our
readers to take.
(12:58):
So that means, as a writer, idon't have to work that out.
You know, it's already stated.
What I'm doing as a writer isworking out.
You know what verbs to use, howto get extra mile and Rather
than have a call to action,which is fine you can have a
call to value and that's a wayof stating what the readers
going to get out of doing theaction.
(13:19):
So, rather than a directive,sign up for a workshop.
You try to articulate thebenefit that the reader will get
.
So it might be level up mywriting skills.
It's still a button, it's stillan action for them to do, but
the words on that buttonhopefully get straight to the
heart of what the reader istrying to achieve.
(13:41):
I think there's quite an art inwriting CTAs.
There's a lot of research intoit.
You can really go down a deephole.
As a writer, and particularlywith my background as technical
writer, i tend to just bestraightforward with it and
don't overthink it.
Carl Richards (13:57):
Now, this writing code is important to readers
for many different reasons.
Jeffrey A. "jam" McGuire (14:01):
This is.
I find this way moreinteresting than you might
expect.
I know that people look forways to interact with you when
they're reading a page.
So if you put get a demo on acolored button that is at the
bottom of the page, peoplerecognize that pattern And if
(14:21):
they've been interested in whatthey've been consuming, they're
very likely to scan and findthat thing and say, oh, i can
get a demo, i can okay and clickthat.
And if you just put it as alink or you put it in a
paragraph of text, people mightoverlook it or they'd be like
well, and I've had the feedback.
You know that was cool, but Icouldn't figure out how to
interact with you there.
(14:42):
So there's a.
There's some really interestingcrossover into UX here.
So you have to do some thinking.
My generic template in my mindis that I want to put a call to
action as a sentence right afterthe introduction.
I talked about that before AndI want a structured article that
offers my reader the chance tolearn about the thing that I'm,
(15:03):
that I want them to eventuallytry with me or buy or the
experience, or just subscribe tomy book, whatever it is.
I want them to appreciate thatI'm doing all my other writing
stuff And at the bottom then,depending on the brand and the
website style and whatever, atthat point it's quite good to
put a button in there with a CTAon it, and if there's not, if
(15:25):
you have the chance to do UXtesting or whatever you should.
But I was really, reallyfascinated when somebody gave me
this feedback Oh, there was noplace to interact with your page
And I there clearly was, but itwasn't highlighted.
So crossover into the world ofUX.
Maybe we can find someone totalk about about this topic.
That would be super interesting.
Christine Beuhler (15:44):
So the CTA is a helpful reminder for readers,
usually just why you're readinga piece in the first place.
Once you reach the end, youdon't have to stop and think to
yourself well, what should I dowith the information that I've
just read?
The CTA is right there.
(16:05):
It makes it very clear andobvious.
So it's kind of like performinga service for the reader.
It sort of removes some of themental load.
Chris Fenwick (16:16):
I mean, i think a lot of readers are already
reading, looking for a CTA inmind.
I mean, if they're deliberatelyGoogling particular solutions
because they need a CMS thatdoes x, y or z.
If after the first paragraph ofthe blog article, they sort of
see, oh, this is helpful,they'll probably open it in a
(16:38):
new tab.
I think actually it's somethingyou want to put in with the
expectation that readers areactually looking for it already.
On the other hand, of course,it's possible that a reader has
found the piece through someother means and they're reading
it out of interest, in whichcase it's useful to them, and
then they're just going to wantto follow through on it.
(16:59):
I mean if the piece is doing agood job or connects to them.
But I think in a lot of casesit's also something that the
reader is specifically going toscan the article for.
Felicity Brand (17:08):
As a reader.
You may not notice, but CTAsare kind of important.
Recently I was reading a blogpost and I was left hanging
bereft at the end because I'dread this article.
I was sold.
And I got to the end I didn'tknow what to do with my short
lived enthusiasm because therewas no CTA.
So I thought, okay, well, i cango to the contact page.
(17:31):
I mean, what if I want to findout more?
And after a few clicks I just Ileft because my enthusiasm had
waned.
So it's really important tocapture that moment and
capitalize on the good feeling.
And the other way that CTAs areimportant as a reader is it can
be an early warning sign aboutthe agenda of a piece of writing
(17:54):
.
It can kind of reveal theunderlying purpose.
You can get a nasty shock ifyou've read something and you're
trusting the author and then atthe end they want you to buy
something.
They can give you a glimpseinto any kind of agenda.
But I think most of us probablyby now, as readers on the
internet do expect that therewill be some kind of stepping
(18:18):
stone at the end for readingmore, joining a community,
downloading a trial, whatever itmay be, even if you're reading
something for pleasure.
You may want to get on thenewsletter list, you know.
Want to want to be on the listfor the next update.
Yeah, isn't that interesting?
I hadn't actually thought aboutthat.
(18:38):
Reading for pleasure on theinternet, you still.
It's rare that you're going tocome to the internet read
something and leave, am I wrong?
Carl Richards (18:47):
Yeah, that brings us to a close, dear listener.
As always, we sign off with ourcalls to action.
(19:09):
We'd love for you to share yourexamples or questions with us
via Twitter at open underscorestrategy, or email.
Hello at open strategypartnerscom.
This was one of the editorialcodes we use at OSP.
We'll be sharing more of themas we go.
If you'd like to learn more inthe meantime, come over to
OpenStrategyPartnerscom.
(19:30):
Have a look at our writerenablement workshops, case study
offering or get in touch totalk about your strategy or
product communication needs.
Thanks to everyone whocontributed to this podcast All
the P's at OSP.
Thanks to our clients whobelieve in us.
Shout out to Patrick Gaumontfor our high-energy maple syrup
(19:54):
flavored theme music and to MikeSnow for additional horn
arrangements.
Thank you for listening andsubscribing About our three
themes.
On the podcast You'll hear fromdifferent members of the OSP
team hosting episodes over time.
Communicate All thingscommunication We share how we
(20:16):
tackle writing, editing, wordchoices, formats, processes and
more.
Connect In-depth conversationswith interesting, smart people
about who they are, what they doand how they approach their
life and work as communicators,technologists and leaders.
Grow We cover strategicapproaches to understanding and
(20:40):
expressing the value of what youdo, including tools, templates
and practical applications.
We also feel strongly aboutbuilding a mindful, positive,
human-first culture at work.
That's bound to pop up fromtime to time too.
This podcast is us figuring outcommunication, connection and
(21:02):
growing together.
Subscribe now on YouTube, applePodcasts or the podcast channel
of your choice.
Follow us, suggest guests andtopics, ask us questions.
on social media, we are at OpenUnderscore Strategy on Twitter
Until next time.
Thanks for listening toCommunicate, connect, grow the
(21:23):
OSP podcast.
Jeffrey A. "jam" McGu (21:54):
Subscribe to Communicate Connect.
Grow our podcast on iTunes,spotify, everywhere you get your
podcasts.
Come read our blog.
Come click our buttons and bookdemos.
Start your journey to growingyour company.
Today We do strategiccommunications and we even have
fun on it, doing it on good days.
So here we are.
Hi, i'm Carl from OSP and this is Communicate,
connect Grow, the OSP podcast.
On today's episode, we'retalking about using a call to
action in your writing with theediting code CTA, if you want to
be a more effective writer, amore transparent editor, develop
clear strategic thinking orlearn from our network of expert
(00:29):
friends and colleagues.
that's what we're here for.
We divide our episodes acrossthree themes Communicate,
connect and Grow.
This is a Communicate episodeand we're talking about giving
your audience clear prompts forwhat to do next with our
editorial code CTA.
The CTA editing code falls intothe scope and narrative
(01:06):
structure phase of the editingprocess and it's about giving
your audience a prompt to act.
In our documentation about thiscode, it says close to with a
clear call to action.
Jeffrey A. "jam" McGuire (01:18):
Hi, i'm Jeffrey McGuire, you can
call me Jam.
Please subscribe to our podcast.
Go read our blog.
We have this code, cta, in ourediting codes, i think mostly as
a placeholder, because anyonedoing the writing and the
digital marketing is.
This is kind of baked into ourperspective Through writing
(01:40):
something to give someone anopportunity to learn more or to
download a thing or what haveyou.
I have my taste in where CTAsgo in articles and then I can.
If someone hasn't put one inthe places where I feel they
should be, then I can make alittle mark CTA, put something
like this in great And ha ha ha.
I did my introducing myself withcalls to action directly
(02:03):
because I thought that would bequote unquote, clever.
The slightly more interestingthing about CTA is that this
topic covers both calls toaction and calls to value, ctvs,
and the difference is worthpaying attention to because you
can use calls to value in somemore subtle ways and within the
(02:26):
flow of your text so you canchange things up and put in a
few more place opportunities forpeople to do something.
So a call to action in the endis click this button, book a
demo, download the white paper.
It's always do a thing That's acall to action.
You put it For me.
I like to put one in after theintroduction to the article,
where we've read the lead andit's you know.
(02:48):
You've summed up, for example,the challenge that the article
is addressing and the benefityou can get from solving it, and
maybe like a name check of howyou're going to solve it.
You introduce the context,you're talking again.
Boom, already convinced, wantto learn more, book a demo, boom
, cta, right.
And then when you get to theend of the article and you've
summed everything up again, it'sa good place to have it.
A call to value says start yourlearning journey today or begin
(03:15):
your personal growth, orsomething like that, where it's
not a specific action but it'sinviting someone into your
vision and like talking aboutthe end goal.
So you're showing them rightthe value of an interaction with
whatever you're offering, andboth of them have their place.
Cta is kind of often come inbuttons or very clear links.
(03:39):
Calls to value can be includedin describing bigger stories, i
guess.
Christine Beuhler (03:44):
I am Christine Bueller.
I'm a communications consultantat Open Strategy Partners,
where I work on writing andmarketing materials for many
different tech and open sourcecompanies.
Well, CTA is prettyself-explanatory Just means
close your piece with a clearcall to action.
Chris Fenwick (04:08):
Hi, I'm Chris Fenwick and I work as a content
writer and also editor at OSP.
I mean, if we're talking aboutediting longer form blog pieces,
then it's very much a kind ofstructural code.
It's just like here's a thingthat you need to have either at
the beginning, after theintroduction, or at the end,
(04:29):
where it's a leap off point tothe end client website.
I mean, obviously, if you'redoing social media tweets and
things like that, a lot of themshould have some sort of CTA in
as well.
But we're more frequently usingthese codes to annotate blogs
and so forth.
Felicity Brand (04:45):
I'm Felicity Brand.
I'm a communications consultantat Open Strategy Partners CTA.
Call to action.
So you've written some greatwords, you've engaged your
reader.
They're really enthusiastic.
Now what do you want them to do?
What is the point of thiswriting?
So you want to include a callto action.
(05:08):
That may be you want them tobook something, to download
something, to join something, toshare their story.
Whatever it may be, you want totell people what to do and make
it easy for them to do thatthing.
The moment fades fast, so youneed to make sure you've got
(05:28):
your CTA well placed.
At OSP, we tend to include oneearly, like generally after the
opening paragraph, and one atthe conclusion or at the end of
the article.
They're usually the same.
Sometimes they can be different, but the point is that we
include at least one CTA so thatthat writing is doing some work
(05:51):
.
We don't just write for thesake of it.
We want that writing to have apurpose.
That's what the CTA is allabout.
Carl Richards (06:00):
Now we're going to look at how this code is used
in your typical workday as aneditor.
Jeffrey A. "jam" McGuire (06:05):
As an editor.
there's a reallystraightforward part where I
want to check that CTAs are inthe places that I think they
should be and if they're not, iwill say please put one here,
based on whatever the goal ofthis campaign is.
I'll call to value.
Sometimes I'll say, hey, whydon't we swap this kind of dull
click the thing for start yourjourney to better golfing today,
(06:30):
right, it's a chance to openthings out a little bit.
In the end, this is a veryfunctional, very straightforward
code.
So are they there?
Are they aligned with the RECcampaign?
Go?
Christine Beuhler (06:39):
I would say that, as editors, we're always
checking that the CTA is bothspecific to the piece and also
very clear.
Vaganness does not serve youwell when it comes to reading,
writing or editing CTAs.
(07:01):
It's also a good place todouble check with your client
that you are 100% positive ofthe action they want the readers
to take, because there could beso many different actions.
You always want to make surethat you're directing the
readers where the client wantsthem to go.
Chris Fenwick (07:21):
I think it's a very simple code because from my
perspective it's just like astructural element that is
either going to be there or not.
If there's no CTA at the end ofthe article, then this is a big
problem, And likewise, in a lotof cases, especially for a
longer article, you'll want oneat the end of the introductory
paragraph as well, just so youhave these jump off points.
(07:43):
So for me, if it's missing,then it's just like a big issue.
Obviously, if it's there, it'salso great and you can commend
somebody on that.
Felicity Brand (07:51):
As an editor, when I'm working with the CTA
code, firstly I'm checking tosee that we have at least one.
Then I'm also going to look forhow we've worded it.
So I want it to be nice andactive, direct address using
verbs.
If it's for a client, i want tomake sure it's consistent with
the rest of the client's CTAs.
And then with my readeradvocate, hat on.
(08:15):
As an editor, i want to makesure that CTA is addressing
another editing code we havewith them.
What's in it for me.
So that's a way I can add valueas an editor, which just means
looking for the value for thereader and making sure the CTA
captures that and articulatesthat.
It's important that the CTA isin line with or is married to
(08:40):
some other codes lead and front.
So with our piece of writingwe've got a great title.
We've hopefully got a greatopening talking about what this
piece of writing is about.
As soon as we see that CTA, itneeds to be in that family, so
it can't come out of left fieldand get you to do something
completely unrelated.
(09:01):
They've all got to worktogether and that is going to
build trust with your reader.
So is no nasty surprises, you'remanaging their expectations and
you're hopefully getting yourreader to do a thing.
A call to action.
Jeffrey A. "jam" McGuire (09:19):
Let's explore how you can approach
this code as a writer the waythat we work with a strategy in
place and with a content briefin place that says this is my
audience, this is the challengethey're facing and this is how
we solve it.
The call to action is oftenlisted right in our briefing
material and it says the pointof this campaign is to get demos
.
The point of this campaign isto get people to read this thing
(09:41):
.
The point of this campaign isto get them on an email list,
whatever it is, and then,accordingly, i wanna put one in.
I wanna make sure that it'saligned with the goals and if I
can get clever and turn one intoa ctv that feels like it's, you
know, rhetorically more alignedor interesting than I, might
take that chance.
But For the writer to, when I'mwriting this is a checklist
(10:02):
item.
I have it.
Is it what it's supposed to be?
Christine Beuhler (10:04):
yeah, the the cta as a writer is an
interesting challenge.
For one thing, it kind of likesums up the importance of the
entire piece.
You know the cta should supportthe entirety of what you've
just written, so it's importantthat it's strong, relevant,
(10:25):
specific.
You know it is also challengingbecause Cta is not supposed to
be long.
It should be a sentence maybeto at most.
So really short and sweet, andas a writer I think you usually
know that it's almost alwaysharder to make things shorter.
(10:47):
Kind of getting your economy ofwords down is a definitely a
writerly skill that most peoplehave to work towards.
Chris Fenwick (10:56):
Expressing a lot with a little is always a
challenge yeah, i mean I thinkit's a necessary part of the
outline of a piece, so it's likeit's explicitly there in the
structure and in the plan thatyou know.
Cta goes here at the end of theintroduction and he is another
one at the very end of the piece.
In terms of how you write themDepends a little bit on the
(11:20):
nature of the piece.
If it's about a feature of someproducts, then I guess you just
sort of the first one will besomewhat subtle and you kind of
just mentioned the product andthen say you can try it and then
at the end, after the feature,you'll at the very end of the
article is we incorporated moreinto the conclusion?
Along the lines of if you need x, y and z, these things that
(11:42):
have already been discussed inthe article, then they are
offered by whatever which youcan try.
Here I mean, similarly, ifyou've got, if you've done like
a case study for B2B marketingand you've presented a client,
and then how well, and then howa company has helped them, you
can say you should have showedup, go through the whole
(12:03):
structure of the case study.
You can say something like well, you know, if you've got a
business idea but need a team todeliver your web app, or if you
think your website couldbenefit from a similar content
review, try it.
Felicity Brand (12:16):
You know, contact us here this sort of
thing so I'm technical writer,my background is in technical
writing and CTAs are foreign tous and that means as a writer, i
come to CTAs without amarketing background.
So I just approach them in areally straight forward way.
I think what do I want thereaders to do?
(12:37):
try to articulate that as awriter, and particularly a
writer at OSP, i can rely on ourcontent brief.
So the content brief will havealready included what we want
the readers to do.
So it's not going to give methe words to use for my call to
action, but it is going to giveme The action that we want our
readers to take.
(12:58):
So that means, as a writer, idon't have to work that out.
You know, it's already stated.
What I'm doing as a writer isworking out.
You know what verbs to use, howto get extra mile and Rather
than have a call to action,which is fine you can have a
call to value and that's a wayof stating what the readers
going to get out of doing theaction.
(13:19):
So, rather than a directive,sign up for a workshop.
You try to articulate thebenefit that the reader will get
.
So it might be level up mywriting skills.
It's still a button, it's stillan action for them to do, but
the words on that buttonhopefully get straight to the
heart of what the reader istrying to achieve.
(13:41):
I think there's quite an art inwriting CTAs.
There's a lot of research intoit.
You can really go down a deephole.
As a writer, and particularlywith my background as technical
writer, i tend to just bestraightforward with it and
don't overthink it.
Carl Richards (13:57):
Now, this writing code is important to readers
for many different reasons.
Jeffrey A. "jam" McGuire (14:01):
This is.
I find this way moreinteresting than you might
expect.
I know that people look forways to interact with you when
they're reading a page.
So if you put get a demo on acolored button that is at the
bottom of the page, peoplerecognize that pattern And if
(14:21):
they've been interested in whatthey've been consuming, they're
very likely to scan and findthat thing and say, oh, i can
get a demo, i can okay and clickthat.
And if you just put it as alink or you put it in a
paragraph of text, people mightoverlook it or they'd be like
well, and I've had the feedback.
You know that was cool, but Icouldn't figure out how to
interact with you there.
(14:42):
So there's a.
There's some really interestingcrossover into UX here.
So you have to do some thinking.
My generic template in my mindis that I want to put a call to
action as a sentence right afterthe introduction.
I talked about that before AndI want a structured article that
offers my reader the chance tolearn about the thing that I'm,
(15:03):
that I want them to eventuallytry with me or buy or the
experience, or just subscribe tomy book, whatever it is.
I want them to appreciate thatI'm doing all my other writing
stuff And at the bottom then,depending on the brand and the
website style and whatever, atthat point it's quite good to
put a button in there with a CTAon it, and if there's not, if
(15:25):
you have the chance to do UXtesting or whatever you should.
But I was really, reallyfascinated when somebody gave me
this feedback Oh, there was noplace to interact with your page
And I there clearly was, but itwasn't highlighted.
So crossover into the world ofUX.
Maybe we can find someone totalk about about this topic.
That would be super interesting.
Christine Beuhler (15:44):
So the CTA is a helpful reminder for readers,
usually just why you're readinga piece in the first place.
Once you reach the end, youdon't have to stop and think to
yourself well, what should I dowith the information that I've
just read?
The CTA is right there.
(16:05):
It makes it very clear andobvious.
So it's kind of like performinga service for the reader.
It sort of removes some of themental load.
Chris Fenwick (16:16):
I mean, i think a lot of readers are already
reading, looking for a CTA inmind.
I mean, if they're deliberatelyGoogling particular solutions
because they need a CMS thatdoes x, y or z.
If after the first paragraph ofthe blog article, they sort of
see, oh, this is helpful,they'll probably open it in a
(16:38):
new tab.
I think actually it's somethingyou want to put in with the
expectation that readers areactually looking for it already.
On the other hand, of course,it's possible that a reader has
found the piece through someother means and they're reading
it out of interest, in whichcase it's useful to them, and
then they're just going to wantto follow through on it.
(16:59):
I mean if the piece is doing agood job or connects to them.
But I think in a lot of casesit's also something that the
reader is specifically going toscan the article for.
Felicity Brand (17:08):
As a reader.
You may not notice, but CTAsare kind of important.
Recently I was reading a blogpost and I was left hanging
bereft at the end because I'dread this article.
I was sold.
And I got to the end I didn'tknow what to do with my short
lived enthusiasm because therewas no CTA.
So I thought, okay, well, i cango to the contact page.
(17:31):
I mean, what if I want to findout more?
And after a few clicks I just Ileft because my enthusiasm had
waned.
So it's really important tocapture that moment and
capitalize on the good feeling.
And the other way that CTAs areimportant as a reader is it can
be an early warning sign aboutthe agenda of a piece of writing
(17:54):
.
It can kind of reveal theunderlying purpose.
You can get a nasty shock ifyou've read something and you're
trusting the author and then atthe end they want you to buy
something.
They can give you a glimpseinto any kind of agenda.
But I think most of us probablyby now, as readers on the
internet do expect that therewill be some kind of stepping
(18:18):
stone at the end for readingmore, joining a community,
downloading a trial, whatever itmay be, even if you're reading
something for pleasure.
You may want to get on thenewsletter list, you know.
Want to want to be on the listfor the next update.
Yeah, isn't that interesting?
I hadn't actually thought aboutthat.
(18:38):
Reading for pleasure on theinternet, you still.
It's rare that you're going tocome to the internet read
something and leave, am I wrong?
Carl Richards (18:47):
Yeah, that brings us to a close, dear listener.
As always, we sign off with ourcalls to action.
(19:09):
We'd love for you to share yourexamples or questions with us
via Twitter at open underscorestrategy, or email.
Hello at open strategypartnerscom.
This was one of the editorialcodes we use at OSP.
We'll be sharing more of themas we go.
If you'd like to learn more inthe meantime, come over to
OpenStrategyPartnerscom.
(19:30):
Have a look at our writerenablement workshops, case study
offering or get in touch totalk about your strategy or
product communication needs.
Thanks to everyone whocontributed to this podcast All
the P's at OSP.
Thanks to our clients whobelieve in us.
Shout out to Patrick Gaumontfor our high-energy maple syrup
(19:54):
flavored theme music and to MikeSnow for additional horn
arrangements.
Thank you for listening andsubscribing About our three
themes.
On the podcast You'll hear fromdifferent members of the OSP
team hosting episodes over time.
Communicate All thingscommunication We share how we
(20:16):
tackle writing, editing, wordchoices, formats, processes and
more.
Connect In-depth conversationswith interesting, smart people
about who they are, what they doand how they approach their
life and work as communicators,technologists and leaders.
Grow We cover strategicapproaches to understanding and
(20:40):
expressing the value of what youdo, including tools, templates
and practical applications.
We also feel strongly aboutbuilding a mindful, positive,
human-first culture at work.
That's bound to pop up fromtime to time too.
This podcast is us figuring outcommunication, connection and
(21:02):
growing together.
Subscribe now on YouTube, applePodcasts or the podcast channel
of your choice.
Follow us, suggest guests andtopics, ask us questions.
on social media, we are at OpenUnderscore Strategy on Twitter
Until next time.
Thanks for listening toCommunicate, connect, grow the
(21:23):
OSP podcast.
Jeffrey A. "jam" McGu (21:54):
Subscribe to Communicate Connect.
Grow our podcast on iTunes,spotify, everywhere you get your
podcasts.
Come read our blog.
Come click our buttons and bookdemos.
Start your journey to growingyour company.
Today We do strategiccommunications and we even have
fun on it, doing it on good days.
So here we are.
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