Calls to action

What calls to action are

A call to action is the line that asks the reader to do the thing: the button label, the link text, the last sentence of an email, the closing line of a post. It is usually about four words long, it is usually written last, and it carries far more of the result than its length suggests.

This service writes them as a set. Not one button on one page, but every ask across a piece of work — the page, the email that drives to it, the ad above it, the confirmation screen after it — so the same action is named the same way everywhere a buyer meets it.

It is not call-to-action improvement. That is a repair job on a live site: the pages read well, the buttons are weak, and three variables change on pages you can point at. This is writing, done as part of new copy or a new campaign, where nothing exists yet. Buy the repair when the site is built and underperforming. Buy this when something is being written.

When you need one

You need this when a campaign is being built and the asks are being invented separately by whoever writes each piece. The ad says “Book now”, the page button says “Submit”, the email says “Get in touch” and the follow-up says “Learn more”. Four names for one action, and a reader quietly unsure whether they are all the same thing.

The second case is a business whose every ask is a request rather than an offer. “Contact us” asks the reader to do the work. “Get a fixed quote this week” tells them what they receive. Rewriting a set of asks along that line is a small job whose effect shows up clearly in the numbers you already collect, which is unusual for copy and is the reason this is sold separately at all.

You do not need this as a separate purchase if you are already buying the copy it belongs to. Every page, email and ad I write arrives with its ask written and two alternatives to test, at no extra charge. This is bought on its own when the copy already exists, was written elsewhere, and the asking is the part that needs doing.

What I write

Each ask is written three times over: the words, the promise beside them, and the alternatives to test against both.

• The line itself. Short enough to sit on a phone button without wrapping onto three rows, in the reader’s vocabulary rather than your internal name for the process, and naming what they receive rather than what they must do.
• The supporting line. The sentence underneath saying what happens after they press it: who replies, how soon, what it costs to find out, and what is not being committed to. Almost nobody writes this, and it is the part that most often changes the outcome.
• The secondary ask. What the reader who is not ready is offered instead, so a page carries one main action and one quiet alternative rather than four of equal weight.
• Two alternatives for each. Written to be tested against the first, because nobody can tell you in advance which of two plausible lines will win, and anyone who says otherwise is guessing.
• The consistency list. One approved name per action, so the same step is called the same thing on the ad, the page, the email and the receipt.

What you get

The ask set. One document listing every place in scope, with the primary line, the supporting sentence, the secondary ask and the two alternatives for each. Written so it can be handed to a developer and pasted in without interpretation.

A placement note per page. Where each ask sits relative to the point at which a reader has enough to say yes, and whether a long page needs the ask twice rather than once at the bottom.

A short test plan. Which pair to test first, how long to leave it running, and what result would mean the new line has done its job. Written for the person who owns the page rather than for a specialist.

A worked example

An illustration, not a client. A bookkeeping firm in Guelph builds a spring campaign for small-business tax work: one ad, one landing page, a four-email sequence and a booking confirmation. The copy is drafted by three different people over a fortnight.

The asks come back as “Enquire”, “Submit”, “Let’s chat” and “Click here to secure your spot”. The set replaces all four with one action named once: “Book a free 30-minute review”. Beneath it, a line saying a real person calls back by the next working day, the review takes half an hour, and nothing is charged unless work is agreed afterwards. The secondary ask, for readers not ready to book, becomes “Send me the checklist first”. The alternatives held back for testing are “Get my books looked at” and “See what a review covers”. Twelve asks across the campaign become one primary line, one secondary line and two tests.

How it runs

1. A half-hour call. What the action is, what happens after someone takes it, and where the asks currently appear. No charge.
2. A list of the places. You send me the pages, emails, ads and screens in scope, and I write down what each one currently asks for.
3. The draft set. Three to five working days after the call for a single campaign, longer for every ask on a site.
4. One round of revisions. You strike anything you would never say, and tell me what your business cannot actually promise.
5. Delivery. The final set, the placement notes and the test plan, with a short call to whoever is putting them live.

About a week from the first call to delivery for one campaign.

What it costs

Calls to action are quoted as a fixed price in CAD after the half-hour call, because a handful of buttons and every ask on a forty-page site are different jobs. The pricing page sets out the four ways of working so you can see where a small piece like this sits against them. The number is fixed in writing before anything starts and does not move unless the scope does.

What happens next

Once the asks are consistent, the weakness usually moves one step along. If people press the button and then abandon the form, the next job is the labels and hints on the fields. If they press it and the page behind it does not keep the promise the ask made, that is conversion copy on the page itself. And if the asking is fine but nothing is actually being offered, the honest answer is offer copy before anything else is touched. This job is complete on its own and none of the three is assumed.