In freelance copywriting as in life if you don’t ask for stuff you’ll never get anything. The most entrepreneurial homeless man I’ve ever met had a spot on the Calle Grande Via just around the corner from my Uncle’s house in Alicante. Just in front of his money pot was a sign which translated to ‘give me money for a Ferarri.’ He always made me smile and I always gave him a few Euros.
This savvy tramp had a clear call to action. ‘Give me money’ is about as direct you can be. Thankfully I’m not homeless so I’ll say good luck to that man and hopefully one he can drive up the Calle Grand Via in a brand new red Ferarri one day.
Any good salesman will always ask for the order. A good copywriting service uses clear calls to action which, in no uncertain terms, asks the reader to do something. The call to action could be something as asking the reader to provide their email address. It all depends on how your marketing plan is structured. Once you have a clear goal for your landing page, website or email campaign you need to tell the reader exactly what to do.
The reason you need to tell people what to do isn’t because they’re stupid. It’s because they don’t want to be reading an advert when they could be doing something else with their lives like watching footy tube or playing with their kids. If you’re competing with thousands of other marketing messages every day then don’t be ambiguous.
In copywriting the call to action has to be clear, concise and unambiguous. So if you’re ever stuck for a clear call to action write ‘give me money for a new Ferarri’ and see what happens.
Chris Woodfield is a freelance Copywriter for Clockwork London. He has an NLP master Practitioner qualification and a degree in business psychology which is most useful as copywriting is all about understanding your reader.
Clockwork London is a research-based creative copywriting company that takes a holistic marketing view of copywriting.
Visit [http://www.clockworklondon.co.uk] for a free consultation on your marketing materials.