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Common Call-To-Action Mistakes to Avoid Over the Holidays

When you market your organization through email or social media, the goal is to get your audience to take an action — purchase something, register for an event, read something, engage with your content, or form an opinion of you. But if you make it difficult for your readers or followers to find your call to action, they might not follow through.

With the busy holiday season right around the corner, you’ll want to avoid these common call-to-action mistakes to ensure the success of your holiday promotions:

Don’t: Bury your call to action

Don’t make your audience scroll through a long, wordy email to get to the call to action. Keep it short and sweet. Focus on one call to action in your message so that your audience knows exactly what you want them to do next. If you give customers the right information and resources from the beginning, they’ll be armed with the knowledge and tools necessary to take the next step.

Don’t: Link to the wrong page

If you want people to take an action, don’t link to your homepage and expect them to figure it out. Your audience doesn’t know your website as well as you do, and they’re not going to take the time to explore page after page until they find the right one.

Link directly to the section of your site that maps to whatever action you want them to take– to a product page on your website if you want them to buy, your event registration page if you want them to attend, a blog post if you want them to engage with content– or wherever else your audience can take the exact step referenced in your call to action,

Don’t: Post without details

If you’re asking someone to follow through on a call to action on Facebook, give them as much information as they need to make the decision now. Let them know what to expect on the other side of the link you’re sharing. The price of an item, an event date or a blog post topic could be the reason that someone follows through on a call to action.

For example, if you share discounts on their Facebook Page and then give their followers everything they need to know, including times, locations, and links to the Facebook Pages of promoted locations.

Avoid the common call-to-action mistakes above to help drive success for your business this holiday season.

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Gina Watkins is a leading expert on e-marketing for small business – and has a real passion for helping businesses to succeed. Her ongoing series of dynamic lectures are filled with real-world examples, humor and results-driven wisdom garnered from more than two decades of sales, business development and marketing experience. In addition to owning her own business, she is an award-winning direct marketer, has been featured on WUSA Channel 9’s Mind Over Money show, Dr. Gayle Carson’s Women In Business radio show, Morgan State’s Briefcase Radio program, and in numerous other media. In her role as Constant Contact Regional Development Director, she’s presented to more than ten thousand seminar attendees about the keys to success with easy, affordable, highly effective technology tools that grow trusted business relationships.

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