The “three C’s” for calls to action that convert like crazy

Yo! Welcome to the next episode of The Content Strategy Reeder where marketers, sellers, and creators get better at content strategy and creation in less than 5 minutes.

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Next week I’m wrapping up my consulting engagement with Notion.

I partnered with their Head of Demand Gen to help her stand up their enterprise marketing strategy, from campaign narratives for their AI product to email nurture strategy for new personas. It’s been, by far, one of the coolest team’s and products I’ve got to work with.

As I reflect on the engagement, there’s a clear theme across the body of work we completed together: conversions.

Enterprise B2B marketing can get complex, but if you focus on every single conversion point from awareness to paying customers (which we did) you’ll see phenomenal results (which they did).

Since I have conversions on the brain, and because much of what I shared with Notion is inside my book, Content That Converts, this week I’m sharing chapter six, The “three C’s” for calls to action that convert like crazy.

Because if master your conversion points, you’ll grow your audience, brand, and sales at a rate that’ll have your competitors scratching their head and wondering how the hell you’re beating them.

Ready? Let’s ride.

***

There’s an acronym in the content world that’s both extremely important and surprisingly misused.

And that’s the CTA, aka call to action.

Put simply, your CTA is your “ask.” It’s the thing you want your reader to do.

Click here, download this, call this number, buy this thing.

CTAs are everywhere. Emails, social media, websites, billboards, print ads — the list goes on and on and on.

The CTA is fundamental to your content strategy because it drives the actions that fuel growth.

• If you want to build your newsletter, you need people to subscribe.

• If you want people to attend your event, you need them to register.

• If you want to increase sales, you need people to buy.

You get the idea.

But just because CTAs are common doesn’t mean they’re all good. In fact, many are wildly ineffective. As a result, the intended outcome is not achieved, and all the effort leading up to the CTA was a complete waste of time, energy, and resources.

Here’s how people get it wrong:

• The CTA is incorrect

• The CTA is unclear

• The CTA isn’t compelling

CTAs that convert have the three ‘Cs’:

• Correct

• Clear

• Compelling

We’re going to break each one down so you can spike your content growth and results.

We’ll start with the most important aspect.

1. Pick the correct CTA

One of the biggest mistakes B2B marketers make is picking the wrong CTA.

Specifically, they overuse the demo CTA. Because demo requests (or any meeting with sales) are the most valuable metric for pipeline gen, they use it everywhere. They never stop and wonder if this is really the best place for it.

So they suggest a demo even if their reader isn’t properly educated on the problem they solve, or given time to build familiarity and trust with the company.

Guess what happens — the CTA fails. Very, very, very few people sign up for a demo.

By trying to force everyone down the funnel as fast as possible, they miss opportunities to grow their brand and business in other ways, like growing their social media following, email subscribers, podcast subscribers, event attendees, etc.

The most effective CTAs consider where the reader is in their content journey and provide the next logical step that eventually leads to their ultimate end goal.

Here’s an oversimplified example:

1. Podcast CTA → follow us on Twitter

2. Twitter post CTA → attend an event

3. Event CTA → see a demo

The path is longer, but the results are better. And if you do it right, you’ll build an audience and a trusted brand along the way. That sure beats pumping thousands (sometimes millions) of dollars into failed marketing with the wrong CTA.

Even if you aren’t in B2B marketing, this concept still applies.

Consider where your reader is in their relationship with you and ask yourself if they’re really ready to take that step.

OK, now that you have the correct CTA…

2. Make your CTA clear

Your CTA phrasing is the next most important part. Clarity is your best friend here, and wordiness and vagueness are not.

You want it to be easy for your reader to understand what you’re asking for so they can make a decision on the spot.

If they’re confused by your ask, they won't take any action. And if your ask sounds too difficult, they won’t take action either.

Remember that simple sells. Write concisely and make it easy:

• Offering survey results? → See the data

• Offering a blog? → Skim the post

• Offering a template? → Get the template

3. Make your CTA compelling

If you really want to add some spice to your CTA and increase its effectiveness, you can evolve your CTA to a CTV.

A Call to value (CTV) is essentially a CTA that includes a value proposition or differentiation.

A simple way to think of it is “what to do” + “what you’ll get.”

Let’s do a quick transformation exercise:

CTA: Subscribe here
CTV: Subscribe to become a legendary writer
(Assuming there’s context, you could even shorten it to: Become a legendary writer.)

CTA: Buy now
CTV: Never miss quota again

CTA: Follow me on LinkedIn
CTV: Follow me for more data-backed sales tips

See the difference?

Scratch that, do you feel the difference? One is descriptive. The other is descriptive and compelling.

CTVs are powerful because you’re not selling the action, you’re selling the transformation. No one wants more email, or podcasts, or whatevers — they want outcomes.

Explain what’s in it for them if they perform your action, and you’ll get many more people to do it.

That’s how to boost conversion rates across your content strategy.

And if you want more advice, tips, and examples for converting attention into followers and sales, you can scoop up the full playbook, which includes 33 more mini chapters like this.

I’m even offering a discount through Monday 11:59pm PST. Just use code “SATURDAY” at check out to save.

Here’s the link:

https://convert.thereeder.co/

Holler at you next week,
-Dev