Video Marketing Tip: Nailing Your CTA (Episode 120)

Welcome to the Video Made Simple podcast that takes the mystery out of video production, provides business leaders, the support to help them break through the monotony of day-to-day communication. I'm your host, Chris Schwager. And if you want people to take the next step of buying your products or services after watching your videos on your landing pages or social media or website, for instance, then here's video marketing tip: you've gotta nail down your call to action.

[00:00:29] A call to action or CTA is a marketing term that refers to a piece of content like image, button, or a line of text intending to prompt users into performing a specific action. Typically, this takes the form of an instruction or a directive, either in the script using an action verbs by sign up, register follow. These are all buttons you might have recognized before and leading the consumer to the next step of a sales funnel or process.

[00:01:01] Now, why would you have a CTA? Well, a good CTA can do wonders for your social media post. It can drive more visitors to your website, watch your videos, generate sales and increase leads and conversion rates. There are three benefits, really of having a good and clear CTA.

[00:01:19] One, this activates your sales funnel. The CTA serves as a transition into your buyers journey. Without it, people will be lost. They don't know what to do next.

[00:01:29] Two, customers want CTAs. Customers expect CTAs. And they want to know what they should do next. They're actually wanting you to sell to them at the right moment. So give it to 'em baby.

[00:01:44] And three boost your sales in digital advertising. Adding a call to action to your campaign will improve your ROI more. Call to actions equals more inquiries in sales equals better return on investment.

[00:01:58] So let's look at a solution for you. I believe there are three forms of the call to action. One is an active call to action. Okay. So an active approach is when you tell or show somebody from the video in the script, what to do next. So that's a verbal or a visual to get them to do their action.

[00:02:22] Two, a passive action. You can use a passive action in your company video with just a simple company logo. You're actually not asking them to do something, right. It's just informational. Therefore you don't really need them to inquire now maybe. Um. So a passive can be classy when it comes to implementing video, and this is best used toward the end of your video.

[00:02:46] Three, no call to action. Now, when we say no call to action, we mean in the video itself, there is no, hey, so if you want more information on how to do this inquire now, so we can help you. Right? So you remove all of that. You might put either a passive or, or nothing completely. Um. This is great in advertising right now.

[00:03:03] So say TikTok, Instagram, for instance, instead of going down a call to action, which actually implies to the audience that the video is coming to a close. Instead of doing that you pattern interrupt by just severing the video. I think this is such a hip and cool. Can I say hip? I mean, I dunno. Uh. But it's a hip, uh, Transition because, uh, you're wasting no time for the call to action to appear on the platform itself.

[00:03:33] So for instance, we're just about to do TikTok advertising. We're gonna sever our ad almost mid sentence, but certainly. Uh, towards the end of a particular topic, but we, we have removed the call to action to, to test and see how it's going, but we're relying on the immediate popup of TikTok to basically create that button that says learn more, um, by now, whatever that button is.

[00:04:00] So we're actually severing it. It's a pattern interrupt technique. I think it's the best thing, particularly on social media, because attention's already really scarce, like to the second, like people can be here, there and everywhere. Um. You've gotta really consider time that you're spending, producing your video and delivering a video.

[00:04:17] So rely on the platform itself to take over the video and deliver a clear call to action. It is a pattern interrupt and some great examples. Wistia have a, um, pop up function on their platform that you can use. And TikTok, as I mentioned as well, I think Instagram as well. So go and check those out. I think it's a really cool idea.

[00:04:36] Best practices for executing CTAs in video, there are multiple CTAs you can use. Call them to an action on the video, but in our experience, keep it singular. Just stick to one. You know, we already know that, uh, people will just get overloaded and you don't want to create this choice paradox. The more choices someone has, the less likely they are to make a decision.

[00:04:59] Additionally, when they do make a decision, they are less likely to be happy with the one that they're making. So when you nail down the right call to action for your business, you'll be helping a viewer journey to the next step. If you don't have one, they'll be left in limbo.

[00:05:15] If you want more personalized coaching on your scripting your call to actions and video strategy to improve performance of your videos, then jump on a 15 minute video call with me and I'll tell you what I can do to help you.

[00:05:28] Also join in next week where you'll get weekly Video Made Simple ideas to produce videos like a pro. That's all for this episode. Thanks for listening and see you next week.