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The call to action

AFP

marketingYour messaging – website, Facebook page, print, TV and radio ads – tells people what you do well. And yet, it doesn’t seem to be working.

Why? Maybe you’re missing the key element of messaging: the call to action.

A politician that I know well says it this way at the end of his campaign rallies: “Here’s the time when I ask you to vote for me.”

And you smack yourself in the head and say, Yeah, that’s what it’s all about.

You have to make the ask.

If you’re running for office, you can run ads on TV and shake hands and kiss babies and the rest all year long. If you don’t ask people to vote for you at the end, they may love you, but will they pull the lever for you?

Maybe, maybe not.

If you run a business, you can tell people what you offer that is better than your competitors, be it on your website, your Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, traditional newspaper and magazine and TV and radio ads, whatever. But if you don’t follow that up with, Give us a call/Send us an email/Set up an appointment/et cetera, will it translate to your bottom line?

Maybe, maybe not.

Human psychology is, for lack of a better word, interesting. We have to be reminded what you’re trying to get us to do and motivated to do it.

I have to of course inform you now that AFP Business has designed more than 300 business websites and manages marketing campaigns for more than two dozen companies.

And while that’s all great, it means nothing for me if I don’t add, if your advertising isn’t working for you, give me a call, and let’s get to work.

Go ahead. Give me a call.

Chris Graham is the president and CEO of Augusta Free Press LLC, a full-service web- and graphic-design and marketing strategy company based in Waynesboro, Va. Call him at 540-949-6574 or email him at [email protected]. More online at www.AFPBusiness.com.

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Have a guest column, letter to the editor, story idea or a news tip? Email editor Chris Graham at [email protected]. Subscribe to AFP podcasts on Apple PodcastsSpotifyPandora and YouTube.

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