In the 5th part of this article series (you can start with part 1 here), I’m going to discuss how the step in copywriting, called, asking for a “call to action” is similar to the process of therapy where we invite clients to take action towards improving their lives.
Inherent in the therapy process are your ongoing requests and invitations to clients “calling them to action” towards a new way of being, a better future, and a more fulfilling life. You ask questions inviting them to explore and clarify their problems more deeply. You invite them to try new techniques or find alternative ways of thinking. Sometimes you ask them to take better care of themselves, or to see themselves in another light.
The requests you make of your clients are ongoing and can be either implicit or explicit. Because they are fundamental to your work, much of the time you don’t even know you’re doing them.
Imagine what would happen if you didn’t invite or ask clients to take action?
Yes, they might not do what they need to do in order to change. Therapy would then not have a clear purpose and the results may be non-existent or at least minimal.
And so it is with your website…
A crucial step in website copywriting is to also ask for action from your website visitors. Although it makes intuitive sense to do this, there is ample research to support the effectiveness in doing so. It has been shown that when you ask people to do something and tell them why they might want to do it, they are more likely to do it; a simple, yet highly effective concept that applies to any kind of business. Anything you do that makes it easy for your web visitors to take the next step will maximize the results you will get from your website.
So what does an effective “call to action” on your website look like?
There are many kinds of “calls to action” that you can put on your website. Deciding which call(s) to action to use and where you put them depends on your purpose and what you want people to do when they arrive. You might say that your main goal is to get clients to call you and that may be the only purpose of your website. If so, you would have a friendly invitation asking them to call you to find our more about your services on one or more pages.
However, because many clients won’t be ready to call you on a first visit to your website, it’s a better idea in the long term to have a call to action that involves signing up for something free – a free report, self-assessment, audio file, etc. along with a newsletter and/or a blog. This provides you with the opportunity to build relationships with your website visitors over time and perhaps, when and if they are ready to enter therapy, they may choose you as their therapist.
There are numerous other types of calls to action that you may have on your site. For example, you might have a “Where to Start” link on your home page. Or, you could ask your visitors to buy a product that you are featuring (if you have one), or perhaps you are starting a course or a group that you want them to sign-up for. Ideally, you should have a call to action on every page, even if it’s as simple as guiding them to the next page that you want them to visit.
Although you can have more than one to call to action on a page, be aware that the more you have, the more time it takes for your visitors to make a choice and they may end up leaving without making a choice at all, or choose an option that is not your preference. When uncertain, people hesitate and have a tendency to teeter-totter back and forth and often end up putting off making a decision. Therefore, one call to action is typically ideal for any one page of a website, and for most therapy practice websites, I would never recommend having more than three on a page.
To summarize the principle of asking for a “call to action:”
If you want someone to do something, ask.
If you want your therapy clients to make changes in their lives, ask.
If you want your website visitors to come back to your site and eventually become clients, ask.
My intent in writing this 5-part article series was to illustrate how the copy on an effective therapy or healing website is similar to the process of therapy. Most practitioners intuitively know these steps when they work with their clients, but don’t know how to incorporate this knowledge into their copy. I hope this series has at least provided a glimpse into how do this more effectively.
To start reading this article series at the beginning click here.
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