A great Call to Action immediately conveys to your website visitors — hopefully event planners and people searching for an amazing speaker — what the next step is in getting to know you better.
Every piece of content should have a Call to Action that is appropriate for the audience of the content, and seems as a natural extension to the content they’ve just consumed.
When someone is a great fit to book you for their event, they want to get more information on you. You’re actually helping them out by making it easy for them.
Pointing out your “cream of the crop” highlights, resources, your best video, your speaker onesheet — you’re doing them a big favor helping them cut to the chase and see your best work.
The rest is there if they’re so infatuated with you that they can’t get enough and have to look at everything.
But when they first get to you, make it easy.
The First Step: having a low-commitment Call to Action
A Call to Action (or “CTA”) is a suggestion or directive to do something simple to get more value from your content.
You’ve seen them before: buttons, text, links, interactive drop-downs on websites, or gadgets on videos: “See Sharon in Action” “Watch Sharon in the Media” or “Grab my Free ______,” or similar. I recommend using a video for your CTA and if you don’t have one do a “talking head” until you get a professional one done. Use a good tripod, get one that is flexible so you can record anywhere and on the go (inside and out) I use mine all the time!
Most visitors that land on your site won’t contact you right off the bat; they are unlikely to sign up for a newsletter, so eliminate that idea and replace it with a better CTA for your first step.
Subscribing for a newsletter or filling out a contact form is too deep a price to pay for involvement at first.
It needs to be easier, and less committed. However, asking them to view a special sample issue of your newsletter might be just what they needed to see!
Your visitor wants to be taken on a journey. Hold their hand and take them on that journey, they need to be told what to do next.
The Next Step: a Follow-Up Action
Once they take that crucial first step and accept your first CTA (in other words, they clicked the first button), they have opted to engage further with you.
So now what do you want them to do next?
It’s almost like you’re training them to say, “Yes!” How can you get another “Yes” from them right away?
Do you want them to grab a freebie, watch another video? Download your onesheet?
Maybe you want them to connect with you on a social platform? (If so, make it easy and be sure your social icons are prominently visible on your site so visitors can easily see them.)
A Worthwhile Destination
Whatever your end goal is, take them on that journey, and court them for at least 1-3 steps so they can get to know you, they build up trust, your credibility grows, and they are willing to follow you another step deeper into your materials.
If your end goal is getting them on your email list (one of your greatest assets, but a big commitment in these days of information overwhelm!), then take them through samples of what they may find on your list, but don’t ask too soon and scare them away.
Nurture the relationship. Let them savor your work, and then you can get the right people to your intended destination.
This also will improve the quality of your list, because your real fans who really want to hear what you have to say will end up there.
Our Calls to Action
We won’t try to hide it!
Here’s some next steps for you to build up your Speaker business:
- To learn more about how getting more bookings take our FREE 10 Day Challenge to a Booked Speaking Gig!
- If you love hanging out in Facebook Groups, check out and join our highly-active “Grow Your Speaking Biz” it’s chock full of tips, great connections with other speakers, and a wonderful culture of compassion and mutual assistance.