Monday, July 7, 2014

A Call to Action



When crafting a business letter, we're taught to call people to action. What do you want the reader to do?  If we've written about a defective product, we might ask the company representative to:

A.  Refund our money.
B.  Send us a new product.

I'm amazed that so many authors will put information on their blogs and social media without including a call to action and a link to a sell page. Granted, there are times when we're not promoting. When we are doing a promotional post, make it easy for people to go to sell pages such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc.

Here's the first paragraph I use on my promos:

The Moses Conspiracy - Only $2.99 on Kindle! Click on the link and check it out.


Note:  My publisher tells us to use the longer form on Facebook because it includes our book title and name. Readers know they are being directed to the correct page. It also picks up the graphic.

Between the call to action and the link, I'll insert something about the book like the current Amazon ranking, a 5-Star Review, or a short blurb.

Besides encouraging others to take action, they can do so with one convenient click--no googling, no getting another author by mistake, and no wasted time.

Writers and Readers: Do you click links on Facebook and other social media? Please share why you like checking out books, blogs or products this way.

Photo Credit:  Julosstock

4 comments:

Karen Lange said...

Thanks for the info, Susan. Occasionally I click on the links on social media. I don't care for it though, when all authors do is share their book info. I try to strike a balance with my author sites.

Happy Monday!

quietspirit said...

I do if the subject interests me. I sometimes find the link broken. When I link to something on my blog, the box has two windows--"the URL" and "What the reader sees." I try to make the page crisp and neat. So I shorten the link to a few words. Is this wrong?

quietspirit said...

I do if the subject interests me. I sometimes find the link broken. When I link to something on my blog, the box has two windows--"the URL" and "What the reader sees." I try to make the page crisp and neat. So I shorten the link to a few words. Is this wrong?

quietspirit said...

Susan: I think the way you do it is perfect. Some of those links are very long.