The Rainmaker Blog : Law Firm Marketing and Business Development : The Rainmaker Institute : Stephen Fairley : Professional Legal Marketing

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You’ve worked hard in writing the best marketing copy out. You made sure you had a strong headline. You were careful to stress benefits potential clients would receive when they hired you. You even added some key facts to buttress your claims.

Congratulations, counselor. You’ve just made a very compelling case in the court of marketing. But you forgot to do one little thing. You forgot to tell the reader of your copy what you want her or him to do.

You forgot the “call to action.”

You see, it isn’t enough to lay out a compelling case, as important as such is. You’ve also got to tell your prospective client what you want him or her to do with this information. How you want that prospective client to act.

A “call to action” falls into two main categories, the “statement” and the “offer.”

The statement is something like: “Please contact XYZ Law Firm to find out more about pursuing your personal injury case.” This invites your prospective client to contact you for information.

The offer is something like: “For your FREE report on the “5 Deadly Mistakes Accident Victims Make in Reporting a Claim,” contact XYZ Law Firm.” This invites your prospective client to contact you to receive something.

For either of these two categories, there are three tips to help you make that call to action strong:

1. You can replace the word “free” with the word “complimentary.” No matter which way you say it, you must make clear that this is a no-obligation offer.

2. Clearly telling your prospective client what you want her or him to do lessens that person’s confusion and makes it more likely that he or she will act on your information.

3. Not only must you clearly state what you want, but you must be specific in what you want. The sentence “XYZ Law Firm offers free consultations to discuss your personal injury case” leaves the reader saying “That’s nice. But so what? What’s in it for me?” That’s because this sentence is a statement, not a call to action. It doesn’t ask anyone to do anything. To turn that sentence into a call for action, you would write something like” If you’ve been injured, take advantage of our free consultation to find out more about how XYZ Law Firm works to protect your rights.”

So the next time you write some exceptional marketing prose, whether it’s for your website, a brochure or an ad, don’t forget your “call to action.”

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