Three Steps to Developing Effective Calls to Action

Bulldog Solutions
Three Steps to Developing
Effective Calls to ActionCraft Your Message to Engage Your AudienceBy Ahmed Taleb, Director of Strategic Planning, Bulldog Solutions
www.bulldogsolutions.comCalls_to_Action 01/2009 © 2009 Bulldog Solutions, Inc.Craft Your Message to Engage Your AudienceCraBftu Ylloduorg MSoelsustiaognes to Engage Your AudienceThree Steps to Developing Effective Calls to Action
Executive Overview
Competition for your prospects' attention is growing. Creating powerful and compelling messaging has never been more important. Powerful messaging will create a bridge between a top-of-mind issue or topic and your company's offering. Through calls to action, you can not only reach your audience-but also assuage their fears and anxieties with credible offerings that pair value (thought leadership content) with fulfillment (in the form of your offering). Bulldog Solutions' approach to message development can help you steer your messaging strategy towards thought leadership content and away from the cookie-cutter sales pitch.
Perhaps the greatest benefit of a formal message development process is the big-picture impact it can have on your marketing strategy. Adopting a structured message and content development practice will help yourorganization build consistently strong messaging and content. In this second of a four-part series on strategic planning, I will outline three steps to creating effective messaging that engages your prospects. These exercises build on the planning recommended in my previous white paper, "Defining Your Audience: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Buyer Personas," and are designed as tools you can use to generate ideas among your internalstakeholders that are not only aligned with your audience, but also lead to natural conversations deeper in the sales process.
Bulldog Solutions' Strategic Planning Methodology
www.bulldogsolutions.comCalls_to_Action 01/2009 © 2009 Bulldog Solutions, Inc.Craft Your Message to Engage Your AudienceCraBftu Ylloduorg MSoelsustiaognes to Engage Your AudienceThree Steps to Developing Effective Calls to Action
Table of Contents
Executive Overview............................................................................................................................................................2You've Only Got One Chance to Make an Impact.............................................................................................................3Step #1: Identify Hot Topics..............................................................................................................................................4The Session........................................................................................................................................................................4Step #2: Map Your Message to Your Audience................................................................................................................5Step #3: Locate Content Gaps to Identify Weak Spots...................................................................................................6Tools for the Content Gap Audit........................................................................................................................................7Message Development Is a Living Process......................................................................................................................8Free Your Marketing Program from the Black Box...........................................................................................................8
You've Only Got One Chance to Make an Impact
Powerful and compelling messaging is the "bait" that engages your prospects. But writing sensationalist copy solely for the purpose of capturing attention will do little to entice your audience to interact with your brand further, and may even damage the relationship. Your audience needs a natural rationale to support an ongoing conversation or sales follow-up. The solution lies in creating messaging that serves several purposes.
First and most obviously, effective messaging needs to capture a top-of-mind issue or topic and present it in such a way that it urges your audience to interact further. Key to the success of this approach is the mindset that you must communicate around topics that cause pain for your audience. The focus is on them, not o... [download for more]