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By the RadioActive Media Team

No element of a direct response campaign is more important than the call-to-action. As a consumer, I’m often bewildered by ad messages that don’t make sense. Big, expensive, pretty award-winning ads make me mutter “What was that? What did they want me to do?” What a waste of money and effort.

When you craft your call-to-action, start with the goals you want to achieve. Do you want more prospects, more leads, and more feedback? What action do you want your audience to take? Are you driving traffic to a website or to call/text? How many different ways do you want them to reach you? Thoughtfully list all the different ways and follow each through with great detail to track the response of each method by media vehicle, by day and by time slot.

Direct response requires easy and clear instructions in a call-to-action. When you only have thirty or sixty seconds to make an impression, demonstrate an excellent perceived value and ask for the order or action, you need the kind of talent and expertise that can achieve that conciseness and reaction. Talent to write strong, exacting copy. Expertise to set up, handle and track the great amount of details required to track every possible point of response.

When using radio, you only deliver the message by audio, so the message is even more important and you need to take up more of your precious time to repeat the call-to-action.

Let’s talk about how we make it easy. If we want them to know about our website, we use an easy, short URL address like www.auction.com. If we want them to make a call, we like a vanity number like 800-Auction or an easy to remember number like 800-777-7700. If you want them to text, choose an easy “short code,” the actual number after the client word or phrase, like DR Radio to 511-511.You want the URL, text message and phone number all to be memorable.

Direct response results are trackable and measurable. To that end, several URLs, codes and phone numbers can be used to discern response by media vehicle. Copy can suggest to Rush Limbaugh listeners to mention “Rush” when you call or go to the site for a discount, free shipping or the like. The same holds true for any other talk show host. Or enter a memorable code like KRTH6 (for 6AM). Change the code for each live read and you have tracking.

For more great ways to create a great call-to-action, consult Jeff Pollak at RadioActive Media at 800-559-RADIO (7234) or text DR RADIO to 511-511.

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Tags: call-to-action, direct response radio, driving traffic, RadioActive Media, Rush Limbaugh, text message campaign

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 at 8:00 am and is filed under Radio Advertising, Radio Content, Radio Direct Response, Radio Personalities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.