When You Present, Do You Have a 'Call to Action'?
by Nina Sunday
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Whenever you present, even if your purpose is to inform rather than persuade or sell, you’ll most likely want to connect with your audience. One way to connect, and perhaps gauge how well your presentation was received, is to have a ‘Call to Action’.
A simple Call to Action is to offer something free – for example a free report or white paper - to anyone who gives you their business card at the end.
What if they don’t have their business card with them?
Perhaps add a post-it note to every handout and ask them to write their name and email address on the post-it to give to you at the end.
You might even be a little creative.
We were consulting with a retail chain prior to their annual conference with franchisees.The goal of the Marketing Manager’s presentation was to persuade franchisees to choose one of 3 opportunities to improve their store and benefit their customers.
We devised a fun way to encourage people to make a commitment.
The presenter ended her talk with,
‘Ladies and gentleman.
Under your chair you will find 3 cards, green, purple and orange.
The green card corresponds to Opportunity 1,
purple card corresponds to Opportunity 2,
orange card corresponds to Opportunity 3.
Select the colour card which corresponds to the opportunity you’d like to participate.
Please take it to my assistant, who will exchange it for a sample bag you can take away, filled with all the instructions you need to get started tomorrow.’
People are often persuaded by the actions of others. A tactic like this can create positive momentum.
Measuring Effectiveness
You can use a Call to Action to measure effectiveness. If 20 out of 100 attendees give you their business card, that’s a 20% response rate.
If you give the same talk at different locations, you can compare your results over time.
Action Summary
Before you next present, ask yourself:
What is your presentation’s Call to Action?
How do you measure its effectiveness?
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Copyright Nina Sunday 2011. All rights reserved. Published in Sydney, Australia.
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