Why or why do people keep forgetting a CALL TO ACTION?!

We marketers work hard to get a campaign out. We need to come up with a concept, work with a designer, fit into a schedule, set up an email, test a million times, clean up the data, then finally hit send.

So why would you do all this work WITHOUT a call to action of some sort?

YOU WOULDN'T!

What has inspired me to write all this in shouty-capitals? This eDM I received from ING Direct yesterday (on 9 July).

I'm a customer and I was interested to learn a little more about these free seminars they say they're starting. It says registration open on the 10 July - so the very next day. But you can't pre-register your interest or click through to a page for more information.

I could have chalked that up to a ho-hum "teaser" and moved on, but it got worse.

It says to keep an eye on their Facebook page - but then you can't click through to their Facebook page! So I'd have to be SO motivated to learn more that I'd head on over to Facebook, SEARCH for them and then like them to maybe learn about it (assuming Facebook deigns to feature it in my feed which it may very well not due to the way EdgeRank works.)

This eDM has missed TWO opportunities to inspire action at the exact moment it had my attention. I just see this as a massive waste of effort. And as we zero budget marketers know, "effort" is a huge part of your marketing "budget".

So this serves as a great reminder to ALWAYS have a call to action - preferably multiple ones - in any outbound marketing communication. And on your website pages. And in your social media. And on your voicemail. And on your email signature.

You get the picture.

In summary: Don't leave your "Call to Action" missing in action.