Aug. 1, 2023

MVP: Using The Commitment Ladder To Call Your Audience To Action

MVP: Using The Commitment Ladder To Call Your Audience To Action

The call-to-action is one of the most important pieces of content marketing. If done well, you can use them to activate lurkers, convert leads into clients, and create a loyal, engaged audience. When deciding what types of CTA’s to use, we use the “commitment ladder” concept to create various types of engagement and gauge the readiness of our audience. 

When you understand this concept and implement it consistently, you will be able to show up as a Thought Leader for your audience and move them into action. 

In this episode, you will also learn:

  • How to amplify your authority with a powerful CTA strategy. 
  • The level of commitment that’s required for different types of CTA’s and why it’s important to understand how big the “ask” is of each. 
  • The two primary types of CTA’s to weave into your content to create variety. 
  • How to stop overlooking your best potential clients sitting in your audience right now and get them to raise their hand. 

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Ways we can support you: 

>> [FREE] Download: The Revolutionary Content Kit: A 7-pillar method to creating unique content that sells + connects at the same time: https://kinseymachos.com/contentkit

>> If you’re ready to get fully booked with a message that aligns with premium clients and organic content that attracts and enrolls clients consistently, enroll in  10K Content Collective and get instant access to the live coaching, curriculum, and community.

>> If you’re ready to pivot to group coaching and want to consistently fill your group programs with a marketing machine that creates rhythm and cadence in your business (so you can experience true freedom in your life), get on the waitlist for  Launch Like A Queen

Register for Category-of-One for FREE: https://kinseymachos.com/niche

Do not miss these highlights:

02:17 When you put something out in your marketing, there is an exchange of value that's occurring

04:49 If you’re always going for the close and never offer an opportunity to take a smaller action, You’ll lose attention or will miss the opportunity to provide a smaller level exchange of value

05:08 The easiest way to think of a commitment is your Call To Action (CTA)

06:32 How we can create a higher engaged community

06:54 The two primary different types of call to actions – Engage CTAs and Lead Activator CTAs

10:51 Why you should NOT underestimate a “raised hand”

14:01 When you think of a CTA and you're wrapping up, that Call To Action needs to be able to STAND on its own

About the Host

Kinsey Machos, Marketing Strategist, is also a recovering people pleaser, self-sabotager, and corporate hustler. She helps entrepreneurs create and execute magnetic marketing and build expert brands so that they can get known, seen and heard online. 

She believes that creating a business that’s 100% in alignment with SELF is one of the most important things that we can do as women — because there’s an inner magic that we all have if we commit to an infinite pursuit of discovering (and re-discovering) that. 

As a wife and a mom of three, family takes priority. And having a business that’s ran AROUND her lifestyle is a daily intention of hers. 

https://kinseymachos.com/

Instagram: @kinseymachos

Facebook: @kinsmachos

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Transcript
Kinsey Machos:

In this episode, you're going to hear a replay of another one of our most common downloaded episodes. And the reason why I thought of this is I actually gave a training to our clients regarding calls to action, and really stressing the importance of a really powerful call to action. Now, what I offer in this episode is obviously some tangible and tactical type of strategies when it comes to your calls to action. But I also stressed the importance of what this looks and feels like to really be a leader of your audience. The call to action isn't just about the last sentence of your social media post. It also says a lot about you as the thought leader of your industry as the expert in your niche and your willingness to really step into your power and completely pull in your best match clients. So hope you enjoy

Kinsey Machos:

Welcome to Captivate and Close. I'm Kinsey Machos, business consultant and marketing strategist. And I'm going to show you how to attract and enroll high paying clients using my break through online marketing strategies. All without having to rely on complicated funnels, disingenuous clickbait, or spammy sales tactics. These are the messaging marketing and selling secrets that virtually no one is talking about. So let's dive in. Hey, you welcome back to another episode of Captivate and Close, it's so good to be here with you today, I want to talk to you about commitment, okay. And this isn't about the commitment you're making to your life or to your business, we're not going that fluffy today, although very important topics, what I want to talk about is this concept of the commitment ladder, this is what we build into our content marketing, in order to get people to take action with us. Okay? Now, what I want you to really understand is when you put something out, you know, in your marketing, whether it's just a piece of content, or it's a direct call to action to do something, there is an exchange of value that's occurring, right, whether it's just the exchange of value of attention, right, somebody's taking the time to read your piece of content. So they're exchanging their time, right to read the value that you're giving, or it could be an exchange of assets, right exchange of information, if you put out your a free resource, or your free lead magnet, or you ask somebody to join your free group, there is an exchange of value occurring by means of them giving you some information in order to get something in return. And of course, the biggest exchange of value is when they invest, right, they invest their money, their dollars, in order to get the bigger result from your paid program that you offer came. Now you probably know this, right? When we sell there is an exchange of value that occurs at the highest level, what I want you to start understanding is there's different ways that you can ask people to commit to you. And when you blend this level of commitment within your content marketing, it allows people to take smaller action with us, which then leads to bigger action. Okay, so I like to look I like to think of this as a visual, I actually have a an exercise in 10k content collective that shows you all the different levels of commitment, right, this is the commitment ladder. And at the top of the commitment ladder is almost like top of funnel, right? It's the lowest level of commitment that somebody would need to take in order to take a mini action with you all the way down to, again, if you imagine the the end of the funnel, the bottom of the funnel is the biggest commitment, right when they're actually going to invest dollars into your paid program, product or service. Okay, that's the highest level of commitment

Kinsey Machos:

by when we have different when our content can really create that blend of opportunities for them to take many steps right towards the bigger commitment. It allows us to create a partnership with them, okay? If we're always going for the close and we never offer an opportunity to take a smaller action. Then what happens is we lose a tie ention or we miss opportunity to provide, right, a smaller level exchange of value. Okay. Now the easiest way to think of a commitment is your call to action, your CTA. Right? So when you write a piece of content, or you put on a conversion event, or you do a live video, what is it that you're asking your audience to do? What are you asking them to do at the end of that piece of content that live training that conversion event? What are the next steps? Now, obviously, I want you to be calling to action to your offer, right. But that that is the highest level of commitment, and the majority of your audience isn't quite ready for that. But what if they're ready for something a little bit smaller? Right? What if they are starting to become interested in you, they're not quite ready to like book a call or join your program. But they want to know a little bit more about you, they want to get closer to you, and to and to the thing that you provide by moving closer to the results you offer. But again, if we never blend in the various levels of commitment, we never give people an opportunity to engage back with us in that level, right? We never allow for that value to be exchanged at a lower level. Now, I'm not saying like, I want you to always be calling to action in your offer, I always want you to be selling. But we can also create that we can create a higher engage community, we can command our audience at such a higher level, if we train them to do what we say. And we tell them what to do in order to right get the thing that they want or move closer to us. Okay, so a perfect example of this is the two primary different types of call to actions you have your engagement leading call to actions and you have your lead activator call to actions que engage call to actions are just are just asking them to literally engage with you. You're saying, hey, drop a heart, if this resonates with you, like this, this post, if you got value, share this post if you got value, okay? You're just asking them for that feedback loop. Okay. Now, what's funny is like, so many people are wondering, like, why should I? That's weird, why should I tell people to like my posts or it or engage with them. But here's the thing, guys, if you don't learn how to command your audience, you're not going to be able to sell your offer either, right? Like if we don't tell people powerfully, how to engage with us what to do next, that's when we lose their attention came. So an engagement type of call to action is a really great way to just give our audience permission to give us that feedback loop to engage back with us. That's how we create a high engage community. And also, it's a really great way to strike up conversation. If somebody is resonating with your content, right, and you tell them, hey, let me know if this resonate, resonated with you by dropping a yes below, it gives them permission to speak up. And also it allows you to connect with them at a deeper level by moving them, you know, to the DMS or having a conversation with them in a thread. But I'm telling you, a lot of people won't do that, unless they're told to. So tell your audience how to engage back with you. That is why engagement type of call to actions are so powerful, right? If you think about that level of commitment to just like your post and comment below versus booking a call with you, right, they're more likely to start engaging with you in that way before they ever move to, you know, signing up as a client. And so as we start to do, it's almost like dropping the breadcrumbs, it's like leaving them closer to to you by showing them how to interact with you giving them permission to engage with you in starting to build that connection with, with you at through your content through conversations through the community. Okay, so the the lead activator type of call to actions is when we're actually moving them right. We're converting them from just a general bystander in your audience to a lead, okay, what this looks like is, you know, sharing your free resource where it's like, Hey, if you want this thing, I have this free resource that helps you, ABC, if you want it, drop your information below and I'll send it to you or hey, here's the link, right. But in that often what we know about free resources, is they have to provide their name right in their email to get it again, it's a bigger commitment because just because it's free, you guys, doesn't mean People will take it, you should always be selling everything, right as if it were paid, especially your free things, okay? And so as you have, you know, your content strategy is constantly dripping, these different levels of how to engage with you how to create that value exchange, right, this is how we get, we really start to build out our pipeline full of cold leads, warmer leads, and hot leads came. And so as you have these lead activators, you could share a free resource, what if they even you invited them to join your group, right, smaller level of commitment, but we're still starting to convert them from, hey, I'm just hanging out in your audience to now I'm raising my hand and saying, I think I'm your type of your type of ideal client and I want to move closer to you. Don't underestimate a raised hand, okay? What is a raised hand, somebody that's giving you them, they're giving you information, right in exchange of a free resource, or they're joining your group to say, Hey, this is me, I'm interested in your community, like, do not underestimate a raised hand. And that commitment, right, the commitment letter and the call to action within that allows us to pull those people to the surface. Because if we just kind of treat all of our audience as if they're the same, and we're again, just like booking, we're just telling them to book a call with us or join our program, we leave, we leave no room for that nurture, right in the connection, give people something less scary, or less risky to commit to, right, they love you. They're just not ready to join yet. Okay, so what would that next steps, what were those next steps look like? This is why a lead generation, those lead gen pathways, right are so important to have in your business. So you can effectively move right, a cold audience member into a very warm lead. And these call to actions, these level of commitments will allow you to do that effectively. Okay. So again, just to remind you, you've got two types of primary call to actions that allow you to start building in right, those commitments or asking your audience to do something, you've got your engagement, CTA, right, you're engaged, call to action, and you have the lead activator, the engagement, you're just asking them to give you that feedback, you're asking them to engage with you, or that lead activator, you're actually turning them into a lead by, you know, sharing your free resource, asking them to join your group, asking them to join your workshop, etc. Okay? Now, when you have this, this beautiful blend of allowing people to take various levels of commitment with you, again, you have a really nice way of moving people through your quote unquote, funnel. It's like, now you have right people, you're warming people up, now they're in your ecosystem, right? And you're constantly telling them now next steps. Okay? So I really want you to start thinking about what are the different call to actions that I could do that would allow me to put this in that would allow my audience to take right smaller commitments with me, right, just because they're free. Just because booking a call with you is free, or booking a clarity session with you is free, doesn't mean people are going to do it. That's a much bigger commitment, then hey, hop over to my free community. This gives you also some insight into your content strategy. Are you constantly weaving in content that shows the value in your free group shows the value in your free resource shows the value in a story that you told right? Asking if this is resonating, it's a great way to test whether or not your content is really doing well. Tell your audience what to do you guys do not underestimate the power of call to action, the power of the various levels of commitment. The last thing I want to say here is when you think of

Kinsey Machos:

a call to action, right? When you think of that end, that the when you wrap up, right, a live video, a piece of content, a pitch, at a conversion event, whatever, if you're wrapping up, that call to action needs to be able to stand on its own. Okay, inside 10k content Collective, we actually have all the ways that you can call to action to create that powerful. Wrapping up, I think what happens is people will come in with a really strong value piece of content or valuable piece of training. And then it's sort of this like, apologetic call to action. Like oh, if this might interest you. You know, comment below like no, you have to have that power. If you are this type of person that's struggling with this thing. Comment yes below and I'll send you this free resource right or if you are looking to change this certain thing in your life and you want to take your business to the next level, join our free group comment more info below and I'll send you the link, right like, really those the energy behind how you command your audience, how you call to action will change everything. If you feel like you're constantly burdening your audience by asking them to do something, then the results will reflect that it's going to have this soft, gentle sort of, hey, I'm here, if you need me, rather than this is what I do. This is how I help you if you're ready, let's go. Okay, so really insert the power, insert that energy in, obviously, all of your content, but I find that people struggle with a call to action, because they feel like they have to justify or apologize for asking people to do something. But that's not the case you are, you're, you're claiming your brilliance, you're claiming your expertise, you're allowing people to interact with you in different ways. And it's really important to put that power behind it because people will once you learn how to command in that way, and show up in your power, people are going to start taking more action with you. And it's going to be so amazing. So I hope this was helpful for you when you think about a commitment ladder, low level of commitment, right? Just asking people to engage with you versus high level of commitment, right, that direct call to action of, hey, if you're ready for this thing, you know, let's have a conversation book a call today, high level commitment, low level commitment and everything in between, right, the free resource, join me group, making sure you have that blend to allow people that aren't quite ready for the bigger commitments to warm up to you to get to know you and get closer to you and to your offer. So I hope you have fun with this. I love call to actions. I love really thinking about the different levels of commitment that I can get my audience to really exchange with me in order to build that partnership. Hey, you, thank you so much for listening. It's an honor to be able to pour into the hearts and minds of like minded entrepreneurs all over the world. But my most favorite part is being able to connect with you in real life. If you love what you heard here, head over to the community where thousands of female CEOs just like you are changing the world one human at a time. We go deeper into the topics you discuss here and giveaway tangible roadmaps to help you crush your revenue goals to join this high-caliber free community head over to kinseymachos.com/community. I'll see you there