Put calls to action on every platform

1. Where this comes in

For somebody who needs more leads from organic content, the first fix to look at is the lead magnet or the offer (SOP 209 — Pick a lead bucket, starting with the offer and lead magnet). The second, in this view, is making more content for your platform, which, it is hoped, you can do. On top of those comes this one: can people be given more ways and more reasons to act, with acting made more convenient?

The platforms come roughly in the order guessed to be the most common among readers.

2. YouTube: five places

The instruction is to use all five places.

2.1 Your bio, with the link visible

Number one is making sure your bio carries your link, and that it can be seen. It is called the highest-return one you have; a spot is then rated probably the second-best for return; for which spot, see section 7.

2.2 The description, above the fold

The next spot is the text beneath a video, on a phone or a laptop. Put the call to action and its links above the fold, so they are in view.

Change them all at once. YouTube lets you change the descriptions on every one of your videos in a single pass, a feature a lot of people are unaware of; for the steps, use a search engine. Why it matters: in one example, every video a channel has ever put up there works as a standing ad. That channel draws a large number of views a month, and the aim is to decide where all of those views go. They all point at whatever is being promoted; when one promotion ended, they all switched to the next. The view here is that this is pretty cool, and the ask is that you do it.

Below the fold, your best post. Beneath the call to action, place the value post that has performed best for you, ever. One choice is the top text-based post from other platforms; what it happens to be does not really matter. The view here is that it is a smart choice, at least, and that is why it was made: the post is already tested, and people are more likely to pass it on, enjoy it and find it useful.

2.3 One-third of the way in

The third place is one-third of the way into your video. In one channel's videos, the call to action lands there almost like clockwork.

The reasoning. Ideally you would hold the ask for the very end, where the hottest prospects are. But you would miss out on something like 80 percent of your traffic, because by far the bulk of viewers is there early on. In one practice here, asking in the first few seconds, before any value is given, is not wanted either; at the one-third point, asking is pretty comfortable.

Clips are a separate case. One team ends nearly every clip cut from a longer video on one call to action, the edit it rates most important, since it drives leads and sales. On mid-length clips the ask runs 30 seconds, bridging from the clip's topic to a lead magnet that maps it out further, linked first in the description. It keeps one offer, usually free, in the description, the bio and a pinned comment; an on-screen line of credentials can stand in for recording a proof hook each time.

2.4 Whether to ask at all: the ratio

Asking frightens a lot of people, and some video makers never want to ask for anything in their videos. That is your choice, but the view here is that it does not matter, since what counts is always the ratio. The arithmetic offered: two 60-second ads in a 57-minute video, called 30 to one on give to ask, and judged fine. Two minutes of asking against 57 minutes of video comes to 28.5 to one, or 27.5 to one if the asks are counted inside the 57 minutes; 30 to one is the figure offered.

At the extreme, someone with one of the biggest platforms ever runs something like eight minutes of ads. Some people skip them and some do not care, and if it were hurting him badly he would probably stop, yet he keeps doing it. Customers are said to be used to advertising. The case of one or two calls to action in a piece, none of them running for minutes, is not worked through on this page.

How far the balance should lean toward giving, and where an ask sits inside a piece: SOP 24 — Set the give-to-ask ratio. On placement the two differ; see section 7.

2.5 Show the product on camera

The most tasteful way, in this view, is to bring the product itself into your video. One practice here: when talking about a topic, bring along the product that goes with it and speak about it right there; that is said to always drive sales. The encouragement here is, as far as you can, to use your lead magnets and your products inside the videos you make to attract customers.

2.6 The product button

Number four is the product button on YouTube, described as new. Products you pull up there can link directly to a Shopify store. For business to business, it is called a great idea for paid lead magnets and similar things that are cheap; for business to consumer, obviously, you can just sell your products.

2.7 Community posts

Number five, and called wildly underused: YouTube community posts, said to do extremely well. By one estimate, a hiring request posted there would bring in far more responses than the same request in that creator's Instagram stories, and the engagement is described as very high. The point for anyone with a channel who is not treating these as a regular content bucket: it crushes.

3. Instagram: three

3.1 One call to action in the bio

A single call to action in the bio on your profile. One preference here is for it to say who you are, what you do, and where your stuff is. Clear rather than clever. What is the free thing? Go and get it now.

3.2 Comment a word, get the thing

For more leads from Instagram, there is ManyChat, a tool that works with it. Even small accounts, it is said, can bring in huge numbers of leads this way.

You may have seen the videos: here is a cheat sheet I made, comment a word to get it. One example is a creator whose brand is about making content. A post that was only middling for her drew a pile of comments, and every comment was a lead from one post.

How it runs. You make your reel and end it by asking viewers to comment a word. The ManyChat automation picks that up, sends each of them the thing, and can ask them other questions. It is called hot, working right now. For setting it up, use a search. The same comment-keyword funnel, with the reply and the link that follow, is in SOP 204 — Run the influencer playbook, one constraint at a time, section 9.

Three triggers. The automation can fire on a comment with the keyword, a story reply carrying it, or a new follow. Message new followers at once: someone is only new today, and a lead is probably worth far more in its first minutes than a month later (SOP 90). Pick a keyword that is easy to spell and type. Say the ask aloud in a second or two, and put it atop the caption, not below the fold.

Three messages. The thing they asked for, with the link; a nudge in case it got buried, with the link again and a line of proof; a last, no-pressure note that if they are dealing with the problem, it is probably worth a look. Say that the messages are automated (SOP 89, section 4), and follow the law where you are.

3.3 Story calls to action

You can also put calls to action in your stories. One practice here is to plan them for something like once or twice a week, and schedule them.

4. TikTok: one front door

The profile works the same way as on Instagram. Many of you have link-in-bio pages listing a set of links, and the strong recommendation here is against them. Choose the single action you want from people, one front door, and offer nobody a second option. Consider how hard it is to get anyone even to make up their mind to click; a link that leads to yet more links throws that away. Commit. The claim is that you will be really happy with it.

4.1 Business to business: send them to Instagram

A trick for anyone selling business to business with a big TikTok that is doing little for them. It comes from a business owner whose TikTok had been made to pay for high-ticket sales. Make the call to action on TikTok: send me a direct message on Instagram. For whatever reason, Instagram is said to be simply a better platform for converting; it feels different when people see you there, and they are willing to spend far more money on it. So instead of a link to your usual destination, the link goes either to message you directly or straight to your Instagram. Why Instagram converts better: Not established on this page.

If you sell high-ticket business to business, you have probably not made TikTok work well, since very few people have, and this route is one that does it. If your ticket is low, the view here is that you have TikTok figured out already. The same route, TikTok to Instagram messages for anything expensive, is in section 8 of SOP 204.

5. LinkedIn: comments

On LinkedIn, the big lever is said to be comments. Aim to get as many people commenting as you can, since on LinkedIn the comments are more or less what drives the algorithm. In one example, when an account with a very large following comments on someone's post, its whole audience sees the comment, and the size of the post makes no difference. It happens all the time: a post with almost no likes suddenly has a great many, because that audience sees the one post through the comment.

It is said to be very heavily skewed toward plainly valuable posts. This page stops short of saying you should incite comments, but you do want to give people some good reason to leave one.

5.1 Pin the call to action as the first comment

On a strong post, pin a comment carrying your call to action, a quick aside pointing to what you offer. The reason: typically, on most of the platforms, a post carrying a link that takes people off the platform will underperform, and its impressions get pushed down. Over time your comments will typically collect more likes than everyone else's, so the pinned one gets something like a double viewing: once as the top comment in general, and again because other people liked it, which brings their audiences in as well.

6. X: a banner and threads

Some of the rough-and-ready tactics for X, from much time spent there, follow.

6.1 A free product as an opt-in banner

You can create a $0 product in Shopify and connect it to X, which adds a large sign-up banner to your profile page. What it brings in each day, in one example, does not sound like much, but it is not nothing. Each of these, in this view, is a line left in the water, pulling people in.

6.2 Threads and single posts

If you post on X, this is where the choice between a thread and a single post comes up. The best approach seen to work here is a thread of about ten points: the first three or four, then a call to action, then three or four more, then the final call to action. Two calls to action embedded in a thread are said to work really well. On a single post you can put a call to action in a comment on basically every post, if you want to. The view here is that doing it too much feels a little weird, and that doing it every once in a while works great.

7. What this page does not decide for you

• Which YouTube place returns most, and which is the second. The bio is number one and is called the highest-return one you have; then a spot is rated probably the second-highest return spot for calls to action, just before the description comes up. One reading: the bio returns most and the description is probably second. The other: that rating corrects the first, and the bio is probably second. The description is never given a number. This page does not settle which reading is right.
• Where the ask sits in a video. SOP 24, section 5, says to put the call to action after a valuable moment or at the end, and to try one of those first. Here, waiting for the end is said to miss something like 80 percent of the traffic, and the ask comes at the one-third point. For clips, one team puts a single ask at the end (section 2.3). This page does not settle which reading is right.

8. The checklist

Platform	Where	What to do
YouTube	Bio	Make sure your link is there and visible
YouTube	Description	Call to action and links above the fold; your best-performing value post below it; change every description at once when your promotion changes
YouTube	Inside each video	Ask at the one-third point, not in the first few seconds
YouTube	Clips	One call to action at the end, 30 seconds on mid-length clips, bridging to a lead magnet; one offer, usually free, in the description, bio and pinned comment
YouTube	On camera	Show your product or lead magnet on camera, as far as you can
YouTube	Product button	Link products straight to Shopify: paid lead magnets and cheap items for business to business; your products for business to consumer
YouTube	Community posts	Make them a regular content bucket
Instagram	Bio	One call to action, clear rather than clever: what the free thing is, and go get it
Instagram	Reels	End by asking for an easy comment word, and put the ask at the top of the caption; ManyChat sends the thing
Instagram	Story replies and new followers	Fire the same automation; message new followers at once; three messages, telling people they are automated
Instagram	Stories	Calls to action something like once or twice a week, scheduled
TikTok	Profile	One front door, not a page of links
TikTok	Business to business, high ticket	Call to action: message me on Instagram, linked either to your messages or to your profile
LinkedIn	Posts and comments	Give people a good reason to comment; pin your call to action as the first comment, not as a link in the post
X	Profile	A $0 Shopify product as an opt-in banner
X	Threads and posts	About ten points with two calls to action embedded; a comment call to action every once in a while

9. Where this sits

• The full list of organic fixes: SOP 209.
• Making more pieces for each platform, which comes ahead of the asks, and making them better: SOP 214 — Make more and better organic content.
• The four things your content builds, each raising your influence: SOP 211 — Build status, power, credibility and likeness through content.
• The call to action that closes a paid ad, spelled out and demonstrated: SOP 119, section 5.
• Building the free thing that these calls to action point at: SOP 13 — Choose and build a lead magnet.

10. What this page does not cover

Email, with the call to action inside it, is SOP 254 — Nurture by email and book the next meeting months out. Setting up the comment automation and the bulk change of descriptions are not covered on this page.