
One of the most important marketing strategies I help advisors create is a compelling call to action. When your target demographic is presented with your call to action, do they act? If not, your marketing is rotten at its core. So many advisors have amazing websites and content marketing, but they are wasting their opportunities without a call to action that converts.
The best marketing in the world cannot be effective if your call to action is ho-hum. Yet most advisors don’t have an offer that inspires action. The most common call to action for advisors is “call now,” “learn more,” or “join our newsletter.” If you are using one of these on your website, you know how unsuccessful it is.
If you do one thing for your marketing this year, create a call to action that inspires people to take the next step. It’s easy to tell when you have a call to action that’s working because prospects will take you up on your offer on a regular basis. The trick is finding a unique, valuable, and motivating offer for your target clients.
What Is a Call to Action?
A call to action (CTA) is marketing lingo for an offer that is designed to motivate action or make a sale. Traditionally, calls to action are offers like:
- Call now
- Buy now
- Visit our store
For financial advisors, this usually translates into something like:
- Get your portfolio risk analysis
- Get your free financial review
- Learn more now
- Join our newsletter
The problem with these calls to action is that they’re not specific to the audience, they don’t offer compelling value, and they put the burden on the buyer to do the work.

Creating a Great Call to Action
A better call to action offers valuable benefits to the specific buyer and is incredibly easy to complete. For example, one CTA on my website is “Click to schedule a free 15-minute phone call to get specific marketing recommendations for your advisory firm.” It takes less than 10 seconds for someone to complete, and it offers valuable benefits tailored to their business.
You may have several CTAs for your different services. For example, for my Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Package, we offer a free SEO Audit Report for your website that outlines everything you need to do to rank higher on Google. You could implement the recommendations on your own and gain tremendous value or you could hire us to do the work. It may be worthwhile to create CTAs for each of your major services.
In any case, a great call to action focuses on the benefits to the user. So many times I see advisors with calls to action that focus on their mission statement, their process, or their firm. Website visitors will only act if you are solving an urgent and painful problem for them. Focus on their most pressing concerns and offer an easy way for them to take the next step and sleep better tonight.
Examples of Great CTAs
The best CTAs are specific to a unique group, solve an urgent problem, and take less than one minute to complete. Here are three of my favorites from great advisors.
Can You Sell Your Business and Buy Financial Freedom?
One advisor, who serves business owners thinking about selling their companies, offers a short survey called “How Much Will Financial Freedom Cost You?”
In just six questions, potential clients find out what their annual cash flow needs are in retirement, what lump sum they’d need to support that cash flow, and whether they may be able to sell their existing business to buy that financial freedom.
For an overworked and burnt out business owner, the answer to that question is pretty compelling. What if financial freedom is closer than they think? Once business owners have self-qualified themselves as being able to sell their firm for enough to retire with the lifestyle they desire, they can work with the advisor to learn how he can help them sell their firm.
What Is the Cost of Your ADP Retirement Plan?
Two advisors in Georgia focus on helping ADP employees better invest their retirement accounts. The handful of investments within the retirement plan have high fees and low performance. The advisors have developed a quick survey where ADP employees can enter their holdings and find out how much they are paying in fees and how much they can save by getting access to better investments.
The same firm offers a free report on “How to Maximize Your ADP Benefits Package”. The report details the retirement savings plan, stock purchase plan, and health savings plan. Highly compensated executives will naturally find this report incredibly valuable and may schedule a phone call to review their specific questions.
How a CRNA S Corporation Can Reduce Your FICA Self-Employment Taxes
CRNA Financial Planning is one of my favorite firms because they’re laser-focused on who they serve and how they help. Their only clientele is Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs), and if that’s not specific enough, they mainly work with CRNAs who own their own anesthesiology practice.
One of their top performing blog posts is “How a CRNA S Corporation Can Reduce Your FICA Self-Employment Taxes,” which was shared 29 times and viewed by 9,219 people on Facebook this month. The offer at the end is for a free 15-minute phone call to get specific recommendations for lowering taxes. Who wouldn’t want that? It’s a great example of a CTA that is specific, valuable, and easy to complete.
More Call-to-Action Tips
Of course, you’ll need to customize your call to action for your specific firm and services. Spend a few minutes thinking about your prospects, their most pressing concerns, and how they typically like to first engage with you (email, phone call, webinar).
Here are a few other examples of successful CTAs for advisors:
- Schedule your Social Security review phone call
- Get your impaired risk life insurance quote now
- Join us for our retirement planning webinar
- Schedule a 15-minute financial goal setting phone call
- Find out what you need to do when you turn 65
- Get a quote for your business 401(k) plan
Remember, the attributes that help your CTA convert are:
- Specificity
- Value
- Ease of completion
Tailor your CTA to a specific group of clients that you help, offer tremendous value for free, and aim for the action to take less than 60 seconds.
Need help?
If you need help with your call to action—or anything (and everything) marketing related, you’ve come to the right place. Schedule a FREE strategy call with one of our marketing experts, and let’s see how we can boost your marketing starting NOW.