The secret of lemon-cake calls to action

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About half a dozen or so years ago, when our youngest was still in sixth-form, I used to drop him off at school every Monday morning.

My routine was pretty consistent. After dropping him off, I’d walk over to the coffee shop and order a cappuccino. They’d ask if I wanted any pastries with it and I’d say no. Then I’d grab a seat upstairs and plan my week out.

Then one day the routine changed.

I dropped Robert off. Walked over to the coffee shop. Ordered my cappuccino. Then the girl behind the counter said “would you like a slice of Sicilian lemon cake with that?” and after a short pause, I said “yes”.

Now obviously the world didn’t change because I bought a piece of cake.

But I did think it was interesting. I’d been going for almost a year and never bought anything. Why did I suddenly say yes?

You’ve probably already figured it out.

All the previous times I was asked “would you like a pastry?” or “would you like something to eat with that?”.

But this time I was asked “would you like a slice of Sicilian lemon cake?”.

Something much more specific.

Part of the reason I said yes is that “Sicilian lemon cake” just sounds more attractive than “pastries”. I can imagine what it looks, smells and tastes like - whereas a pastry is such a generic phrase it doesn’t build that same mental picture.

But the other reason is even simpler, and I think perhaps more important.

It made the decision easy. It was either yes or no.

When I was asked if I wanted a pastry I couldn’t just say yes. I’d then have to think about what pastry I wanted.

And at that time of the morning, before I’d downed my coffee, it was just too much mental effort.

So I always said no.

The simpler, easier-to-say-yes-to, specific offer beat the generic offer hands down.

And it’s the same with any call to action where you have a limited time to make it - like in an email.

A specific call to action will almost always outperform a more generic one.

It’s easier to picture the outcome of the specific one, and it’s a simpler yes-or-no decision.

What if your audience is interested in different things? If some like Sicilian lemon cake but some like pain au chocolate.

Offer them something specific - but different - every time.

You’ll get the people who like lemon cake when you offer that, and the people who like a pain au choc when you offer that. And you’ll get some people who’ll buy both times.

But offer a “pastry” every time and your sales will be weak.

In something like an email you might want to focus on one specific benefit that your product or service gives to your buyers rather than trying to summarise or list all of them.

For example, for my Effective and Engaging Email Newsletters course I could focus on the fact it teaches 5 powerful call-to-action templates to use in your emails that will get more clicks and sales.

Then in the next email I could focus on one of the other benefits or results you’d get from the course.

Cycling through specific benefits is much more powerful that using a high level generic one every time.

Try it.

- Ian