A plan is useless without action.
You know this so the question is how do you ensure that your Hero takes action? In the case of this handbook, I’ve been showing you how you can implement each phase of the story framework into your workflow.
That is the action that you need to take.
If no action is taken then we can’t proceed along the story.
What if Luke stayed in the swamp and contemplated life instead of heading back to take on Darth Vader?
So what constitutes an action on your site?
- Clicking a link
- Subscribing to your mailing list
- Purchasing a product
- Sending you an email
Every interaction that you have with someone on your site, you should try to get them to take some action besides leaving and doing nothing.
Too often I see people creating tons of opt-ins for posts that don’t inspire action.
If you’re writing a guide on blood pressure and the opt-in at the end of the post is 5 Easy Bake Recipes then why would anyone want to take action?
It doesn’t carry on with the plan that is laid out in the post.
A better example would be if I wrote a guide on how to write bill collectors to dispute marks on your credit report and the follow-up opt-in gave them all of the letters in a simple PDF.
The opt-in continues with the plan, but the only way the Hero can continue with the plan is by taking action.
People respond to direct calls to action.
So that means you always need to give the visitor some call to action. It doesn’t matter if it’s to go to the next page or to purchase your consulting services.
People will not take action unless they are challenged to.
Each page in this handbook has a big Continue button at the bottom that you can’t miss. This is me telling you that I want you to take an action that will take you deeper into the handbook.
Your Territory
You’re constantly going to be fighting for space in the minds of your audience. Chances are, you are not the only one in your industry trying to get their attention.
If you can get people to take action, then you’re claiming your territory.
When people sign up for an Odd Noodle mailing list, we’re claiming the territory of helping them build a strong online business.
If we can follow through with that, then we own that territory. Nobody else is going to take that territory away from me unless they help the Hero go through a new transformation.
Here are some responses I recently received from an email that I sent out:
Wow, I’m loving your emails and this one really blew my hair back as I was just reading it! I will probably read it 10 more times! Thank you for sharing this information so freely and for giving me such a great head start as I’m about to start blogging!
This was fabulous content! I’m enjoying the series, but so far this one knocked it out of the park with usable value. Thank You!
I wanted to say thank you for the work you put in to help others succeed. I am grateful and am enjoying every single email.
Only marketer that I look forward to reading their emails!
I’ve claimed my territory with these people. They see me as the Guide that can help them with their Problem.
However, that wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t get them to take the simple action of subscribing to my mailing list.
The same goes for Odd Noodle Members. Odd Noodle Members recommend Odd Noodle offers because in some way, I’ve helped with their transformation but of course that wouldn’t have been possible if I didn’t convince them to take action and purchase access to an Odd Noodle course.
Everything that you’ve done up until this point is useless if you can’t get the Hero to take action.
Of course, so many people believe they’ve done everything correctly but they still can’t get people to take action.
That rarely happens.
Action isn’t the first phase in this framework because you have to go through everything to build an emotional connection with the Hero to convince them to take action.
Exceptions
Don’t be that person that likes to think of the exceptions to the rule. There are some people that will come to your site and sign up for anything if they see it is free.
Do you ever wonder why you can get people to sign up but only 20% of them to open emails? Your Heroes are in that 20%, not the 80%.
You can only do so much to get the Hero to take action, but they have to consciously make the decision to take it.
If the Hero isn’t taking action then you need to make sure of two things:
- It’s clear that you want them to take a specific action.
- You are applying the System of Business to everything that you’re doing.