Write your CTA so your dream clients can contact you

In the last step, you wrote the article! Now, you’re making your hard work pay off by crafting an intelligent call to action designed to get dream clients filling up your inbox.

When I accidentally got my first freelance writing client, I did it despite myself. 

I made it so hard for any potential clients to get in touch with me. 

My client read my article, found my YouTube channel (which I didn’t link to), went to the “about me” section on YouTube, clicked to reveal my business email address, and finally sent me an email hoping I was available for hire.

I’m lucky he was committed to getting in touch with me! But I wonder how many potential clients I had at my fingertips that I turned away because I didn’t give them an easy way to contact me.

Luckily for you, you can easily avoid my mistake. A call to action makes it easy for people to contact you.

Definition: What is a call to action? A call to action, or CTA, is a blurb you include at the end of your content. In this case, it’s a short paragraph that tells readers what they should do after they read your article.

Let’s get into it. 

What elements does a CTA need?

Your CTA needs three elements: 

1. A short bio.

2. A conditional statement.

3. A way to get in touch.

The short bio can be directly copied from the Medium bio you wrote in Step 2. It’s there to remind readers who you are and what you offer. 

The conditional statement gets readers to self-select if they’re interested in hiring you. This gives you another opportunity to make sure only the very best clients are hiring you. 

The way to get in touch is self-explanatory. 

Here’s how that looks:

Bio element: “I’m a freelance [your field] with a specialty in [your specialty, if you have one]. I’ve been [what you do] for [number of years]. [Quirk] lover and [thing] enthusiast. 

Conditional statement element: “Want to hire me to write articles like this about [topic of the article you just wrote]?”

Contact: “Get in touch at name@domain.com.”

And here’s an example of how the whole thing could look.

Example: “I’m a freelance writer with a specialty in food & travel. I’ve been freelancing for four years. I love cheese and wine. Want to hire me to write more awesome articles like this one? Get in touch at zulie [at] zuliewrites dot com.”

You can add more depth or additional links to a fitting piece of work from your portfolio. If you don’t have a business email address or website, link to your LinkedIn page instead. 

Tip: I recommend email formatting with [at] and dot because bots scrape Medium for email addresses to send spam, which is sadly a hard-won lesson. In that format, a human can read it but a robot can’t. 

Write your CTA

Now it’s your turn to craft your perfect CTA. Make sure to include:

• Your bio.

• Your conditional statement.

• Your contact details.

Add them to the bottom of your article.

Tip: I use a keyboard shortcut to paste my CTA template so I don’t have to re-type it for every article and I can easily edit it depending on the article I’m writing. It’s a great way to save time.

Recap

In this step, you designed and added your CTA that gives your dream a way to get in touch with you.

In the next step, we’re maximizing the chances that they see your article and CTA using a Medium feature called a “tag.