Since retiring I’ve become a blogger. Bloggers want to get their message across, same as preachers, but if they’re good bloggers they adopt a marketing approach, watching out for what appeals, and giving readers more of that. I used to look down my nose at such self-interested communication, but now that I’m out of the pulpit and blogging, I’m following a different strategy, and finding practical wisdom I wish I come upon while I was preaching, like including a "call to action" in every sermon.
One of my young bloggig gurus, Daniel Sharkov, wrote this week:
End you blog post with style.
The idea behind every article is to generate a buzz. Your last paragraph can often times prove decisive.
The conclusion is your call to action. That is how you will get the ones who read to act. You might pose a question and hence ask for more comments, you might encourage people to spread the word or to join your list if they liked the article.
Whatever your call to action, you need to have it. Miss that and conversion rates drop.
Everyone knows that you want more retweets, more likes and more subscribers. Every blogger wants that. Most won’t do a thing if you don’t encourage them though. If you want readers to take specific action ask for it! "
I’d heard that phrase, "call to action," in many an article about selling this or that. "Gotta have a call to action," the marketing experts all say. Daniel helped me to see, however, that the most basic reason for a call to action is: it keeps people engaged. A call to action doesn’t have to be an inducement to buy anything. It’s just a call to DO SOMETHING, which keeps one engaged and connected. That makes great sense to this ex-preacher, and husbander of community!
Let’s do stay connected! Do you think preachers should include a call to action in every sermon? Would you be more likely to stay engaged in your faith community if they did? Please leave a comment.
We tend to go deaf to things that we hear repeatedly and regularly. Life flows in cycles, inward and outward. Living things need a fallow season to regenerate and to develop deeper roots. I imagine that a preacher would do best by minding those cycles and supporting her or his congregation to value both the inward and the outward. A call to action delivered by a preacher who frequently guides the congregation to a quiet Center will have more resonance than a call to action from someone who calls for action relentlessly week in and week out.
A good addition to this post, Barry! Preachers need that fallow time, too!
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