How to be sneaky with CTA‘s

Behind every great campaign is a smart CTA. First of all, CTA means Call-To-Action, it‘s where you‘re directing your audience so you can think of it like an intention that you want your audience to follow through on. Think of it like this rather than a command because if there‘s one thing your audiences hates, it‘s being told what to do. That‘s why the best CTA‘s are the ones you don‘t notice. You have to fly under the radar a bit, be a bit sneaky. Not in the way of subliminal messaging (a bit dystopian, don‘t you think?) but in the sense of a straight-forward, easy-to-read action that your audience will naturally be inclined to follow. It‘s more about getting your customers excited so they want to read on, rather than forcing them to.

The number one faux-pas with CTA‘s is using too many all at once. Your audience won‘t want to click off to five different pages, especially if it‘s concentrated into one paragraph. The most memorable actions are the ones that are clear, decisive and easy to understand. Center your text around what action you want your audience to focus on most, whether that‘s a promotion or learning more about the brand, then direct them there when your copy most naturally leads onto that subject. This way your audience won‘t feel overwhelmed and you‘ll get more clicks too!

For each CTA you have, you want to ask yourself, “Is this really necessary?”. Sort through the various actions and see which ones are most imperative either to the campaign or to the piece of text where the CTA will go. If you keep to the minimal rule above, then this part will be easy to decipher. For easy reading and clear direction, have no more than two CTA‘s per content piece whether this is a newsletter, blog article or press release. This keeps it simple and helps guide your audience.

Above all else, see where your CTA fits naturally into the copy. Having specific CTA‘s that are super important to your campaign means that you‘ll already have a specific goal in mind for the action and how it relates to your campaign. Then all you need to do is craft copy around this end result so it fits seamlessly. This way, your audience will actually want to click on your CTA‘s, instead of being bombarded with links. This also creates a more positive brand image and trust between you and your consumers.

Sometimes, hiding in plain sight is the best strategy. We‘re constantly given CTA‘s by brands day-in, day-out, so naturally our brains have far less capacity to determine what‘s important information and what isn‘t. Keeping it simple and manageable is the best strategy for getting your audience to do what a CTA is intended to do -- to learn more about your brand and read on! Contact us for mind-blowing copywriting for your campaign here (see what we did there? 😉).