One of the most important aspects of any piece of direct mail collateral is also, sadly, the one many forget about until it’s far too late: the CTA, or “call to action.”

The fact of the matter is that even the most visually pleasing, objectively successful direct mail design ultimately won’t be able to save you if your call to action is bland and does little to motivate your audience members. If you truly want to make sure you’re getting the most out of this crucial opportunity to inspire people to take action, there are a few key things to keep in mind.

The Keys to Creating Better CTAs

While it’s always true that nearly every aspect of your direct mail campaign should be dictated by your audience, there are still a few “tried but true” best practices you can fall back on when it comes to creating more compelling calls to action.

Generally speaking, you should use a call to action multiple times. Make sure it appears at least once towards the beginning of your collateral and once towards the bottom. Your CTA should always start with an action word, too – something like “call us today!” or “contact us to find out more!” If you want to motivate someone to take your desired step, you have to be crystal clear about what that step actually is.

Likewise, craft your call to action in a way that makes it practically effortless for your reader to respond. They shouldn’t have to jump through hoops in order to do what is being asked of them. By the time they get to the end of your postcard mailers, they should A) know what you want them to do, and B) know exactly how to do it without a doubt in their mind.

Finally, make sure that you’re leveraging marketing analytics and similar targeted mailing techniques to help personalize your CTAs based on the people you’re speaking to. Don’t forget that different people react to things in different ways. An argument that was very effective to a mother of three from Ohio likely wouldn’t work too well on a single 20-something from a large coastal city. Use the information you have about your audience to write a compelling CTA that works for them specifically, instead of hoping that they’ll somehow find an emotional “way in” to your argument after the fact.

If you’d like to find out more information about how to create effective CTAs for your direct mail collateral, or if you’d just like to discuss the specifics of your own situation with someone in a bit more detail, please don’t delay – contact us today.