What CTAs can do for your Asset Growth (no, not those CTAs)
I don’t mean a Commodity Trading Advisor. The rest of the world thinks CTA means call-to-action; a prompt encouraging a specific action.
CTAs are everywhere. You’ve probably seen 30 of them in the last 15 minutes.
The outside world of professional sales and marketing knows CTA is ‘call-to-action’ - prompts that encourage a specific action, not Commodity Trading Advisors. They range from hard CTAs like ‘buy now’ to softer ones like ‘discover more.’ You must have followed a few to end up at this page.
CTAs are most visible when it is unclear to the buyer what the next action should be. They’re very prevalent in B2C communications, all over websites and socials. In B2B communications the CTA is normally softer, which holds true for effective CTAs in alternatives. Firstly, the buying (investing) process in alternatives is relatively standardised, what to do next is pretty clear. Secondly, as professionals, investors place a premium on their choice during the evaluation and consideration process. A hard CTA that undermines that premium may have the opposite effect. Coupling this with complex regulation has led many teams to overlook CTAs entirely, which means they are missing out on valuable interaction and guidance.
Key Takeaways
CTAs in alternatives need a different approach from traditional B2C - softer, more sophisticated, and carefully placed to respect the professional nature of the investment process
Well-crafted CTAs can significantly reduce friction in the investor journey, particularly during the crucial consideration phase when investors are comparing multiple funds
Effective CTAs transform mere information into actionable value, helping move investors through your funnel while maintaining compliance
The investment process in alternatives is relatively standardised, making it possible to anticipate and smooth common drop-out points with strategic CTAs
Different audiences (potential investors, existing investors, intermediaries) require different CTA approaches - one size does not fit all
What’s the difference between soft and hard CTAs?
A hard CTA is pretty simple, the action is generally singular and unambiguous - you can’t get clearer than ‘buy now’ or ‘sign up.' Hard CTAs live naturally on buttons, they’re short and to the point with imperative verbs: buy, call, register, download. They’re often timebound with clear deadlines: now, today, by Friday. Some of the best are explicit in their consequences: before prices rise, Don’t miss out. They work best when the decision is straightforward, the value is clear, the action is simple, and the urgency and consequences are real. Soft CTAs are well, softer.
A soft CTA aims to guide rather than push, creating a low-pressure invitation to act. They have a value-first formulation; rather than leading with the action, they lead with the benefit: Example: "Get your questions answered" vs "Call us with questions." They should appeal to the viewers’ goals rather than your needs. The emphasis is on choice and gives control to the viewer. The most effective soft CTAs build on existing momentum, making the action feel easy and natural.
Rather than shouting ‘don’t miss out!’ soft CTAs are subtle with their FOMO, and if they’re timebound, the time is not too pressuring: ‘Book before Friday as places are limited.’ Soft CTAs can have conditional phrases like ‘when you’re ready’ or ‘if you have questions.’ Equally, the focus is often on accessibility: we’re here, or, just a call away. The verbs used in soft CTAs are themselves softer: explore v buy, and discover v learn. Some of the best soft CTAs use the question-action format as it engages critical thinking, feels less pushy and creates a natural flow to the solution. Example: “Reviewing our presentation? We’re here to refine any details. Book a call here xxxx.”
It’s important to note that CTAs don’t always hang around buttons. The softest of CTAs are right in the text of your emails, the headings of your presentations and the body of your newsletters. The actions you want your viewer to take can be as subtle as a change of opinion. When you stack your CTAs you build momentum; change an opinion, change an opinion, now send me an email.
Using CTAs to inform your mindset
This is where I take a moment to look at our bigger picture. The lack of effective CTAs in alternatives is symptomatic of a wider mindset that hinders asset growth. We are all very busy creating information. We think ‘information’ is sufficient to engage potential investors. It’s not. We consistently fire information at people that is inappropriate for their knowledge level and interest. We often expect them to have the full context, or worse we explain the context in minute detail but not the conclusion we want them to draw. We spam out information containing little benefit for the recipient.
We need to stop and think “What do I want the investor to do and think after they view this?”
If the answer is “nothing,” stop writing! You’re wasting your time. However, being clear on what you want gives your content focus. It also anchors what you’re saying as part of a wider continuum. If you want them to get in contact to set up a first meeting, you’re creating middle-of-funnel content that should have enough information to make them want to contact you, and preferably no more. Focus on headline USPs. You don’t need 13 paragraphs on the minutiae of your risk policies, that’s for later in your funnel. But equally, don’t brand build with little substance (hello, pretty but empty websites).
If the CTA is to sign up to your quarterly conference call, make it juicy! What’s the value that joining will bring to them? What might they miss out on if they don’t join? Thinking about the CTA makes you turn information into a benefit for the investor and therefore something they are more likely to be interested in. If you’re too reticent with your CTAs you lose the opportunity to engage someone’s interest.
This extends across every interaction. You can use the CTA mindset to think around your investors’ potential behaviours and make it easier for them to make decisions that move them down your funnel.
Use ultra-soft CTAs to anticipate needs and reduce general friction
As the buying process is relatively standard it’s easy to anticipate your Investors’ next step. Using well-placed, soft CTAs makes the next step easy to take. This example is one of a thousand small ultra-soft CTAs you can employ to ease their journey:
In the footer of every page of your presentation, put the word ‘questions;’ followed by a clickable email address. For extra points, make it the email of the person who will answer the questions, it’s even better if it’s also the person who sent the presentation. This signals how to get in touch at the moment your investor is having an issue - while reviewing your presentation. They click the link, an email pops up and they can start noting things that they want you to explain, then and there. If your email isn’t obviously available, you set off a string of decisions and actions that start to feel like friction:
“This doesn’t make sense. I’m going to need clarification. What’s their email address?… Oh, it’s not at the back of the presentation. Is it at the front?... What page was I on?… No. Okay, where’s the email they sent the presentation from?… Damn, Outlook’s search function is bad… What’s the guy’s name? Ach, I remember. It came from an info@… What’s the firm called? I’ll have to get it from the presentation. Oh, the firm name’s only on the front page… Ouff. That’s hard to pronounce. Copy/ Paste. Copy… copy… Gahh! They made the PDF uncopyable. Fine, I’ll type it… Nope, that didn’t help… How can their firm name not be in Outlook search? That’s ludicrous. I’ll have to google how Outlook’s search function works. Or ask IT. Oh! He was called John! I’ll search John… Maybe it didn’t have an ‘h’… Right! Got it!.. What did I need clarity on? Where was I in the presentation? Oh, forget it.”
I’ll grant you, that’s a little laboured! But you get the gist. During their consideration phase, investors can review 15 -30 presentations on a similar strategy in a tight timeframe. Even more if they’re a strategy specialist. When they’re presenting their findings at the weekly team meeting, a small barrier like that could be the difference between “They clarified that ….” and “They don’t have an edge.” They are under no obligation to review your fund as thoroughly as you’d like. In fact, they may believe you don’t have an edge and don’t realise they’re reacting to unwarranted friction. Investors are human (and everyone hates Outlook search, but only marginally less than Gmail search.)
Back to the point…
Gently reducing their friction across multiple touchpoints with subtle ultra-soft CTAs makes the friction of understanding your strategy enjoyable. That’s the friction they want: getting to grips with complex ideas is rewarding, but dealing with hundreds of tiny barriers that make their job frustrating is not. Anticipate those tiny pain points and mitigate them with unobtrusive, well-placed CTAs.
Use soft-ish CTAs to mitigate recognised drop-out points
You can use more directive CTAs when anticipating common drop-out points in your sales funnel, for example:
During a pitch meeting, you ask the investor about their next steps. They tell you they’ll write up their notes and discuss your fund with their colleagues at their weekly Friday meeting. This is the ideal opportunity for a well-placed soft-ish CTA. As part of your thank you email, include a reference to both the meeting and the activity you want them to take to overcome the drop-out point:
“Call me to address any questions before your Friday meeting. [Number / Calendar Link]”
Or
“Want to double-check anything before sharing with your team? You can call me anytime before Friday [Number / Calendar Link]”
Of course, this means you need to track your potential investor’s experience to identify dropout points. Defining their journey and the actions you want them to take along the way is the first step in understanding how to populate that journey with valuable content to help them moved down your funnel. Where many teams miss opportunities is extending the funnel beyond first contact into the investors’ awareness phase and the first half of their consideration phase. They don’t build and track their promotional channels.
Use hard CTAs in your promotional channels
Hard CTAs in public-facing content are compliantly tricky for alternative investments. Even some soft CTAs can be skirting the line on social media. However, that’s not the case for your targeted email channels.
Hard CTAs for an event are always appropriate: Reserve your spot; Learn how we’re positioning for xxx macro event; Gain insights into xxxx. However, if you’re promoting on social media you need to be sure you are using your hard CTAs to exclude as much as include: Join fellow Institutional Investors; Exchange insights with industry peers; Connect with leading allocators. But don’t let these exclusionary CTAs stand on their own, they’re cringe. They need a corollary: at our investment roundtable; at our upcoming portfolio review; for our closed-door investment committee insights.
The classic spot for hard CTAs is in your newsletter to potential investors. We all know open rates for newsletters are low. A good CTA in your subject line or the body of your email can dramatically increase open rates. Experiment with what works for your audience using A/B testing (sending different CTAs to half your audience). Your mailing software should provide this. The good ones send out an A/B test to a sample of your audience and then send the best-performing version to the remainder. Both placement and wording can influence open rates.
Once the newsletter is opened and read, what do you want them to do? Is there a next step they could take that will move them down your marketing funnel? Did you write a report that’s relevant to something you’ve referenced in this issue? If so, link to it with a compelling CTA so you can track who’s taking that interested next step. Your newsletter to potential investors is a marketing document not an informational obligation. Making it easy to take the next step with a well-crafted CTA is 15% of the battle.
You might have noticed something slightly out of kilter in the last two paragraphs. I’ve been talking about your newsletter for potential investors, not just your investor newsletter. That’s because they’re not the same document. What you want a potential investor to do and an existing investor to do are different. You can’t send them the same document with the same CTAs. Of course, I always recommend adding additional content around your core messages for both audiences. But if all you do is 30 minutes of reformatting and reconstituting the CTAs you are going to see increased engagement from both groups.
You want existing investors to stay invested and ideally, to add to their investment. A key element is fluid communication and continual engagement. Include CTAs to sign up to your investors only quarterly video presentation. Add a button that lets them download your new case studies (that you’ve already created for your updated presentation). Give them exclusive access to additional research. Well-crafted and placed CTAs highlight the consistent added benefits of being invested with you. Being direct with your CTAs only serves to underline the value.
Lastly, always use CTAs for your intermediary channels. The harder the better for these groups, as what you expect from them may be less clear. Primary Connectors, Secondary Connectors and Strategy Influencers may not realise you want them to share your wisdom with other people. If their only response is “Oh, that’s interesting” you’ve wasted your time. In an ideal world they see value in quoting you rather than taking your opinions as their own. But that may be further down the line, in the meantime, a well-structured softer CTA should grease the wheels: Your network might value our perspective on...; This could provide helpful context for some of your investing contacts; Add this to your knowledge bank for relevant client discussions. If you feel it’s appropriate, go hard: Feel free to forward this to relevant investors; I’d be happy to call with an investor you think would benefit; Consider us a resource for your next event.
In summation. Don’t miss an opportunity for lack of a CTA. CTAs aren’t just buttons and slogans, they’re also well-placed solutions to anticipated problems, indicators of value, and opportunities to track engagement. Incorporating a CTA mindset into your content creation helps you focus on what you want and allows you to pitch it correctly for your audiences’ knowledge and interest level. Don’t leave CTAs to the Commodity Trading Advisors!
Speaking of CTAs…. well, you knew this was coming, didn’t you? It’s time for me to practice what I preach. Consider this your chance to critique the options, and experience both their effectiveness and inevitability!
Which one of these would prompt you to sign up for our newsletter?
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3 would work on me. I think 1 is “meh, fine,” and 2 makes me want to curl around a bucket in case I vomit. Strangely, I’ve discovered that CTAs that give me the last reaction often work the best. I shall trial all three on a sitewide A/B test… and then I’ll probably write an article about it!
Ignoring all the above, don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter. It’s useful.
Would any of these help you decide to get in contact?
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None of these sing for me. Website CTAs that prompt B2B customers to make the first contact are the hardest to get right, particularly for premium services. Luckily for alternatives managers, potential investors make contact quite late in their consideration phase compared to other B2B journeys. Equally, they generally use other channels as their primary source of information. Not true for After Yellow! Why not get in contact to let me know which one of these resonates? The button’s just up there!
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