Welcome to High On Marketing - A weekly newsletter where I show you how to strengthen your email marketing strategy for your cannabis brand. Learn how to nurture your audience, increase retention rates, and sell more weed.

Today’s Email:

• 7 (more) Tips for Improving Your CTA’s

• Bonus Tips You Can Implement Today

• Additional Thoughts

Let’s Roll 🛼

Here’s a scenario I see played out a lot in this industry…

I’ll get an email in my inbox from one of the dozens of cannabis brand email lists I’m subscribed to.

The email hooks me in with a relevant subject line. I click through to an expertly-designed email full of power words, 5-star reviews, and 4k photos of the purple-est bud I’ve ever seen.

Then, at the bottom, a small '“Shop Now” button.😭😭

Why put in so much effort creating a solid piece of content just to ignore the part that's actually driving the action?

People neglect their CTA’s because they think it’s just the bridge from one platform to the other; that the rest of the content is the one actually doing the selling.

Which is partly true!

In fact, every single element of your content should receive the same amount of time and attention to get it as optimized as possible.

In my opinion, your CTA is the most important element of your email after the subject line.

Take the time to test and optimize your CTA’s. It’s an investment that will repay you ten times over in time.

Here’s how to make your CTA’s impossible to ignore:

1. Clarity Is King:

Your CTA should leave no room for interpretation. Tell subscribers exactly what you want them to do, using direct and uncomplicated language.

The more specific, the better.

If you can paint a picture in your reader’s head of them using your product, reading your newsletter, or whatever action you’re encouraging them to take, you’ll evoke an emotional response from your reader.

And that response will be whatever action you’re asking them to take!

That’s why I recommend ditching the “Shop Now’s” and “Learn More’s”, and put more effort into your CTA’s.

“Subscribe to our newsletter to receive exclusive offers and news”

Becomes…

“Join 10,307 people who are getting high for less each week with our subscriber deals.”

One of those is way more specific and paints a picture in your reader’s mind.

2. Offer Value:

Your CTA should clearly communicate the benefit that clicking will provide.

Your customers only care about how they will be affected by whatever you’re selling or trying to get them to do.

The bigger the action is that you’re asking them to take, the more value you need to give in exchange.

The perceived value of taking the action needs to jump off the screen! An offer they can’t refuse.🤌🤌

Think about it like this:

You're asking your customer to fill out a 10 question canna preference survey. Now, their involvement in the survey is extremely valuable to you right?

Ok, so now you have to figure out how much of a “hassle” it is for your customer to fill it out. Remember, asking someone to answer 10 questions can be a tough sell with the way attention spans are plummeting each day.

So what are you willing to give your customer to ensure they will fill out your survey?

You don’t want them to skip the survey.

You don’t want them to take half of the survey.

You want them to fill it out completely so you can gather customer data.

Once you’ve established what the exchange will be for them taking action, you need to state that exchange in your CTA.

Instead of the mundane “Submit” or “Click Here,” use “Get My Free eBook” or “Send Me Discounts,” which specify exactly what the subscriber gains.

3. Make It Pop:

Contrast and color are your allies here.

Your CTA button should stand out from the rest of the email design. Use a color that contrasts with your layout but still aligns with your brand palette.

Use strong, verb-driven language that prompts action. Words like "Get," "Start," "Join," or "Discover" can be more motivating than passive language.

Experiment with icons/arrows/emojis.

There’s smarter ways to segment your audience! Click here to learn how👀

4. Create Urgency:

Not just urgency, gentle urgency.

Creating a sense of urgency without putting too much pressure on your customer.

It may sound silly, but being “too urgent” can scare people away.

Example: Giving your customer’s too short of a time limit to take action - if I’m considering buying a $200 product, and I get an email saying that I’ll save $10 if I order in the next 15 minutes, I might not go for it because that’s not enough time for me to finish deciding if I actually want to buy it.

Again, it sounds dumb, but this is how my anxiety-filled mind works.

And guess what, I fit right into your target market so your customers are probably riddled with anxiety, too!

I love the way Tiktok uses gentle urgency in their emails:

Here’s why I like it:

By saying the deadline is “approaching” instead of giving a set time limit does 2 things:

1. Doesn’t make them feel pressured to act immediately.

2. Evokes curiosity - What registration? How long do I have?

And yes, this is a subject line, but the same principles apply to your CTA’s.

Gentle urgency > “Chaotic” urgency.

5. Personalize It:

Personalization goes beyond just slapping a subscriber’s first name in the email.

Tailor the CTA based on the user’s past behavior or purchase history. This customization can significantly increase your click-through rates.

For example, if you’re trying to get your reader to check out your product page, you might say something like “Find Your New Favorite Strain”.

But if you’re trying to indoctrinate new subs into your brand and get more sign ups, you might say “Join The Club” to be more relevant to the desired action (and up the exclusivity of joining).

6. Keep It Simple:

A good CTA is a single, clear directive.

If you clutter your email with too many calls to action, you risk paralyzing your subscribers with too many choices. Again, being too urgent or offering too many options causes your reader to feel overwhelmed and not take action.

Stick to one main CTA per email to guide users towards a single action.

7. Test, Learn, Optimize:

As with anything else in marketing (or life), you need to test, analyze, and repeat.

Regularly test different versions of your CTA’s to find out what resonates best with your audience. Test one variable at a time, be it the wording, color, placement, or size.

Just keep testing!

Additional Thoughts:

Your CTA is most effective when it feels like a natural step in the customer journey. Align it closely with the content of your email and ensure it leads to a relevant landing page.

This is how your email structure should look:

• Subject line raises curiosity using a commonly-felt pain point by your audience.

• Body of the email agitates the pain point and gets your reader wondering how to solve it.

• CTA is the solution.

So the bulk of your email poses a question, and your CTA answers it.

Simple (in theory).

You might be thinking that it sounds like a lot of effort to spend on a button you’re putting at the bottom of your email, but this stuff is Psychology 101!

Spend time perfecting your CTA’s. It’s an investment that pays of dramatically in the long run.

Happy Calling-To-Action!

Steve

P.S. If you missed my other post about canna CTA’s, read it here! Master the art of driving action with your emails!