TALECRAFTERS
GLOSSARY · AUDIENCE · STRATEGY

CALL TO ACTION

The single thing you want the audience to do next, stated once, in the place where they are most persuaded, wherever that falls.

ALSO CALLEDCTAthe ask

One ask. Two asks is a choice, and a choice presented at the end of a piece is reliably answered with neither. This is the most commonly ignored rule in commercial video, usually because two stakeholders each wanted something.

Placement should follow the argument. If the strongest moment of belief is at sixty per cent, the ask belongs there, and the rest of the piece can continue afterwards. The convention of putting it last exists because it is tidy.

Specificity is what moves people, and urgency on its own does nothing. "Reply with the word audit" outperforms "get in touch today" because it names an action small enough to complete without a decision about how. Urgency without specificity is the shape of an ask nobody acts on.

QUESTIONS PEOPLE ASK

Where should the call to action go?

At the point of maximum persuasion, which is often not the end. The convention of placing it last is tidy, and tidy is not the same as effective.

How many calls to action should a video have?

One. Two asks constitute a choice, and a choice offered at the end of a piece is usually answered with neither.

THEORY IS FREE

Knowing the word is the cheap part.

Running it on a deadline, at volume, without burning the budget is the expensive part. That is the bit we do.

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