Build Trust with Transparent Call-To-Actions (CTAs)

Every marketer knows that the Call-to-Action (CTA) is important. Throughout the buyer’s journey, we test words, buttons and placement, attempting to figure out the best possible way to convert consumers.

And yet, we frequently rely on two words that absolutely destroy trust with our audience: ‘Learn More.’

Yep, these two ubiquitous words move our audience further away from a relationship with the brand and achieving the ultimate goal: conversion.

But… why? What is so wrong with using ‘Learn More’ as a CTA?

People buy from people they trust

To understand why this CTA is so harmful, we must first understand the foundation of buying behavior: trust.

The Edelman Trust Barometer is a longitudinal study looking at global trends in trust, including which entities people trust most and the impacts of trust on behavior.

Reports over the last decade show that trust has been declining for years, particularly among traditional markers of authority, like a leadership role in business, government or the church.

And yet, despite the overall decline in trust, some groups have remained steady or made gains over the years. In 2023, the report found that businesses are more trusted (62 percent) than non-government organizations (NGOs) (59 percent), government (50 percent) and the media (50 percent). It also found that ‘my neighbors’, ‘my CEO’ and ‘my co-workers’ are more trusted than generic CEOs, journalists or government officials.

In 2024, 74 percent of respondents said they trust ‘someone like me’ and 66 percent said they trust a ‘company technical expert’.

Trust is not a fluffy or ethereal feeling, it has a real economic impact.

The 2022 Edelman Trust report found that 58 percent of respondents bought from or advocated for brands based on their beliefs and values; 60 percent chose a place of work based on their beliefs and values; and 64 percent invested based on their beliefs and values.

If companies want to attract, convert and retain customers, partners, investors and talent, they must build trust.

Transparency builds trust

So, how do you build trust?

Frances Frei, a professor at Harvard Business School, calls out three key elements of trust: logic, authenticity and empathy.

Logic means that people know your judgment and competency are grounded.

Authenticity is the ability for people to experience the real you.

Empathy means that people feel that you care about their success.

If we dig into authenticity and empathy, we see transparency is a key ingredient for both of these trust factors. Telling the truth, being clear and making your intentions known help people feel like you’re being authentic and empathetic.

Unfortunately, too many marketers use bait-and-switch tactics in their content and channels. They use buzzwords and jargon, obscure their pricing and redirect the audience down a buying-only path.

But we’re not tricking anyone into buying anything!

Our audience has many different needs and assuming the only way to exchange value is to force the audience to buy our solution incentivizes behaviour ultimately eroding trust throughout the journey. Instead of showing our true intentions and allowing the audience to take action aligned with their intentions, we try to hustle them into the one action we care about: converting them into revenue.

But, it turns out that giving the audience the option NOT to buy actually builds trust, improves the journey for the audience and improves our business outcomes!

Matching CTAs to intent

As we think about the buyer’s journey, we need to expand our approach to a more holistic audience journey, with the understanding that there are many ways to exchange value. This means that we need to consider ALL intents, and the intent is based on the next action for the audience. We must create content, touchpoints and CTAs to match each intent.

A holistic approach includes:

• Trust or affinity: Content that generally builds a sense of trust and affinity at a high level.
• Buy: Any content that pushes the person to take action to access our products or services. This could be a free sign-up, a trial for an upgrade edition, an invitation that expands the number of users or upgrading to a paid edition in a product-focused company. This could be an initial consultation or discovery call, free estimate or pilot project in a services-focused company. If it’s meant to get people closer to paying the company money, it’s buy-intent content.
• Use: Any content that pushes the person to take action in the product or engage in the services. It could be alerting them about a new free feature, suggesting a free integration or demos/tutorial/ onboarding information to enable them to use the products. It could be attending the weekly office hours, reviewing the monthly report or bringing an advisor onsite for a quarterly workshop. If it’s meant to help the customer extract value from the solution they purchased, it’s use-intent content.
• Help or remediation: Any content that enables the user to troubleshoot a problem. It answers prompts such as, ‘Why isn’t (this feature) working?’ or ‘I can’t access (the account)’. This content is closely related to use-intent content, but tends to be accessed less frequently and only when there’s a problem implementing the solution.
• Learn: True learn-intent content only requires the consumer to think about what they’ve consumed. They don’t need to make a payment. They don’t need to log in. They don’t need to present a case to their stakeholders. They might share on social media, they might reflect or they might implement a new practice that doesn’t require any additional tools or access.

Unfortunately, the ‘Learn More’ CTA does not match an intent because it’s unclear what happens when I click that link or button. Do I go to a pricing page? Do I end up on a form to contact sales? Do I land on more content about the company?

This vague CTA makes me skeptical of clicking because it lacks transparency. Instead, we need to use explicit CTAs, matched to the audience's intent.

Some marketers push back on this, saying that we’ll lose the audience if we include an obvious buy-intent or use-intent CTA. But, I would argue that we never had the person in the first place if they don’t actually have the intent to buy or use our offerings! If someone wants to buy, make it obvious and easy for them to take that step. But if they aren’t ready to make a purchase? Let them continue to explore, learn and build trust with the company, without trying to trick them into a buying process!

Alternatives to ‘Learn More’ CTAs

So, if we eliminate the ‘Learn More’ CTA option, what should we use instead to ensure we build trust and make the journey seamless for our audience?

Here are some suggested CTAs to use for each intent:

Trust or affinity:

• Read More: links to a free, un-gated article or page
• Watch Video: links to a free, un-gated educational video
• Share: options to copy the link or share with a single click to various channels (messaging apps, social media platforms, email, etc.)

Buy:

• Sign Up
• Request a Proposal or Contact Sales
• Activate a Trial

Use:

• Log in
• Book Office Hours
• Install

Help or Remediation:

• File a Ticket
• Ask a Question
• Contact Account Manager

Learn:

• Share
• Explore More Resources
• Download (free, un-gated)

Build trust with transparent CTAs

We know CTAs matter in the audience journey, so let’s recap a couple of truths and action items to make sure our CTAs serve our audience and our business goals:

• People buy from people they trust.
• You’re not tricking anyone into buying anything. Transparency builds trust by helping the audience see that you are authentic and empathetic.
• Use explicit language to match the CTA to the audience intent and the next action they will take.

My CTA to you? Stop using ‘Learn More’! Build trust with transparent Call-To-Actions that help the audience along the journey.

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