DAY #9: MASTER THE ART OF CREATING URGENCY
In marketing, it’s a widely accepted truth that if someone doesn’t buy now, chances are they won’t buy at all. While good copy and good marketing can create the desire to buy, urgency is what gets them to buy right now.
The fear of losing out on a deal is a powerful driver. Why does Black Friday drive such an enormous amount of people to pull out their credit cards and buy? It’s because they know the deal will disappear if they don’t act right away. That’s exactly the mentality you need to cultivate in your buyers.
How do you create that mentality?
The Time Limited Offer
Put a time limit on your offers. Make the limit abundantly clear.
On product launches and one-time events, this works extremely well. Make sure to let people know early on that there’s going to be a time limited launch. This helps build anticipation, so that by the time the launch happens people are waiting to pull out their wallets.
This also works for businesses that aren’t doing product launches. Ecommerce websites like Woot.com do this very well. They do a time limited offer every day. Of course, you don’t have to go that far. Every once in a while, put a time limit on a sale, an offer or a product. You can always bring it back a few months later.
Limiting the Quantity
Another approach you can take is to limit the quantity you sell. For example, let people know that you’ll only be selling 300 copies. This has a similar effect as the time limited offer. The approach you choose depends mostly on the “story” you’re telling. For instance, if you’re selling a hand-made item, a quantity limit makes more sense as you can say only X items were made.
“But I Want to Sell My Product All the Time”
A lot of businesses object to using urgency offers because they want to always have their product on sale. That’s okay.
You can create urgency by doing different types of sales. For instance, do a time limited 20% sale two or three times a year. Or create a bonus that only lasts for a few days.
It’s important to know that a good product launch can often do 6 to 12 times the monthly sales of a product. In other words, if you just released a product without urgency you might sell $1,000 a month ongoingly. But if you did a time limited launch, you might do $10,000 in just a few days. That’s why a lot of people choose to do time limited offers, and then open it up to the public a few months later.
Rule #1: Always Stick to Your Word
Remember that you’re in this for the long haul. If you want to be able to create the urgency to buy consistently, you need to train your customers to believe you when you tell them that time is limited.
Never extend the timeline. Never break the scarcity. Otherwise people won’t believe you the next time you present an offer.
Your Assignment
- Look at your existing products to see what types of urgency you can add to boost sales
- Only offer one thing at a time but over the course of several months plan to offer a few different types of urgent offers to see which one your audience responds to best
- Look back at the calls-to-action lesson to get some ways to create urgency
What We’ve Covered
Day #1: Examine Your Audience and Your Core Offer
Day #2: Optimizing Your Call to Actions
Day #3: Improve Your Lead Forms and Increase Signups
Day #4: Your Headline – Your Page’s Most Important Sentence
Day #5: Keep Attention With Strong Transitions
Day #6: Web Design Tips for Better Conversions
Day #7: Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment by Improving Your Checkout
Day #8: Boost Conversions by Managing Expectation and Relevance
Day #9: Master the Art of Creating Urgency
Coming Up Next
Day #10: Use Video to Boost Trust and Conversions
Day #11: Add Social Proof to Your Sales Process
Day #12: Accessibility Makes You Real (and Improves Sales)
Day #13: Tailoring Your Guarantee and Return Policy
Day #14: Getting Started With A/B Split Testing
Day #15: More Ideas for Better Conversions