If you’ve been eyeing a product for quite some time…
And there’s a 20% discount off its regular price.
Would you buy it?
Maybe.
What if I tell you – the 20% discount will expire in 3 days time?
Would you feel a stronger urge to buy it?
Probably yes.
Why?
It’s just human nature.
We often take action only when there’s some sort of urgency, like an expiry to a promotion.
I’ve been doing both offline and online sales over the last 10 years.
Here’s how (and when) I use urgency to increase my sales conversion rate:
1) Ads
Whenever I run any sort of promo ads, I always make sure the promo deadline shows up in the ads.
Either in the video ad itself or in the copy.
Like one of my clients who’s currently running a promo off their gym membership trial:
You can see clearly I wrote “Promo ends 26 Jun”.
This usually increases the conversion rates much higher.
When I run any sort of retargeting ads off my own products, I will 100% put a deadline plus the time the promo will expire.
Like this:
In the ad copy, video, and the call-to-action headline, I state very clearly when the promo is expiring.
So the next time you’re thinking of running any sort of promo, be sure to state when it’s ending.
2) Selling in-person
If you’re doing any sort of selling in person, you can also use urgency to increase your closing rate.
Say for example you’ve just completed a trial session for a customer.
And you want to upsell a package of 10 sessions.
Usual price for 10 sessions is $1k.
Promo price is $800.
If you want to increase the conversion rate, add in a deadline to that offer.
And stick with that deadline.
So you can tell the prospect the offer will expire by a certain date.
While this can sound gimmicky, it’s effective.
But in everything I do, I stick by it.
I don’t go around lying and say the promo ends today, and I offer it again tomorrow.
I dug up a photo when I was doing a live workshop and did some sales pitch towards the end:
I remember our offer was to sell our premium ukulele.
Usual price was $248, but they can get it for just $139.
My favourite phrase was “ONLY FOR TODAY”.
Only in that session, they can get the premium ukulele at that special price.
And I meant it.
Because there were really customers who decided to upgrade their ukulele the week after and they weren’t able to get that promo.
So give your really good promo an expiry, help that prospect to make that decision quick, and stick with that you say.
3) Email launches
I recently launched a new type of guitar course.
It was a guitar course for beginners – Taylor Swift edition.
The course was $480, and I closed $5280 (11 pax) in about 10 days.
I ran ads for a few days and also promoted heavily to my email list.
One thing that stood out to me was how effective the urgency factor was.
In my emails, I state the closing date for registration.
It was a 7 day launch email campaign.
Day 1 to day 6 were details about the course and what they will learn.
In each of those emails, I remind them the closing date for registration.
On the very last day of my email campaign is where most of the sales happen.
A screenshot of my last promo email for the Taylor Swift guitar course:
So people who were still on the fence about joining might just take action since that’s their last chance to register.
So as you can see from the above examples, the urgency factor can help to increase sales.
But it will only work when you are selling something that people want or need.
So it always goes back to the all important marketing question:
Are you solving a problem with your product or service?