The topic of “urgency” in sales & marketing is hotly debated.
Some marketers love it and some…
Well, I think you see how this Redditor feels. But regardless of his feelings, using urgency isn’t BS.
And I’m going to show you why it does, when to use it, and when to avoid it like the plague.
Smart marketers know that if you create a sense of urgency in a potential customer you are more likely to get a sale. But why is that?
Simple: it’s human nature.
We are hard wired to react to urgency. It goes back thousands of years when our ancestors were being chased around by saber-tooth tigers and reacting quickly might be the difference between returning to your cave or being some predator’s dinner.
And even though hungry tigers are no longer an issue, our brains still kick into action when we are triggered by urgency.
Professors Meng Zhu, Yang Yang, & Christopher Hsee wrote an article in 2018 titled “The Mere Urgency Effect” that documented 5 experiments pitting important tasks against tasks with less importance, but more urgency.
And as you might have guessed.
In every instance, people prioritized the less important, but urgent task over the more important task.
And here’s how you can put it to work.
Speaking of human nature, when we learn something new, we tend to over use it. And if you start carpet bombing your sales & marketing assets with urgency, you are likely to trigger our earlier Redditor friend and his ilk.
Better to be smart, deploy urgency as a stealthy sales & marketing surgical strike, and fly below your prospect’s perceptive radar
Take a look at this Facebook ad from our sister company, True Blue Collar.
Note, we have a powerful CTA in “get 600 calls in 60 days”. That CTA is the primary driver. Urgency and scarcity are secondary drivers; merely subtle nudges to get an interested prospect to commit.
In addition, we use “book now”, “reach out today”, and we repeat “one contractor per service area” on our landing page.
So if urgency is so effective, should you be using it all the time?
You definitely should 100% avoid using urgency with Cold Email campaigns and proceed VERY cautiously with Warm Email.
It’s not that it doesn’t work well with email. It actually works so well that marketers have abused it. As such, “urgency” emails have earned the ire of Email Service Providers and typically end up in their Spam filters.
Active Campaign, one of the largest email marketing platforms, suggests that you avoid “unnecessary urgency” in your emails. That is both in your Subject Lines and in the body of your emails.
I’m not sure what differentiates between necessary or unnecessary urgency, but I would take that warning to heart.
If you don’t, you may not just end up in one prospect’s Spam folder, you may find an Email Service Provider designating your domain as spammy.
Marketing is hard so when Human Nature gives you an assist, you need to be leaning into it. But do it strategically. Remember, too much of a good thing is a bad thing.
And also remember to leave urgency out of your email. It isn’t worth gambling your domain’s reputation on what should be subtle marketing tactic.