Using Urgency Without Lying to Your Audience

You know urgency is key for driving sales for your business…

But many marketers today use “fake urgency”, which can hurt your brand’s reputation, and lead to less sales long term & even prevent you from scaling.

So, how can you use urgency to drive rapid sales, continuously, all without tarnishing your brand?

In today’s edition, you’ll learn:

How to use urgency to drastically increase your sales, without…

• Lying to your audience about fake claims or deadlines

• Destroying your business's reputation

• And instead…

…How to speak more to your customers' deepest desires in a way that drives MORE sales in a genuine way.

Let’s jump in.

The Origin of Fake Urgency

Urgency is the heartbeat of successful marketing campaigns.

But there's a dark side: Fake urgency.

It’s the cheap trick some marketers use, setting false deadlines or announcing last-chance offers that magically reappear the next week.

Or better yet, they say…

“This offer ends tonight at midnight.”

But then you check out the deal at 2 pm the next day, and it’s still live!

And you see that multiple times.

This not only erodes trust, it also devalues your brand. It turns today’s shortcut into tomorrow’s stumbling block.

Using Urgency to Drive Sales

Real urgency doesn’t need a fabricated deadline.

But before I get into how to use urgency without a “deadline”…

It’ll make more sense if I explain what a deadline actually is—outside of urgency.

A deadline, simply refers to a “time-constraint.”

And the urgency, is the time between now and that deadline.

In this case, urgency is an outcome—NOT a strategy.

So our goal isn’t to create urgency…

It’s to create a time constraint.

This time constraint, is the time between now and when “some event happens” (eg. discount expires.)

Creating a Deadline Without Specific Dates or Times

So now we know to create our deadline, we need to create a time constraint.

But to create this time constraint, we need to understand what our “end point” is.

Here’s the best way I’ve found to do this:

Focusing on the consequences of the problem your reader faces, and what happens when they don’t fix it timely.

The idea is that the problem’s not going to get better until they address it, right?

And the more they put off addressing it, the worse it gets…

Until eventually—it's too late…

They suffer the most god-awful consequence imaginable.

All because they delayed fixing their problem.

Whatever that awful reality is, that’s your real deadline.

Now, let’s talk tactics.

Implementing Urgency Without Specific Times or Dates

We now know the deadline is between now and the day your reader suffers the most god-awful consequence imaginable.

And yes—you do have to paint a picture of how bad it will get, otherwise they won’t take action.

The greater the consequence, the more you can make your reader FEEL that consequence, and thus, the more real it gets…

…to where they may feel like it will happen to them tomorrow if they don’t take action.

So to implement this, there are a few things to consider…

Immediate Consequences: 

Be clear about what’s at stake. “Not fixing your X, eventually leads to Y. Each day you delay fixing X, you get one day closer to Y, and [Insert the ultimate god awful consequence].”

Consistent Use of Urgency: 

For best results, it’s good to create a continuous narrative around the worsening nature of the problem.

This isn’t some scare tactic—it's about making your reader aware of the real and present dangers of their problem.

Chances are, your business exists for a reason; it solves a pressing need for other human beings in the world.

The way to create this narritive is to use factual data of what happens when they don’t fix this problem.

Dimensional language: 

Dimensionalization means using words that create a crystal-clear image in the prospect's eyes—words that appeal to their senses, so they can clearly see, smell, hear, etc.

For more info on using dimensionalization to your advantage, see #4 in my article, 19 Proven Ways to Write Better Email Subject Lines.

🔗 Top Links

• How To Make a “Subscriber Flow” That Will Increase Your Conversion Rate, Open Rate, and CTR (Learn more)

• My favorite tool for growing your email list lately (Learn more)

That’s a wrap!

See you next Thursday

~Matt Hommel

P.S. Here are 3 resources you’ll love:

1. 7 Email Marketing Cheat Codes Helping $2MM to $106MM Brands Scale YoY (​click here for instant access!​)

2. Email Marketing Course: Master 3 core flows, campaign strategy, and revenue optimization (​watch the course here​)

3. Follow me on ​Twitter​ and ​LinkedIn​ for more email & growth marketing content «