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Testing the Power of Urgency on Offer Pages

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Saved by 1 people (0 private), first by anonymouse user on 2006-12-04


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In the world of offline direct mail it has long been understood that creating urgency increases conversion rates.

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However, while using urgency is a powerful promotional tool, it should not be used indiscriminately or without forethought.

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  • The urgency should be genuine and not simply created as a promotional gimmick. The growing sophistication of online audiences means that many people can and will recognize "manufactured urgency".
  • Even the legitimate use of an urgent message will still be recognized as a promotional tactic. So if your message is not completely genuine and honest, you run a very real risk of losing the respect and loyalty of some of your readers.
  • The use of urgency on an offer page can be a very powerful tool, but is not something you can do all the time. If you do, you will lose credibility.

    Therefore, when you are using the urgency tactic, take steps to maximize traffic to that page during the offer period. This may involve the use of promotional emails, offline PR, increased spending on PPC and whatever other traffic-building strategies work best for you

  • Understand that you can use implied urgency as well as direct urgency.

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    Our purpose was not to secure enrollees through hype and pressure.

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    The discount is there to capture those people who wanted to enroll, but hadn't quite got around to it. It was not there to make money from people who didn't really want to take the course at all.

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    Sales jumped significantly on the day we sent out the email, announcing that the early-enrollment offer was about to expire. > The next large increase in sales took place during the final few days before the course itself began.

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    you can also achieve considerable success simply by implying urgency.

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    we date-stamped the list. That is to say, we said something like, "As at 6:04AM this morning, theses are the best prices for these products on the web."

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    The date stamp wasn't a deadline, but it did imply that these prices might not last. > This approach might not work well for every retail business, but in a business where consumers are cost-conscious and aware that prices can change day to day, it worked extremely well.

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    We then wrote a second email, with an accompanying landing page, and did mention that we had 5,000 copies to distribute.

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    1. Test urgency messages to your offer pages on your web site.

    2. Test urgency within your shopping cart pages and other site pages where you need to encourage immediate action.

    3. Test urgency messages in the subject lines of your emails and newsletters.

    4. Test urgency in your customer or subscriber welcome emails. Urgency can encourage new members to become more deeply engaged in your site more quickly.

    5. Test urgency in shopping cart recovery emails to drive more purchasers back to their shopping carts.

    6. Test urgency in subscriber recovery emails when subscriptions expire.

    7. Test urgency in your press releases and other offline marketing.

    8. Test urgency in your PPC and CPM advertising.

    And keep in mind that implied urgency can work as hard for you as direct urgency.

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