“Subscribe to our limited time offer today to get 50% on all products.”

If you’ve ever been a part of consumer culture, chances are, you’ve seen a rendition of this statement. 

While it does look a bit pushy from the outset, statements like these are very effective in improving eCommerce conversion rates and sales. 

Essentially a concept known as Urgency Marketing, it’s essentially used to build pressure on the user to purchase a product. These sales offerings override the contemporary careful selection process and prompts the audience to purchase before the time, or the offer duration runs out. 

It’s a fast-paced marketing strategy that, if done right, can help you sell more. In this post, we’ll be discussing the ten ways you can use the psychology of urgency or improve your eCommerce conversion rates. 

So, without further ado, let’s begin. 

1. Offer Something Unique

In order to create urgency, you need to offer a unique product to the public. If you’re want to create urgency for a regular product, then you need to add value to it to a certain extent. 

For example, if you’re selling cereal, you can add half a carton of milk as an addition to the product. Strategies like these add significant value to the base product, and makes the audience interested in what you have to offer. 

If you have a unique product, then you don’t need to work on it as much. In that scenario, people are going to get interested and want the product anyways. If the quality is not as good, then all the urgency you create in your product offerings will be of no use. 

2. Set Deadlines on Offerings

Imagine a scenario where you try to create urgency and don’t set a deadline. Sounds weird doesn’t it?

A major catchphrase of creating urgency is using the words “Limited Time Offer”. If you want to create urgency, then obviously, you would want to set a deadline. If you don’t create a sense of rush, then there is no pressure on the audience to purchase the product. 

In a scenario where you introduce urgency in your offerings, you’re putting pressure on the customer to purchase the product as quickly as possible. With little time to spend on weighing pros and cons, customers want to purchase the product before the time runs out.

An effective way to create a sense of urgency is by using a countdown timer on your store. Displaying the ticker at the right positions of your website builds interests, and prompts the user to make the purchase. 

3. Utilize the Concept of FOMO

Scarcity is a marketing and economic concept that’s aged like fine-wine. When you introduce scarcity into your product offering, your essentially making people want more of it. 

Here’s how you can mix it up with Urgency Marketing. 

First and foremost, you need to create an illusion of scarcity. You can create it by using terms like “Only X items left in stock” or, similar to the statement in the previous section, “Limited Stock Available” within your product copy. 

When you have brainstormed such a product copy, it’s time you start selecting products where you want to add it. As a best practice, you should add the copy to a popular product. Now, let’s discuss the implications of introducing scarcity within your product offerings. 

A major psychological effect of creating scarcity is the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO). It creates a situation in which the buyer thinks that if they don’t purchase a particular product, they will not get another chance in the future. 

To make sure that your FOMO is successful, you need to make sure your copy is persuasive. This is why we placed so much emphasis on it in the beginning.

With all that we’ve discussed, creating a scarcity offering really depends on the niche that you’re in. For example, if you’re in the software industry, your application of FOMO would be very different compared than, let’s say, an apparel store. 

4. Write a Strong Web Copy

In this section, we’ll build up on the importance of a well-written web copy. A convincing ad-copy that delivers the message you’re trying to convey perfectly can mean the difference between users making a purchase or bouncing off of your store. 

 A simple, yet effective method of creating such an ad-copy is using the right words in your copy. When it comes to the topic of urgency, you can add the following words in your ad-copy: 

• Limited time offer. 
• Instant.
• Last chance. 
• Purchase today.
• Don’t miss out.
• Golden opportunity.

Including these statements within your content helps make your content more persuasive, improves visibility, and increases conversions for your eCommerce store. 

5. Offer Bonuses on Products

To add more value to your urgent product offerings, you can add a bonus incentive for the customer. This will attract more people to your offerings and prompt them into acting fast towards the purchase. 

Suppose you’re selling a software product with the urgency factor attached. You can add a plugin or extension as a bonus incentive to the customer. The added benefit prompts the user towards purchasing more of a product. 

When combined with other FOMO and urgency strategies we discussed, this method can prove very effective in attracting audiences towards the purchase. 

6. Capitalize on Emails

Similar to how you would add urgency words in your product copy, you should also do the same for your emails as well. 

Newsletter marketing, contrary to criticism, is not dead. There is plenty of potential in the medium and, when it comes to boosting eCommerce conversions, it’s a useful tool to have. To get the most out of it, however, you need to write a strong email copy. 

A good first step is to focus on the subject lines of your emails. It’s the smallest piece of real estate to write on, but making it convincing and persuasive can put you well on your way towards marketing your eCommerce offerings. 

Utilize action verbs, and time-related words to catch the audience’s attention. The end-goal is delivering your content in the most efficient manner possible. The clearer your subject line and body copy is, the more attractive your offerings become. 

7. Use Numbers

The psychology of numbers is a heavily underrated topic that’s often overlooked when it comes to creating urgency. They are a great way to build pressure so that the offer becomes more attractive. 

Here’s how to do that: 

Within your product copy, you can write “Just 3 more in stock”, or something similar to that depending on the niche. Whatever statement you choose to write, try to make it seem extreme so that it creates a sense of urgency. 

In addition to using numbers, you can utilize customer testimonials as social proof of the validity of your offerings. It’s not building urgency per se, but it’s still a nice to have when you’re trying to attract users to your products. 

8. Use Color Theory to Your Advantage

Colors are an essential part of building urgency. 

In addition to using captivating web copy, you can also utilize colors to create urgency. Using dark-toned colors like red, yellow, and orange can help create urgency for your offerings and prompts customers towards the purchase. 

You can combine these colors with lighter-toned colors like green and blue to get visitors to click on the offerings. 

Whatever color scheme you do utilize, make sure that it’s different from what you’re displaying on the rest of the page. 

9. Customize Your Offers

Personalization in your offerings can go a long way in ensuring your offerings are compelling and tailored to the audience. 

You can drive urgency on your site by mapping out user activity and cater to them, deals on products that they’re interested in. This makes the offering customized and granular. It also allows you to tailor your offerings according to each specific user, or user-group. 

10. Keep the Pressure On

To get the most out of your offerings, you need to analyze your sales funnel. With the right data points at your disposal, you can alter, improve and A/B test your products to create urgency in your offerings that can lead to more sales for your business. 

Also, keep an eye out for cart abandonments. To reduce cart abandonment rates, try to include countdown timers, and any of the strategies we’ve mentioned above to prompt the customer to continue their purchase. 

Conclusion

If you’re looking to sell products in volume, using urgency within your offerings is a viable option that can return good results. 

From the concept FOMO, to utilizing color theory for urgency – all the strategies we’ve discussed in this article are vital tools in improving conversions and increasing revenues for your business. 

Before we end this article, we feel that it’s important to highlight the usage of urgency marketing. With every good thing, you need to maintain moderation. Therefore, you should utilize the concept of urgency with balance instead of bombarding your users with unsolicited discounts and offerings.

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