Given the deluge of Black Friday and Cyber Monday offerings we’ve all been subjected to over the past week (and their bewildering extensions), it’s time to talk about creating urgency.
Everyone wants customers to make quick decisions. That’s why this is such a controversial topic! I attended a conference recently during which an audience participant asked the question that’s always the elephant in the room: “When you say that supplies are limited, are you telling the truth? And, is it okay to not tell the truth?”
My simple answer: NEVER don’t tell the truth.
However, there are ways to create urgency without (dare I say) misconstruing. These are the ones I can think of.
1. Get your timing down. There’s a reason that health clubs have big promotions in January. People have made resolutions; they ate too much over the holidays; they’re housebound and bored. Health club owners know this and prey on us poor hapless souls who need them. (On the other hand, since it’s all very predictable, many of us wait until the offers are good enough. But you can tackle this, too, with creative offers that get a jump on the competition. Or by forecasting your cash flow around the phenomenon.)
2. Appeal to aspirations. Do you know how your customers want to be perceived? Using language and images that reflect that image are useful in creating urgency (and differentiation). The diamond and cosmetics industries are masterful at doing this. One caveat: be careful not to go so far out on a limb as to be intimidating.
3. Appeal to guilt. This is a bit of an adjunct to timing and aspirations: people procrastinate, and they feel bad about it. You can save them from their guilt at not improving themselves, not completing projects … whatever … and be a hero.
4. Create a sense of exclusion. Special offers, especially time-limited special offers (see below), appeal to individuals’ sense of entitlement and desire for prestige.
5. Be ready for foreseeable, but unpredictable, opportunity. This one I particularly love: people in service industries (consultants especially) are known to develop intellectual capital around topics likely to make headlines—and stockpile them. They are, then, ready to strike when the iron is hot (i.e., they can publish or submit for publication immediately)—and they appear to be the experts, far outdistancing their competitors. You can create a market in this way, especially if the topic requires quick action from those affected.
6. Time-limit your offer. Obvious. But be careful not to misconstrue.
7. Price aggressively. Also obvious. But it has to be mentioned!
