Creating a sense of urgency in your ecommerce marketing campaigns is an excellent way to drive sales. Urgency makes customers feel that they have to act quickly. It can make all the difference between a customer ignoring that abandoned cart email sequence you have sent and quickly completing their purchase. Urgency does not have to involve rushing customers – at least not in the traditional sense. Instead, it is about giving them an extra push to make a purchase. Increasing urgency is usually a short-term strategy. That doesn’t mean you should treat it as an after-thought. Used along with your mid and long-term ecommerce marketing campaigns as part of an integrated approach to boost conversion, it can greatly help increase repeat purchases and target new customers.
Increasing Urgency in Ecommerce Marketing Campaigns
There are a few strategies you can implement within your ecommerce marketing campaigns to increase urgency. You can use a few or all of these strategies. Ideally, you should be using these strategies within your multichannel ecommerce marketing strategy to get the best results. Some of the ways that you can create a sense of urgency in your campaigns include:
Update your content
Most customers will not want to buy something that does not offer obvious benefits. Even if you are offering time-sensitive bonuses and other enticing offers, they will not buy unless they genuinely want what you are selling. This means that your content needs to be focused on value rather than features. You need to sell the solution to your customers’ primary needs. If your store specialises in vegan cosmetics, you need to show customers how your cruelty-free concealers and highlighters give them a flawless look. You need to show them why synthetic ingredients are harmful to their skin and the planet. Your product descriptions need to be focused on these solutions. When you clearly show value, it will be far easier to make customers want to purchase quickly. If your content is outdated, there is not as much motivation to act quickly.
Encourage FOMO
FOMO is a real thing – especially in the highly competitive consumer space. The Fear Of Missing Out acts as a huge motivator. No one wants to feel that they are missing exclusive deals. Time-sensitive offers, limited stock, stock waiting lists, countdowns, exclusive product launches, one-time deals, flash sales, pop-up stores, and other incentives can all trigger FOMO. Making customers feel that they are getting exclusive access to deals can increase FOMO even further. You can go one step further with this and use FOMO strategies within your loyalty strategies. Tiered loyalty programmes work very well in this instance. You could focus on high-value customers while encouraging lower spenders to take action and get access to limited offers. Social media campaigns work very well for this strategy.
Plan flash sales
Flash sales are a great addition to your ecommerce marketing strategy. They are useful for the change of seasons, to clear older stock. They can be used to promote new products or increase brand awareness. They also create a strong sense of urgency. Planning non-seasonal, surprise sales can be done in a few ways. One of the best ways is to give customers very little advance warning. If you’re planning a 24-hour or 48-hour sale, wait until the night before to announce the sale on social media only. If you’ve got a strong social presence, this will trigger a fast response (and drive up FOMO considerably). Another option is to give more notice and build suspense. This means countdowns.
Use countdowns
Countdowns are very useful for flash sales. They can also be used for other urgency-based strategies. You can use countdowns to give customers advance notice of upcoming one-day-only sales or weekend sales. Daily emails counting down the days can be sent, with a countdown displayed on your store home page. You can also use your social media platforms to count down days until sale. You could go one step further and add small contests and deals as time gets closer. Encourage customers to sign up early to get notice of when the sale officially starts. Offer referral bonuses for those who let friends know about the sale. Create hashtags specific to your upcoming sale. All of these things will build hype.
Offer limited bonuses
Limited bonuses can be used even if you are not planning flash sales or using countdowns. These include time-sensitive bonuses that can only be redeemed in a set timeframe. They can also include bonuses on specific product categories only. Free shipping could be available for all products for one day only. Two-for-one and other similar deals can also be offered for a limited time. You could consider offering product bundles or free samples for a limited time. While this means increasing your spending, the investment will be worthwhile if it drives more sales.
Consider pre-launches
Pre-launches are highly effective in ecommerce marketing campaigns. The biggest effect of FOMO is that it makes customers want to be the first to view deals and new products. Giving selected customers a sneak preview will not only drive urgency; it will increase loyalty, too. Pre-launch events work well in tiered loyalty programmes. You could offer high-value customers the chance to purchase new arrivals, for example. But it can also work for all customers using a limited waiting list. You could build hype around your launch and offer the first 20 customers the chance to shop a day earlier. You could go one step further and plan a social media campaign that gives influencers a place in line.
Perfect your emails
Emails are a vital tool for creating urgency and building hype. These can be sent as automated sequences, for events such as countdowns and flash sales, for instance. They can also be sent on the same day for one-off deals and offers. Simply sending out an email telling customers that you have exciting things offered is not enough, however. The average customer receives a huge number of marketing emails every day – including similar urgency-based emails. Personalisation and buyer personas are both essential. A generalised, vague campaign focused on products that not everyone wants will not work very well. A targeted campaign offering exclusive deals on products customers actually want will work much better. Subject lines, content, CTAs, images, and other factors also make a big difference. Split testing is a useful way to see what works best.
Ecommerce Marketing Urgency
When customers do not have the motivation to make a purchase, there is a real chance you may lose out on sales. Customers who visit your store a few times and never make a purchase may not bother proceeding to cart. Customers who have left items in their cart and never looked back may not see any rush to complete their order. You may also get customers who spend a lot of time on your store viewing certain products without taking action. Inertia can quickly lead to a total loss of interest altogether. Unless you actively engage with customers and give them a reason to shop, you are missing out on the chance to convert sales. Used as part of your ecommerce marketing campaigns, urgency is a powerful tool that drives conversion, retention and loyalty.
