#110: The Best Urgency Messaging To Help You Increase Sales

Show Notes

The Internet makes it easy for customers to shop around and compare options and  prices. Unfortunately, the result is that it can take customers much longer to complete a purchase cycle. One way to speed things along, is to create a sense of urgency. 
​
In this episode, Lori Vajda and Nola Boea explain what urgency in sales is, how FOMO (fear of missing out) and scarcity can help move customers along so you increase sales. We’re also sharing seven phrases you can use in your marketing material to guide your target audience to make a purchase.

Thanks for Listening!

Ready to start your business or grow your personal brand? Schedule a free 20 min. consultation call now. 

If you enjoyed this show, make sure to subscribe to the podcast so you’ll never miss an episode. Want to get to know us more? Find out more about us and our services at Sticky Brand Lab

We love hearing from you! Leave or speak your message here
If you haven’t already, please connect with us on Facebook! 

Would you like to be a featured guest or have your question, comment or review mentioned? Ask Muse!

Business success strategies are in the works. Come have a listen!

In This Episode You’ll Learn 

• What is urgency, FOMO and scarcity in sales.
• The benefits of creating urgency in sales.
• Tips when using urgency in sales without feeling phony.
• The steps and phrases so you can start using urgency to increase your sales. 

Key points Lori and Nola are sharing in this episode:

• (02:16:94) Using urgency in sales is a technique many businesses are not using to their full advantage.
• (06:56:86) Here are the three types of scarcity models and the different ways you can use them to get customers to make a purchase quicker.
• (11:48:20) Three tips for creating urgency without having to fake it.
• (14:29:02) Here are seven phrases you can start using that creat a fear of missing out for customers.
  

Resources 

You can subscribe to Lori and Nola's show, (we love you and want to make it easy) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Helpful Meditation: Minimizing Self-Doubt.

ConvertKit: Our #1 Favorite Email Marketing Platform   (This is an affiliate link)

Transcript

[00:00:00] Lori: As a business owner, do you have trouble asking for the sale because you assume that if the prospective customer was interested, they would've naturally voiced their opinion? If asking directly for the sale is not your cup of tea, or cup of coffee for that matter, we get it. So how can you apply pressure without feeling icky? First, you have to think like your customer. Second, you have to create urgency, and third, your urgency can't be faked. So what do we mean by urgency and how can you use it to move the needle? Stay tuned, friends, because in this episode we are exploring the topic of urgency. What it is, how to use it with integrity, and how to create that fear-of-missing-out messaging without feeling phony.

[00:00:49] Announcer: You're listening to the Sticky Brand Lab podcast where time strapped professionals like you learn how to create a business you love in as little as three hours a week.

[00:01:00] Nola: Urgency has been used in sales and marketing for eons, and it's still very effective. There's something about seeing a perceived deal and knowing that it won't be around for long that makes us want to take action. It's a fear of missing out. Lori, from a customer perspective, has or does a limited time opportunity, does that work for you?

[00:01:21] Lori: More often than not. Oh gosh. I hate admitting that out loud, but yes, more often than not it does.

[00:01:29] Nola: Well, and switching it up to another perspective, have you ever used fear-of-missing-out marketing in your business?

[00:01:36] Lori: I myself have not used it with prospects that I'm looking for, you know, as a freelancer. But I have used it on behalf of content that I've created for my clients. Okay. What about you? Have you ever used it?

[00:01:51] Nola: I have, not for my own business, but for writing that I was doing on behalf of others, especially with writing for nonprofits. There is a technique where you have a matching grant or a challenge grant where somebody says, Hey, I will match anybody's gift that gives over the next two weeks and then it'll double the value of your gift kind of thing. That's always really effective.

[00:02:15] Lori: Yeah, I could see that for sure.

[00:02:16] Nola: One of the reasons urgency is so effective, it's the whole FOMO phenomenon. You know, Fear Of Missing Out. This is particularly effective if we know the business, product or service, and it is something we're already interested in. For example, you can think about housing, sales and bidding wars. While we may not like to admit it, most of those sales are based on emotion, especially when it comes to buying a house. Here, we perceive that there is a scarcity of homes available, especially any like the ones we might have just fallen in love with, and our emotion gets the better of us. And then later we'll rationalize our decision. But without that initial emotional feeling, we may not buy that more expensive product, or we may not try to outbid our competition or even sign up for the high-priced course.

[00:03:09] Lori: That is so true. Recently, there's a product that I like from a company called Corkcicle. And they have insulated mugs and thermoses, variety of different things. But I love the design. They work really well. But Corkcicle doesn't do sales. Not really good sales anyway. And last month, they had an offer with a discount and I think it included some free shipping. Normally for holidays, I would not start buying until November, or if I'm really honest, December, but this sale came up. And I made the purchase early simply because I knew that it was, one, I wasn't going to get what I wanted if I didn't get it now, and two, because of the offer being a really good offer.

[00:03:58] Nola: That's a great example. You saw that you could get the deal right now, and in this case, it was the insulated mugs. But for anyone listening, the enticing offer could be access to a course, a super discount, or just knowing that there's a limited time offer on a product or even a limited quantity. And the thought that this deal might go away and never return, that creates a sense of urgency, which is exactly what motivates people to take action.

[00:04:25] Lori: Yeah, I think what you're really talking about here is known as loss aversion, and there's actually science to back up our behavior, the idea here is that losses generally have a much larger psychological impact on us than gains of the same size. So let me give you an example, Nola. Imagine this scenario. I offer to flip a coin and I say to you, I'll give you $20 if it lands on heads. If it lands on tails, you have to give me $20. Would you take the gamble?

[00:05:01] Nola: Uh, I'd have to think about that for a long while.

[00:05:05] Lori: So, according to the study, for most of us, the amount we could possibly win needs to, at the very least, be twice as large as the amount we would lose. So if I said to you, I'll give you $40 if you win. And you'll only have to give me $20 if I win. That number starts to weigh on you. So the larger the likelihood that you would win and the smaller that you would lose, the more likely you are to take the risk. And in fact, on MRI scans, scientists have been able to see that the reward part of our brain actually lights up.

[00:05:48] Nola: Okay, well that makes sense considering that we make so many decisions based on emotions, because I know that from personal experience, the longer I have to ponder something or think something over, the more likely I will talk myself right out of it because I've allowed my rational brain to start tamping down my emotions and not let them get the best of me. And the same holds true for your customers.

[00:06:17] Lori: Yeah. When you can authentically make a person feel as if they're about to miss out on a great opportunity, you trigger that reward, so now that we've explained urgency, let's explore how to use it with integrity.

[00:06:33] Nola: Okie doke. Well, as we mentioned, urgency works best when it's real. You encourage mistrust in your relationship with clients when you give them the impression that something is urgent when it really isn't. Yes, you may close the deal, but you're likely going to lose repeat business. And that can hurt you and your sales over the long run.

[00:06:55] Lori: Yeah. So Nola, there are actually three types of scarcity models, if you will: Time, Price, and Premium. How does each one help you sell an offer? Well, let's take a look at the first one, Time. Time scarcity refers to a customer's limited window of time to complete the transaction. And you've probably seen it yourself. Been on a website and you'll see those countdown clocks. Have you ever seen those?

[00:07:25] Nola: Oh, my goodness. Those make me so anxious.

[00:07:28] Lori: Exactly, because they work. The best time to use time urgency is after your lead has already interacted at some touchpoint in your marketing process. Time works in two ways. The prospective client has developed a strong sense of know, like and trust with you. So they've been following you for a while. They read your blogs; they're interested in your product. Really, they're interested in working with YOU and buying from you. And that, you have to think about is, it's not just your business, but it's actually you, the person behind the offer. The second is, if that know, like, and trust hasn't been established by the time your lead gets to your sales page, then the longer you have to mull over whether you really need it versus really want it, the longer those objections will start to show up and the more likely they'll abandon your cart. So, in other words, don't use Time with anyone who hasn't engaged with you previously because you're leaving the sale up to chance. And that means the higher the percentage of chance, the more likely the sale won't go through.

[00:08:48] Nola: The other type of scarcity is Price Scarcity, which refers to discounts that are for a limited time. Now the focus is being on discounts. So, before you think about how much of a discount you're going to offer, be sure the initial price reflects the true value your customer will be receiving. In other words, that initial price needs to be believable. Have you ever seen, Lori, something that says original price and just immediately doubted the validity of that high value?

[00:09:20] Lori: So, a good one that I learned is MSRP, I had seen that a lot for cars, when they're doing the sale. Or mattresses. Huge on mattresses.

[00:09:31] Nola: Oh, really?

[00:09:32] Lori: Yeah, because it'll say, this is the M S R P, giving you this high price, and yet you can go anywhere in town and find that nobody quotes that ridiculously high price, and so all of a sudden, I feel like you're lying to me as a business because nobody offers it at that price to begin with.
[00:09:54] Nola: Bingo, exactly. Believability is about your promise of value matching what your prospect is willing to pay.

[00:10:02] Lori: Yep. So, our final type of scarcity that we mentioned is the Premium, and you're likely familiar with this concept if you've ever seen those so-called bonuses you'll receive.

[00:10:14] Nola: Throwing in the ginseng knives too?

[00:10:16] Lori: Yes, yes, yes, exactly what I'm talking about. Those additional elements and an offer are only for the people who sign up by a certain date or for a certain package. In this, the urgency promotion that Premium refers to, You're going to get these items once you sign up. And they list a bunch of bonuses.

So, I'll give you my own personal example. There was a course that I had been interested in. I'd been following it for a long time, and they came up with a deal, and then I saw the bonuses and it kind of tipped the scale ever so slightly. Now it already had a discount, so it had my attention, but the bonuses kind of added a reward factor to it. So tipping it in my favor, or at least how I perceived it. And I actually downloaded what the bonus was. I opened it up, I started looking at it and I thought, This is odd. Something doesn't feel right. So I go and I check the date that it was created, and it was more than five years old. It bummed me out because I felt like I had been taken advantage of and I was trying to weigh that well, I got the deal. The bonuses were kind of that cherry on top, but it immediately left this bad taste in my mouth for the company that I was doing business with.

[00:11:39] Nola: Yep. And that's what happens when a seller is not authentic, right?

[00:11:43] Lori: Exactly.

[00:11:43] Nola: So it's so important to just be honest, be true, be realistic. So here are three tips for creating urgency without faking it. First, don't push. Instead of pushing leads to make the sale, you want to apply pressure that prevents them from delaying. This is a subtle difference when the focus is on prevention. The language you choose is, why now is the best time to buy. This appeals to the logical side of the brain and helps your leads use reason to justify that initial emotion.

[00:12:19] Lori: Second, scarcity, or limited availability, increases our sense of urgency. Numbers do this in a great way. Think about booking a flight for travel, and you'll see the nonstop flight has two seats left, but a one stop over or a two stop over doesn't show any limited seat numbers. You can probably relate to that.

[00:12:43] Nola: Yeah, I sure can. I will snatch up those seats.
 Finally, the other type of scarcity is through Social Proof. Have you ever seen a website where, down at the bottom, it'll pop up that so-and-so just made a purchase, and Tina just made a purchase, and Charles just made a purchase, and, Ann just made a purchase. And you're thinking, Oh my goodness, this is really popular. I better get on the bandwagon fast. Right?

[00:13:08] Lori: Yeah. Well, you know, one of the ways that they do that is they'll say, in the last hour, or in the day, or in the last three days, so you're able to see, if you watch it, it'll show you that customers have been making purchases. And it supports that your idea to purchase it as well is a good idea.

[00:13:27] Nola: That's right. Or maybe you've been on the receiving end where someone has told you that there's another customer interested in the same purchase that you're interested in. I know that has happened on Facebook Marketplace where somebody has put something up there and I'm really, really interested and it's like, okay, well let me know by six o'clock because I do have somebody else also interested but you were the first one to contact me.

[00:13:52] Lori: Yeah. That has worked for me too. I mean, Honesty really a big factor in here. Even though you're talking to a stranger, you don't feel rushed, you don't feel pressure. They're having a conversation. They let you know that they recently got a call or a text or someone showed interest. They're just letting you know that. But it's in the dialogue of whether to trust them or not. So, the more trustworthy your gut tells you the person you're talking to is, the more that's likely to work.

[00:14:24] Nola: Yep.

[00:14:24] Lori: So listener, to help you in creating messaging, we've got seven phrases that we'd like to provide for you on that Fear Of Missing Out.
So, the first one is adding Now. Get It Now is a good example.

[00:14:40] Nola: Another example is Hurry. Hurry and get your free copy. Hurry, while supplies last, kind of thing.

[00:14:46] Lori: That's a great one. This is a onetime offer.

[00:14:49] Nola: This is your last chance!

[00:14:51] Lori: And if you have been counting along or you haven't, number five, Clearance. That's a good one when, inventory on the old branding or the old packaging, they're getting rid of that. So you'll see the clearance. That's a great method to help with the creating urgency. Because once that old packaging is gone, the higher price applies to the new packaging.

[00:15:16] Nola: Number six, Today only!

[00:15:19] Lori: You see this a lot. The new phraseology on this is Flash Sale.

[00:15:24] Nola: Ah, yes, You'll get this today only on a flash sale. That's right.

[00:15:30] Lori: Flash sale. Exactly. Number seven, Don't let this opportunity pass you by.

[00:15:35] Nola: There's that. Well listener, we hope today's episode helped you understand the value of using urgency and how and when to use it in your sales material or ads in a way that feels authentic to you and your perspective customers.

[00:15:52] Lori: Yes. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. We hope it helps you increase sales and signups so you can create your best and most exciting business and life. If you found the information shared here today helpful, let us know by posting here where you're listening, or on our Facebook page.

[00:16:12] Nola: Not sure how to turn your idea into a profitable side business? Contact us at stickybrandlab.com/contact. We'd be happy to help you.

[00:16:21] Lori: Be sure to come back next Tuesday and every Tuesday for another informative, inspiring, and motivating episode. And remember, actions create results. So tap into your desire to create a business and brand you love by taking 1% action every day. Small steps, big effects.

[OUT-TAKE]
Our second example using Scarcity is the limited avail. What am I, just. Nu number two. Well, second. I feel like we try a bunch of different ways to do this. That's right. Take whatever number.