Create Urgency

Parkinson’s Law says that work expands to fill the time allotted for it. Similarly, a state of indecision tends to exist for the amount of time we allow. In other words, decisions get made when there is a strict deadline for making them. If you have a month to make a decision, you’ll probably take a month. If you have a day, you’ll take a day.

Creating deadlines for both yourself and potential customers is a kind thing to do. It removes the options for “maybe” or “someday" — terrible words that send countless people to their graves with their dreams still inside of them.

It goes without saying that this should always be used in an ethical way. If you create a deadline, make sure it’s real and that you actually enforce it.

Here are a few ways to create urgency in your marketing:

• Offer occasional discounts on your products and services. This is the simplest and fastest way to add urgency. But be careful not to over-use this, as people will start to expect it and will no longer purchase unless there is a discount.
• Run virtual events that are only open during specific periods of time. It could be a workshop, challenge, private podcast, video series, webinar, online course cohort, or other event where people can only consume the content during a specific time period. If they miss it, they have to wait until the next time you run that event.
• Offer limited time bonuses as incentives to join your program, course, email list, event, community, etc.
• Highlight the cost of inaction. What do people stand to lose by not taking immediate action? Even if there is no deadline for making a decision, you can help someone create their own internal sense of urgency by reminding them of the consequences of their choice.
• Highlight the success of others who have made the decision to purchase or pursue a particular path. This creates the FOMO effect (fear of missing out).