Power Of Now

by Paul West published 11th Mar 2011

Marketing campaigns utilise a variety of techniques to encourage activity and to make people perform a desired action. The use of Urgency to make people act immediately is one technique that works especially well in the world of digital marketing.

You'll have seen it many times before, consciously or unconsciously, and very likely have reacted as planned by a clever marketer. 'Last Few Days Remaining', 'First 50 people receive...' and 'Offer Ends Soon' are all using the power of urgency marketing to drive immediate action. You won't want to miss out on this superb additional benefit but need to act now! As sales are often lost due to procrastination by the target this technique eliminates this lackadaisical reaction and improves the conversation rate of the campaign.

In an Instant

The instantaneousness of digital communications ensures that urgency marketing is particularly effective with online media. For example, when you receive an email you are often in a position to make a purchase within a couple of clicks. So if you receive an email that encourages you to act now you are able to quickly react and make the purchase. This can be very useful for hospitality businesses as bookings or reservations can be made immediately online in response to an email.

Urgent, Urgent

If using email to implement an Urgency campaign it needs to integrate with a landing page that continues the message and closes the sale. Subject lines in the email can kick-start the process by attracting attention to the fact that this is a limited-period offer and that the recipient should act now. Once the email is opened the urgency of the offer and the benefits associated with the offer should be heavily emphasised. A call to action must be used that enables the recipients to immediately click to take advantage of this exciting, urgent offer. The landing page that they are then directed to must continue to support the urgency message and enable quick and easy conversion to a booking or sale.

The Final Countdown

A good technique to use is the countdown method, whereby your potential customers are regularly reminded how little time they have left to act. For example, if you run a special offer promotion for a limited weeklong period, you can adjust your communications to reinforce this message on a daily basis. Emails can be sent to announce the offer, then again to exclaim only 3 days to go, and finally that you are down to the Final Day. Website banners promoting the offer can count down on a daily basis from 7 days remaining to Final Day, becoming more urgent as time goes on. This process builds the panic to act, increasing responses.

Extend to Squeeze

One final technique that can be used to squeeze the last few conversions out of your campaign is to extend your sale or offer at the last minute for an additional period of time. Pitching this as a generous response to popular demand allows you to avoid any negative perceptions.

Try these techniques at your restaurant and hotel and you're sure to get a good conversion rate and ROI. Studies have shown that this type of campaign can generate as much as 500% more conversions than a traditional, non-urgent marketing campaign. That's a significant difference! Work out when you want to run your campaign and use all your communication channels to emphasise the urgency. Run a compelling offer for a short period of time and hype it up throughout the offer period, constantly reinforcing the message and invoking a sense of panic in your customers. Tease them before hand, building up excitement and anticipation, remind them throughout the offer period and then be the generous person that you are and extend the offer for a few more days at the end.

Author : Paul West

Paul West is Managing Director at Ignite Hospitality Consultants and regularly contributes to various hospitality publications.
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Tags : Marketing | Online