Creating Urgency In Subscription Offers

In the next era of B2B marketing, urgency will matter more than attention. The winners will not just make buyers aware. They will make buyers feel time slipping away. This is not hype. It is strategy. If you want to dominate the urgency economy, you must learn how to architect urgency systematically. Here is how it works: 1. Future Shock Campaigns Make the future feel dangerous if action is delayed. Bad marketers talk about benefits. Elite marketers talk about threats. Instead of saying “our software improves efficiency,” say “companies that do not automate this process will be 30 percent slower than competitors by next year.” Tie delay to inevitable obsolescence. Create fear of falling behind. 2. Compounding Cost Models Quantify the hidden cost of doing nothing. And make it hurt. Show prospects how every day of delay quietly bleeds money, opportunity, and resources. For example: “Every month without this system is costing your team 120 hours of lost productivity.” or “Every quarter you delay adoption is costing your pipeline $2.3M in missed conversion opportunities.” Do not guess. Model it. Prove it. 3. Decay Narratives Frame inaction as active decay, not neutral status quo. People like to believe that doing nothing is safe. Your job is to destroy that illusion. For example: “Customer churn is not holding steady. It is compounding. Every lost account is accelerating future losses.” or “Technical debt is not a static risk. It is a silent tax that grows every month you delay modernization.” Make stasis feel toxic. 4. Irreversible Threshold Mapping Draw bright lines in time that create real fear of missing permanent opportunities. People act when they believe windows are closing. For example: “AI data advantage compounds. Companies that wait another 18 months will not catch up.” or “Once RFPs for next year are locked, switching providers will not be possible until Q4.” Define thresholds. Map consequences. Give buyers a clock they cannot ignore. 5. Emotional Deadline Engineering Use emotional stakes, not just logical deadlines. Everyone knows when fiscal year ends. Everyone knows when budgets reset. That is not enough. You must connect deadlines to emotional drivers: promotion cycles, strategic planning moments, competitive threats. For example: “If you do not own this initiative by Q2, your internal influence shrinks by year-end.” or “Companies that act before June will be first-movers in the new compliance framework.” Deadlines tied to identity and status drive faster action than dates on a calendar. If you are still marketing to inform and educate, you are already behind. Information is not scarce. Urgency is. The future belongs to marketers who can compress buying time. The ones who build urgency into the environment itself. Attention is good. Interest is better. Urgency is unstoppable. Build urgency architecture now. Or watch faster players take your market before you see them coming

How to make urgency in your copy feel natural. I used to struggle with adding urgency to my copy. It always felt forced, like I was pushing too hard. Do you know those ads with fake countdowns? Yeah, I never wanted to be that person. But here’s what I learned: urgency doesn’t have to feel sleazy. It just needs to feel real. Here’s how I create authentic urgency that drives action, without the pressure: 1. Highlight real scarcity. This is the most powerful tool when it’s genuine. If you only have 10 spots left or limited stock, say it. But make sure it’s the truth. People can smell fake scarcity from a mile away, and trust is everything. For example, I once ran a campaign where we only had 20 spots for a masterclass. I told people upfront—and those 20 spots filled fast. 2. Use deadlines with a reason. Deadlines work, but only when they’re grounded in reality. Instead of saying “limited time only” for no reason, give context. Is the sale ending because of inventory? Is the offer closing because it’s seasonal? One time, I ran a campaign tied to a specific event. It was time-sensitive, and people understood the urgency. Giving people a reason to act now feels far more natural. 3. Focus on the benefits they’ll miss. This one changed the game for me. Instead of pushing “buy now,” I frame it around the benefits they’ll lose if they don’t act. Will they miss out on solving a big problem? Saving time or money? Once, I wrote an ad about software that saves users hours every week. The urgency wasn’t “buy now” but rather, “Don’t miss out on getting your time back.” It felt more like a conversation than a hard sell. Urgency isn’t about tricks or pressure—it’s about giving people a real reason to act. When it’s genuine, it feels like you’re helping, not pushing. That’s how you make urgency feel natural. And that’s when your copy really starts to convert.

Why Salespeople Struggle to Create URGENCY: Urgency gets buyers to act now. But most salespeople create urgency that feels like a gimmick.   “We will no longer be offering this type of package." “Prices go up next week.” “Buy now, and I’ll throw in a discount.”   That’s not urgency. That’s an enticement wrapped in a ticking clock.   It’s price-driven. Not purpose-driven.   Real urgency doesn’t sell pressure. It sells impact.   Urgency isn’t about what they’ll save. It’s about what they’ll miss.   Challenge them to self-reflect. To feel the cost of inaction. To ignite urgency and create ownership of the consequences and impact, ask: 1. What are your biggest challenges in X-area that you'd regret not solving six months from now? 2. Who is impacted by this, and how? 3. What happens if nothing changes? 4. If you could achieve these results now, how would it impact you, your coworkers, company and customers? 5. What’s the long-term cost of waiting?   These aren’t scripts. They’re implication based questions.   They turn your buyer from passive to proactive. From “maybe later” to, “I need this now.” Don’t tell them to act now. Help them see why they need to.   That’s not pressure. That’s salesmanship.   It’s not manipulation. It’s motivation.   Let them sell themselves on why now matters.   Urgency isn’t yours to push. It’s theirs to discover.   When customers articulate their urgency, rather than being told, you’ll never need to, “drop your price” again. #sales #selling

Implementing urgency emails can drive a 20-50% higher CVR. But discounts are the WORST urgency offers. Use these 3 offers instead: 1) Exploding bonuses Bonuses should be perceived at a similar or higher value than the original offer. They go away if the prospect doesn't purchase by XYZ time. Our most recent exploding offer was a bonus live marketing & sales workshop with an entrepreneur who has done 9-figures in B2B sales. Bonuses can also be products, no need to fulfill them with your time. Let's pretend you sell a playbook on cold email outreach. A bonus might be 25 real email threads from cold emails that resulted in closed deals, so you the prospect knows exactly how to move their conversations forward. 2) Supply-limited offers Our client's latest launch was limited to 50 seats for $5k each. Once we told people we had under 10 spots left, the remaining spots were taken nearly instantly. 3) Price increases Price discounts dilute your brand's status, price increases raise it. But increases can’t feel arbitrary or people will feel cheated. Use one of - A) A historical arbitrage in value:price If you’re creating way more value for your customer from your product/service than you charge and have case studies / testimonials to back it up, this is a perfectly valid reason to raise prices. It was your mistake - you didn’t know how underpriced you were, and you’re just re-pricing to market rate. Prospects who act now will be grandfathered in. B) You’ve added or are about to add in a lot more value In this case, price increases just support you continuously making your product/service way better for the customer. beehiiv had been shipping incredible features every other week for half of 2024 before announcing a price increase. Sure, some people were slightly miffed for a week or two, but I haven’t heard ANYONE complain about their pricing in the last 3 months. Probably because all of the conversation is about the 20 other things they’ve shipped since then. These price increases are best announced alongside a feature release + with a re-cap of existing features you’ve added without increasing the price to show you’ve given value before asking for value.