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URGENT: Don’t Confuse Creating Urgency With Dishonesty
By Tim Gross - Internet Business Blog | May 3, 2008
There was a “complaint thread” on an online business forum today, with marketers complaining about other online marketers who constantly say, “Urgent!” in their email subject lines, etc.
The comments were quite derogatory, basically saying:
Are Internet Marketers that stupid to fall for these ‘Urgent’ hyped emails? When will they figure out these marketers are only after their wallets??!!!
As a consumer, you’re welcome to complain all day long about marketing tactics you don’t like, but as a marketer, if you’re not (correctly) using a sense of urgency in your sales process, you’re just losing money.
Here’s my take:
1) The post was suggesting that Creating Urgency = Dishonesty
Untrue. If your new product release is 70% off for 48 hours only and your subscriber list is supposedly filled with people who subscribed because they want what you have, reminding them multiple times over those 48 hours that they have limited time is only sensible.
…In fact, assuming the discount really does end in 48 hours, many subscribers will be downright angry if you didn’t get their attention enough to get them to buy the special when the opportunity was available.
2) …The job of a business is to “go after their customer’s wallet”. Hopefully they do it by providing value greater than the price and in a way that maximizes the benefit to their customer… If they drive away potential future customers due to short-term obnoxious tactics, they’re hurting themselves in the long run, but they know what their sales and unsubscribe stats look like, you don’t.
3) I’ve been responsible for making decisions on what to email to subscriber lists as large as 6 figures, and the difference in the response you get due to different subject lines has a huge impact on how much money you make.
When you send out 2 different emails, and one outpulls the other’s response 3 to 1, it’s pretty obvious to go with what works (as long as it’s not misleading or dishonest).
4) If you’re a marketer and you’re on other marketers’ lists, it’s likely that you want to monitor what they’re doing more than because you’re waiting to whip out your wallet.
[b]The truth is: Irritating marketing often is more profitable than non-irritating marketing.[/b]
If you’re not sure if you’re part of a marketer’s real target market, here’s a simple way to tell:
Have you purchased multiple products from them in the past?
-If so, then you are part of their target market, and you may have a point about your complaints.
-If you’ve never purchasd anything from them, you’re not really their target market, you’re just monitoring them as a competitor. In that case, they have no obligation to you.
5) A caveat: My discussion of this is purely hypothetical. There are certainly people who use underhanded and deceptive tactics to advertise their products… but that’s a 100% different discussion than just complaining about in-your-face promotions across the board.
This discussion mirrors the complaints marketers have of other marketers using popups on their websites. Sure, they’re irritating, but if they increase sales enough that in your estimation it outweighs any negatives (people being annoyed with your website and not returning because of it), then you use them.
I’m sure you agree with these points in theory… I mean, if someone had discovered the cure for cancer and you were on their “looking for a cure for cancer” list and they kept emailing, “Urgent: Here’s the cure for cancer!”, you wouldn’t complain and say, “The way he’s hyping this, you’d think he cured cancer or something”. Yeah… he did.
The real problem is with marketers hyping low-value products or doing it in a misleading or deceptive way… but that’s a whole other discussion.
P.S. -I put the word “Urgent” in the subject line of this post as a joke, get it? :-) heh, heh
P.P.S. -In my last post I mentioned that I’m about to release what I believe is a unique training course on making money with article directories, and readers of this blog and my subscribers will have the opportunity to get a massive discount. As that opportunity nears a close, I’ll probably send a final email that says, “Urgent: Massive discount is about to end”… To make sure you don’t miss out if you’re interested in getting it.
If that somehow offends someone, well… I wouldn’t even know how to respond to that… Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.
P.P.P.S - I just stumbled onto this related article by Michel Fortin called “Are All Business People Dishonest?” which deals with similar issues: His basic take is that people who think everything should be free think it’s “dishonest” to <gasp> actually charge money for something. It’s a good read.
P.P.S. - If you want to have a real discussion about online business ethics, here’s a recent article by Carolyn Middlebrook about her negative thoughts on “Forced Continuity and Similar Scams“. Real discussions about business ethics are healthy and helpful. Whining about things you don’t “like” is not. 
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May 5th, 2008 at 7:34 am
Excellent article.
I don’t mind the in your face urgent emails and websites as long as they don’t lie to me, like the count down script that gets used by so many when it’s not really going to end after the timer runs out.
Urgent: does get my attention and I have purchased a lot of great products because it did get my attention.