Smaller rabbit holes
Manufactured Urgency
Cold email pet peeve #456.
2 mins
Urgency is such a funny thing. Sometimes it's entirely genuine.
"Registration closes tomorrow."
"The offer expires on Friday."
"We've only got two places left."
These can all - rightly - lead to feelings of 'Agh - I better do something about this. And quickly'. This is a perfectly reasonable reaction to a time gated incident.
And it might be just me but, sometimes I think that that urgency can feel a bit... homemade.
"Just bumping this to the top of your inbox before I close your file."
"I'll assume you're not interested if I don't hear back."
"Final follow-up."
That kinda thing. We've all got them right? The fake consequences of ignoring me - please stop ignoring me - end of an email cadence programme.
And I always thing. Will it be? Really? Will I legit never hear from you again?
Because, Mr. outbound email man, let's be honest with each other. The urgency isn't usually on my side.
It's on yours, right?
You're trying to hit a target. Finish a sequence. Close a CRM task. Move a deal.
Again, I understand why. I've spent twenty years in agency new business. I've had targets too.
The trouble is that prospects are remarkably good at spotting borrowed importance.
When somebody creates urgency around their deadline rather than my problem, it doesn't make me more likely to respond. It just reminds me that our priorities aren't the same.
Real urgency comes from relevance.
A new CMO joins.
Funding lands.
Regulation changes.
A competitor makes a move.
Now we've got something worth talking about. The timing matters because their world changed. Not because HubSpot decided this was the day for Nudge Email Number Six related time pressure.
There's nothing wrong with asking people to act but please just make sure they're acting on something meaningful and not simply helping you complete your sequence.
Because manufactured urgency has a habit of creating exactly one thing.
The overwhelming urge to ignore it.
Urgency is such a funny thing. Sometimes it's entirely genuine.
"Registration closes tomorrow."
"The offer expires on Friday."
"We've only got two places left."
These can all - rightly - lead to feelings of 'Agh - I better do something about this. And quickly'. This is a perfectly reasonable reaction to a time gated incident.
And it might be just me but, sometimes I think that that urgency can feel a bit... homemade.
"Just bumping this to the top of your inbox before I close your file."
"I'll assume you're not interested if I don't hear back."
"Final follow-up."
That kinda thing. We've all got them right? The fake consequences of ignoring me - please stop ignoring me - end of an email cadence programme.
And I always thing. Will it be? Really? Will I legit never hear from you again?
Because, Mr. outbound email man, let's be honest with each other. The urgency isn't usually on my side.
It's on yours, right?
You're trying to hit a target. Finish a sequence. Close a CRM task. Move a deal.
Again, I understand why. I've spent twenty years in agency new business. I've had targets too.
The trouble is that prospects are remarkably good at spotting borrowed importance.
When somebody creates urgency around their deadline rather than my problem, it doesn't make me more likely to respond. It just reminds me that our priorities aren't the same.
Real urgency comes from relevance.
A new CMO joins.
Funding lands.
Regulation changes.
A competitor makes a move.
Now we've got something worth talking about. The timing matters because their world changed. Not because HubSpot decided this was the day for Nudge Email Number Six related time pressure.
There's nothing wrong with asking people to act but please just make sure they're acting on something meaningful and not simply helping you complete your sequence.
Because manufactured urgency has a habit of creating exactly one thing.
The overwhelming urge to ignore it.