How to Express Urgency in an Email to Boost Conversions

It’s a hectic Monday morning, and you steal a moment for a much-needed coffee. During your break, you quickly go through your inbox and a subject line grabs your attention at once. “Get 20% off on all products until midnight!” Your favorite brand just announced a flash sale that will expire at the end of the day. The clock is now ticking, and you need to act fast.

Now imagine that the same happens to one of your prospective buyers during a peak season. How can you cause the same reaction to them? Conveying urgency in your emails can be a game-changer. Email recipients are more likely to pay attention and act swiftly when presented with a tight deadline if the action aligns with their interests.

In this blog post, we’ll explain how to express urgency in an email to boost your conversions and sales. Plus, we’ll share campaign examples for different purposes to get inspired.

Why Creating a Sense of Urgency in Emails Works?

Humans are wired to act fast when provided with a clear time constraint for important tasks and opportunities. Even more so when the reward is likely to disappear after the deadline. This heightened focus helps to temporarily set aside procrastination and indecisiveness.

Plus, urgency often triggers the so-called FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) effect. People tend to regret missing opportunities, such as sales or limited-edition products. Not to mention the perceived value of those offers, appealing to consumers who want to make smarter purchases and boost their savings.

These psychological factors can significantly increase engagement metrics, including open rates and conversions. This extends the value of conveying urgency during highly profitable seasons, such as holidays or when launching new products.

How to Add Urgency to Different Email Components

Let’s explore how to attract your email recipients’ prompt attention through twists or additions to important email components:

Email subject line

The first email part that gets a reader’s immediate attention and plays a crucial role in email engagement is the subject line. Enhance it with action-oriented words and phrases, such as “last chance” and “limited time” to make your subscribers put your email as high priority. You can also use phrases that highlight loss or value to elicit certain emotions.

Check out these urgent subject line examples by notable brands:

• Last-minute gifts that look pre-planned!
• Don’t miss it: Limited-edition summer bundles and $30 off.
• A few days left to shop this special offer
• ⚡Black Friday sale is here – act now!
• Log in to keep your account from being deleted

However, overusing urgent words and exclamation marks may signal to your readers that your content is spammy, salesy, or phishing. Check out this guide to protect your email deliverability.

Email copy

When subscribers land on emails with urgent subject lines, they need to discover what this fuzz is all about straightaway. The email copy should set the right expectations. Start with a comprehensible title that hitches readers and consider adding it in capital letters to stand out.

To win email recipients over, mention the benefits they’ll reap if they take immediate action. Focus on pain points you’ll help them resolve to boost conversions. Plus, convince them that your offers are rare, by sharing limited edition and back-in-stock products to boost conversions.

It’s important to blend the sense of urgency with your existing copy style otherwise it might sound off. Here’s a fitting example by RayBan:

Subject line: Land our new limited edition before anyone else

RayBan gave early access to premium members for their newest release. This way, they rewarded them for their loyalty and gave their sales great momentum.

Finally, mention the deadline clearly to motivate readers to take immediate action. You can also bold it out along with other urgent language elements to be more visible.

CTAs

Another crucial converting point is the CTA button. Its placement and wording can trigger the readers’ prompt response, especially if the rest of the email has effectively conveyed the value of your offer.

Ensure that the primary CTA button is visible without the need to scroll down to receive a higher click-through rate. Actionable words and phrases are more likely to motivate them to act compared to passive alternatives.

Here are some suggestions for different scenarios:

• Get started
• Subscribe today
• Get free shipping
• Shop now
• Get [number %] off
• Save up to [number%]

Finally, if your email consists of multiple CTAs, place the one with the higher conversion potential at the top and make it stand out with an attention-grabbing color.

Visuals

How can you instill a sense of urgency through visuals? One of the best practices to grab your readers’ attention is using a countdown timer. Include them in your emails to show readers when your offers expire.

Share high-quality visuals to attract your readers’ attention, displaying your products or services benefits. This way, you invite them straight to the checkout, without having to spend time in your website searching for products. You can also create a GIF with time sensitive information to make it more creative.

In this example, Oakley used attention-grabbing product visuals and a countdown timer to capitalize on that effect:

Subject line: October Deals End at Midnight

Email layout

To help readers spot all the email newsletter elements that imply urgency at first glance, you need a clean layout. Place the most converting elements, such as the call-to-action, at the top and add as much white spacing is needed to increase readability.

A single-column layout is usually suitable for these cases. It helps recipients focus on what matters without distractions stepping in the way. You can also opt for the F-pattern layout to share extra content after your primary call-to-action, without taking the reader’s eye away from the main points.

Most email marketing services offer premade templates that check those boxes to help users meet their goals. Moosend has a wide range of email templates for various purposes, easy to customize, including urgency elements such as countdown timers.

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5 Top Email Campaigns with a Sense of Urgency

Here are four email campaigns expressing urgency for different goals and why they work:

1. Hush Puppies’ flash sale campaign

Subject line: Our men’s flash sale ends TONIGHT. 🚨🚨🚨

Hush Puppies created a flash sale promo campaign for Father’s Day to boost their seasonal sales.

Why we liked it:

• The subject line includes a clear deadline and alarm emojis that add urgency.
• The email opening has all the essential information potential customers need to claim the discount.
• They added the initial and final prices to emphasize how much customers will save.

2. Apple’s renewal email campaign

Subject line: Your Apple Music membership is almost up.

Want to reduce your churn rate or turn your free trial users into customers? Send an email campaign like Apple.

Why we liked it:

• They added the visual of a woman enjoying the service to make the campaign more appealing.
• The copy is simple and straightforward with a clear deadline.
• The CTA button leads to automatic renewal, which can benefit the business in the long term through recurring revenue.

3. Fulton’s back-in-stock email

Subject line: All sizes are back in stock! 🏃🏻‍♀️ (for now!)

Fulton sent a back-in-stock campaign to inform customers that one of their bestsellers is available–for now.

Why we liked it:

• The subject line wordplay and the emoji motivate readers to take prompt action.
• The email copy emphasized the popularity of the product to show customers its value.
• The “Shop now” call-to-action button invites customers to move straight to checkout.

4. Butter & Crust’s limited-edition email

Subject line: Limited Edition: Cinnamon Sugar Crullers 😍

Butter and Crust prepared a limited-edition campaign to delight customers who’ve been requesting a certain flavor.

Why we liked it:

• They blended social proof inside the visual to make the offer more appealing.
• They stated the deadline in capital letters to add more visibility.
• The countdown timer acts as a reminder to make an order.

5. Rudy’s Barbershop cart abandonment email

Subject line: Don’t let free shipping go to waste

Rudy’s Barbershop added a sense of urgency to their abandoned cart email to boost conversions.

Why we liked it:

• They offered an incentive with an expiration date to make it more urgent.
• The copy is authentic and unique, with fun elements that stand out.
• The CTA button is written in actionable language to enhance click-through rates.

Boost Conversions with the Urgency Formula

Now that you know how to infuse urgency into your emails, consider which campaigns you could refine. Revisit your sales and renewal emails to bring conversions by incorporating time-constraint elements. However, be cautious not to overuse them as you might distress your readers and produce the opposite effect.

And if you’re interested in getting an email marketing platform with features designed to boost urgency, such as countdown timers and AI-powered tools, Moosend is a great choice. Sign up for an account to explore these features and improve your email marketing strategy.