Imagine you’re doing everything right with your copy — but the results do not speak for themselves. 

You could have the most compelling product description of all time, or the most convincing sales page. Your captions capture interest, your website leads customers through a strategic sales journey, and your email open rate is something to brag about. Through every bit and piece, your brand’s best qualities are captured, customer attention is engaged, and full carts are common. But you can’t get your customers over the finish line.

What’s going on? By all accounts, your product or service is killing it. Potential customers say your product is exactly what they need; your target audience is drawn in, signalling that your service is what they’ve been searching for. 

Attention is everywhere. Praise is common. You’re getting clicks, follows and shares. But conversions are nearly impossible to come by. What’s missing? 

The ‘right now’ factor.

Your customer does not need a reason to buy. They need a reason to buy right now.

People generally do not want to split with their hard earned cash unless they have a compelling reason to purchase now — not in two weeks, not after pay day, not for an event next year. 

If you’re a brand owner or copywriter, take a peek at your recent work: are you telling customers to buy, or are you telling them to buy right now? When the right now factor is the missing ingredient, sales will be more difficult to come by. Customers will click away, abandon their carts, and leave it on their mental checklist for a rainy day. But, unless you have an intriguing abandoned cart sequence set in place, many of these customers will not return — and, even so, you can’t expect abandoned cart conversions to reach one hundred percent. 

So, show them why they need your product right now.

Create the fear of missing out.

The fear of missing out is a powerful driver — it’s why scarcity and limited-time deals are the go-to for many right now strategies. Why right now? Because it’s a limited time sale. Because I only have four spots left. Because my capacity is limited. Because the price goes up on Tuesday. Scarcity involves telling your audience to buy now, before they miss out.

There are many ways to create scarcity in your product or service offering, such as: 

• A limited time discount or sale. 
• An exclusive pre-launch period for loyal subscribers. 
• Stating how many spots are left in your capacity. 
• Putting customers on a waitlist. 
• Reducing the availability of the product or service. 
• A one-time offer, like a special bundle. 
• An expiring discount code. 
• A bonus, like free shipping or gifts, for a limited time only.

Scarcity is not the only form.

While scarcity and fear of missing out are highly effective motivators, they can be detrimental to your business if you use these reasons every single time.

Scarcity tactics absolutely work — and they’re not something to completely reject — but you can’t rely on them for every single ‘right now’ reason. Your audience may tire of it (and refuse to buy at full price), or it may be in direct disagreement with your brand. For example, some luxury brands and high end services purposely refuse to offer discounts as part of brand strategy, keeping appeal high by making their exclusivity feel irresistible. 

Even if your brand does partake in sales and limited time offers, there will be many times when ‘limited time sale’ misses the mark for your goals and objectives. So how do you create the right-now factor in cases like these? 

Speak to what the customer is experiencing. 

In this case, you’re not saying: buy now, before we take the offer away. The truth is the opposite — the offer is here to stay. But there must be some reason for your audience to buy right now, not later, otherwise the check-out will never come. 

Dive into their minds, experiences, opportunities and pain points to understand what this might be. 

For example, Lovenote offers a guide to nurturing your email database with irresistibly clickable newsletters, Send Cult Favourite Newsletters. What’s the right-now factor? 

We speak to the all-too-common fear of your once-active data base slowly slipping through your fingers. Your email list contains tens, hundreds or thousands of customers waiting to hear from you… but the longer you ignore them, the further they drift. Your brand is becoming increasingly forgettable; your target customers are finding brands that suit them best, taking your place. Every minute you wait, this red-hot audience turns a cool, faded blue, leaving your brand behind. All the hard work (and resources) you invested in building your email list? You’re slowly saying goodbye to each customer’s potential.

…So you better start sending cult favourite newsletters right away. 

See? This speaks to the urge to purchase right now, without being a limited time sale or disappearing opportunity. Send Cult Favourite Newsletters will likely be available two years from now, but your mailing list in the meantime? It’ll have turned to dust. 

This tactic involves truly understanding your audience, but its effectiveness will pay you in spades. 

Conversion copywriting by Lovenote

With so many elements to balance — a perfectly on-brand tone of voice, captivating sales copy, all the technical tips and tricks — nailing your brand’s copywriting can be challenging. When it’s time to call in the experts, step one is our rate card.