What captures your attention when paging through a magazine, a newspaper, or through an online news channel? The subject matter counts, sure, but it’s the currency and urgency of the information that really drives people to read the story and learn the facts.
Urgency plays a key role in many types of marketing: that sales event that only spans the weekend, the infomercial offer that you must take up RIGHT NOW to claim that 50% discount… these are strategies that employ a sense of urgency to drive a businesses listeners, viewers and readers to take immediate action.
Urgency: Proceed With Caution
The problem with urgency is that you can take one wrong step and you can completely blow your content marketing, and credibility, right out of the water. People are used to urgency being utilised as some sort of a sales tactic and so, unless done correctly, it can invalidate your offer, devalue your product, and adversely impact the reputation your company. If an offer is only valid for a specific time, ensure that this is so.
Creating An Appropriate Sense Of Urgency
An “appropriate” level or amount of urgency will be different for each business, and can be a real balancing act. You need to consider:
1) The type of content you’re creating – web page copy, blog posts, press releases etc, and
2) Its objective – for instance, to make immediate sales, to take advantage of a seasonal event.
For every piece of content that you create, you should consider what level of lead you’re trying to attract, and what you want them to do with that information. Begin with a full audit of your content (and each of piece of content going forward) and design CTAs or “calls to action” for each that will match the appropriate level of urgency to that content.
And importantly, if Urgency is not a factor in your marketing plan, drop this “U” from the 4 U’s all together.
Learn the basics of the 4 U’s
Move on to the next U – Unique
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