Between Monday and Thursday of this week, 2.6 million French people signed up to get their first COVID-19 vaccine. A record.
The reason for this uptick? An announcement by the French president Monday night that in August people would need to show proof of vaccination (or proof of previous COVID-19 infection or a negative PCR test) to access many services.
This news obviously moved many fence-sitters. The majority of those taking appointments were in the under-35 crowd, who are less likely to get sick. Now there was a clearer incentive to get vaccinated. And more importantly?
A deadline.
The president had created a sense of urgency.
The need for urgency
Getting people to act is one of the biggest challenges when marketing your product. Even if you have a wonderful product which will positively impact your clients’ lives, if there is no sense of urgency many will put off making a decision until tomorrow.
Or next week.
Or maybe they’ll click out of your website and get distracted by a cat video and forget forever.
If their need for your product is pressing then this might push them to take action. But what if they are just not quite sure? Perhaps they don’t yet know and trust your product or plan? Or aren’t 100% convinced they have a problem or that your product is the solution.
People will overthink even mundane purchases. I hesitated for awhile before buying the keyboard I’m currently typing on. Okay, I hesitated until my partner bought it for me, perplexed that I would waste time on such a decision.
It wasn’t that expensive and it’s the same brand as my previous one. But I still overthought it because… Well.. the last one worked fine and I didn’t need a new keyboard.
This is when urgency can help indecisive overthinkers make a decision. You offer a limited-time bonus. You run a sale. You open enrolments for a set period and build anticipation beforehand.
You can’t assume that an enticing offer will be enough to get people to click the buy button. Don’t underestimate how indecisive many of us can be without a strong incentive to act now.
A sense of urgency got millions of French people to make a vaccination appointment (thousands of others protested in the street but that’s another story).
It can also up your conversion rate.