76 | On urgency in your marketing and promotion

Welcome to another episode of "In the Clinic with Camille," where Camille Freeman, a clinical herbalist and nutritionist, shares valuable tips for practitioners. This episode dives into the concept of urgency in sales and marketing, a common tactic recommended by many experts.

Camille discusses the pros and cons of creating a sense of urgency, emphasizing the importance of authenticity. While genuine deadlines can help clients make decisions, artificial urgency can misalign with your values and client interests. Camille offers practical strategies for maintaining visibility and fostering trust without resorting to false urgency.

For a deeper dive into ethical marketing, join us on August 12 from 5-6:30 pm ET for a class on marketing with the nervous system in mind. The class is free if you share it with a friend or on social media, or $25 otherwise. A replay will be available if you miss the live class. 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to In the Clinic with Camille. My name is Camille Freeman.
I am a clinical herbalist and nutritionist. And in this podcast,
I share little tips and tidbits that might be helpful for other practitioners.
Today, I wanted to talk to you about the concept of urgency in your sales and marketing.
You will hear lots of sales and marketing experts telling you that urgency is
one of the key things that helps people to buy and so that if you're looking

(00:23):
to have more clients, then what you want to do is add more urgency into your offers.
And this is true that having some kind of sense of urgency, like you need to
do this now, does encourage people to buy.
I have noticed this over my 15-ish years in practice, selling one-on-one services

(00:44):
and classes, programs, things like that, that a lot of people do sign up at
the very last minute if they are reminded. minded.
And there's a reason for that, right? People sometimes forget.
They see it and they think, oh, I'll do that later because the deadline's not
for a while. And they just put it off. It's a procrastination thing.
Or sometimes people really are waffling. They're on the fence and they're like,

(01:07):
I don't know, maybe it's too much, but maybe I don't have the time,
but I really want to do it.
And they're going back and forth, back and forth. And the deadline comes and
it forces them to make a decision.
They're like, okay, if I want to do this, I need to make a decision and they can either opt in or out.
And of course, on the receiving end of that, we just mostly see the people who opt in.
So it is true that having some sense of urgency and having deadlines conveyed

(01:30):
to people does encourage them to buy.
And there are folks, especially neurodivergent folks, who really do find that a deadline is helpful.
So I'm not here to, I'm not here to bash having deadlines or adding urgency in that way.
However, I do have a problem with adding urgency where there actually isn't any.

(01:53):
So it is one thing to say, I have a class, it is starting on Monday.
So if you want to sign up, Sunday is the deadline.
And, you know, that is adding a sense of urgency because if you don't join by
Sunday, you can't participate in the class.
You'll have to either wait till we offer it again, or if it's not offered again,
then you just miss out on the class.

(02:14):
And that's true. It just, it is what it is that when we start something,
the people who are enrolled are enrolled.
And if you're not enrolled, then a lot of times it doesn't make sense to jump in part way through.
Okay. So that is a legitimate deadline. However, if you are putting a countdown
timer or a bunch of urgency on an evergreen class or program that people technically

(02:36):
can start anytime, that's not in alignment.
That's not authentic because there actually isn't a deadline.
They could start whenever and you're just adding a countdown timer or a last
call email or something like that to make them buy.
And all of a sudden, you are starting to act from a sense of your own interest

(02:58):
rather than from a sense of the interest of the client.
So having a deadline can be really helpful to help people make a decision.
So you're saying if you want this class, and here's who might want it,
I want you to know that it's the registration period is ending.
That's not because you're trying to make more money. That's because you're trying

(03:18):
to help people make a decision. And if they want to do it, let them know that.
This is when to do it. So, so great.
We, we've discussed that urgency can be helpful. Having deadlines can be helpful,
but please don't do it if it's not actually a deadline.
And this brings me to the next point, which is that many of us have one-on-one
services and there isn't really a deadline, right?

(03:41):
There's, it's not like we're only accepting new clients until Tuesday.
And then after that, sorry, you can't work with me.
Most of us have ongoing enrollment for new clients And maybe there will come
a time when you'll have a wait list or you will only be able to accept a certain
number of new clients or follow up clients in a given period.

(04:02):
But generally speaking, especially when you're starting out,
you don't have a deadline. You're like, I'm open anytime, anywhere.
For anyone who would like to come see me, you can come see me.
So it becomes a little bit challenging, especially again, like I mentioned,
there are some folks who really do find that they make good decisions when there is a deadline coming up.

(04:22):
So what do you do about that? How do you handle it? First of all,
I want you to trust that if you just let people know what you do periodically
and invite them to work with you,
that they will remember that and do it when it's time.
That is 100% a strategy that you can use.

(04:42):
You do not have to have urgency. You don't have to have a deadline. line.
And in fact, what can be helpful, especially for folks who are,
you know, forgetful or may be like, oh, that sounds interesting,
but now isn't a good time.
If they can trust that you will also make the offer again next month or in six
weeks or every two weeks or three weeks or whatever,
then it's actually really helpful because they know it's not for me right now,

(05:04):
but I know that this person will remind me again later that they're available and I can sign up then.
What you're doing there is creating
a relationship of trust where somebody knows they know you're there.
They know if you forget, if they forget, you're going to remind them later and
you go from there. So what does that look like?
What that looks like is every so often on social media, on your podcast,

(05:25):
on your newsletter, whatever it is, every so often you say, hey,
just letting you know, quick reminder that I do one-on-one work.
Here's who it's for. Here's why you might want to sign up.
Here's how you can sign up and learn more.
That's it. And it's just its own thing. It's not buried in the paragraph about
something else. It's just like its own newsletter, its own social media post.

(05:48):
You're just letting people know. And you do that regularly, again,
consistently so that people know, oh, if I miss this one, I can get on the next one.
That is a strategy. You don't have to have urgency. You don't have to create false urgency.
You can just make sure that you're being visible with the work you do and inviting
people into it regularly.
That can work. And that's how I've done my one-on-one work pretty much for most

(06:13):
of my time in practice. And it does work.
It's slower. It's not fast. And you're not going to get people,
I find that when you do it this way, the people who come in are really those who want to be there.
They're not coming in because they made a last minute decision.
And then later they're like, oh crap, I shouldn't have done that. Right?
Another option, if you, especially if you work with, say, a lot of people who

(06:35):
have ADHD or some other population where it can be really challenging in certain
times to make a decision,
you may want to think about whether it makes sense to do things in a slightly
more structured fashion.
Whereas you might say, hey, I start new clients in September and we go from September to December.

(06:56):
So if you you want to get in with the fall new clients, then sign up by,
you know, August 23rd, whatever it is.
And then my next batch of new clients will start in December or whatever it
is, or you might have something where you're like, you know,
I have three openings for new clients in August, and I have another three in
September. So if you want one of the August slots.

(07:19):
Please sign up here. Again, this isn't false.
You're not making this up and not sticking with it.
But think about what might serve your clients and if that might also serve you
as well to have a more structured process for taking clients in.
Okay. So anyway, just throwing out a couple of things for you to consider whenever
you hear, oh, urgency is really important. You know, you got to get people to buy now.

(07:42):
Whenever I hear that, I always think like, okay, yes, it is true.
I think deadlines are helpful for some people and that like, oh gosh, I got to do this.
But also, is that in line with your values?
Are you empowering your client when you try to manipulate them into signing
up now, even if they're not quite ready?
I think most of us, the answer would be no. We'd rather them wait until they

(08:06):
really are truly ready to start working with us.
So, you know, how do you let them know how they're ready? How do you share some
content that helps them understand their readiness and encourages them to take
the steps that they need to take before they start working with you.
Those are all things that you can think about.
Okay, so anyway, just a few thoughts about marketing and urgency.

(08:27):
If this topic is of interest to you, I also wanted to share a class that I'm teaching next Monday.
And depending on when you're listening to this, it might've already passed,
but if you're listening to this kind of near when it gets released on August 12th, 2024, Thank you.