Using Discounts, Countdown Timers & Limited Time Offers In Your Sales Funnel
For quite a few years I saw countdown timers, scarcity and limited time discounts as pushy, pressurising, and devaluing marketing tactics. ⏰⏳🏃
But recently, I’ve done a 180 on how I feel about allll-a-that stuff.
I’ve been working on a couple of projects that have got me examining how my money-conditioning and money mindset is limiting my sales. 🔎
💰 I believe it’s important for women to make lots-a-money.
Imagine the positive change we’d see in the world, if women made more money.
But the conditioning we’ve been exposed to, since the day we’re born, impacts how we feel about money.
Centuries of inequality and patriarchy, impact how women feel about selling and making money. 🤢
Women are conditioned to be nice, please everyone, care for others, and stay small (in every sense). 😇
🚫 Being ‘difficult’, ‘aggressive’, ‘selfish’, ‘angry’ (even though we have a lot to be angry about) and assertive is considered ‘unlady-like behaviour’.
Women, and particularly women from marginalised groups, are punished for displaying these attributes.
🧠 Which impacts how we feel about money ➡️ which limits the sales and money we make. 📉
Because selling requires us to do all the things we’re told not to:
💪 Be assertive
🏆 Talk ourselves and our work up
🦸 Believe in our worth
1️⃣ Put ourselves first
📣 Ask for what we want
Buuuut when we do that, we worry we’re being too…
😳 Pushy
😞 Selfish
🫣 ‘Aggressive’
😰 Loud
🙈 Arrogant
See the push and pull there? ⚖️
I’m guessing you feel this push and pull with your selling sometimes too.
I’ve realised a lot of my worries about countdown timers, offering discounts and limited time offers came from all of that good-girl conditioning.
I worried using those strategies was too pushy, aggressive, and loud.
But you know what?
🙅♀️ I’m DONEZO with letting that conditioning limit the money I’m making (and helping my clients make too).
🙅♀️ I’m DONEZO letting over-worrying about being nice, kind and ‘good’ drive me to burnout.
🙅♀️ I’m DONEZO with letting patriarchal structures and conditioning make me feel guilty for making more money.
And I’m DONE with those things for you too. 🙅♀️
It’s time to QUIT letting all of that conditioning limit the money you're making, and embrace marketing strategies that help us make more sales, with more ease. Here’s why.
CHANGING BUYING BEHAVIOUR
⏰⏳🏃 Limited time offers, discounts and countdown timers have become normalised and expected.
You leave something in your cart online and receive a discount code by email
You sign up to a mailing list for 20% off your first order
You get a limited time offer to take advantage of a discount as a ‘thanks for being a loyal customer’.
Just a few examples from the last week 👇
We’re so used to it in the online shopping world. It’s normal. It’s expected…
Those marketing strategies are becoming the norm for digital products too.
In my client’s sales funnel results I’ve seen a drop off in sales since the end of last year. This seems to be a direct result of the changes we're seeing in buying behaviour online.
In response to this I’ve implemented a limited time offer for a couple of clients and it’s been like immediately turning on the tap of easeful sales. 📈💸
As behaviours shift, we as business owners need to react, and find a feel good, and intentional way to offer limited time offers. 🥰
Here’s how I see it...
Perhaps a limited time offer helps more people get off the fence and work with you. It's a win-win, you make more sales, they see the impact of working with you. What’s the problem?
EASEFUL SALES STRATEGIES IS FEMINISM IN ACTION
As women, we've learned we have to work hard (like reallllly hard) to make our money.
For a lot of women, this evidence based reality (ahem… we see you, gender pay gap/ race pay gap) results in...
⏰ Working all hours.
🫠 Pleasing everyone.
🫡 Saying yes to everything.
It's a one-way ticket to burnout.
Women need to implement marketing strategies that mean you're not always having to exchange your energy and time for sales. 🪫
PEOPLE NEED A DEADLINE
People respond to a deadline, it’s why live launching works so well. 🚀
But relying on live launching as your main sales strategy is EXHAUSTING. 😴
An evergreen limited time offer is how you make that live launch effect sustainable.
The key is making urgency and limited time offers feel good. Doing urgency with integrity. 💕
And you do that by creating a genuine deadline.
It’s NOT promising an exclusive offer, and then five minutes later, it’s on sale again. You’re not DFS. 🛋️
You stand by your limited time offer and implement tech that creates a REAL deadline - that’s how you maintain trust and credibility. 🏆
URGENCY IS NOT A TRAP
Plot twist…
Our audiences are grown-ass humans. 💡
They can decide when they truly want to purchase.
Does getting an email from Sezane saying there’s a sale on mean I go and buy everything in the sale? No. (Even though I'd like to... 😍)
Same goes for our audiences. Offering a limited time discount or creating genuine urgency is not a scammy trap.
It's an OFFER, not a have-to. 💥
And you can be honest about that by making your audience aware your product isn't going anywhere and will be available to buy at full price/ without the bonus offer, after your limited time offer expires.
A LIMITED TIME OFFER DOESN'T = GRUMPY CLIENTS
Limited time offers motivate me to buy. 🤷♀️
Perhaps you’ve been motivated to buy from a limited time offer too.
Does that mean you regret the purchase? Not for me.
The only time I regret buying is when the product genuinely isn’t good.
👉 In which case the disappointment is about the product, not the urgency.
If you feel good about your product and you KNOW it delivers results… 🏆 what’s the problem with creating some genuine urgency around it?
Offering a discount doesn’t make you a bro marketer. 🚫
In a world, where some people think it’s okay to make insulin a profitable commodity and rainforests are cut down for profit, I think it’s okay for you to offer a discount on your course. 👀
I’m not saying if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em. Hell no!
But I’m saying THEY are the people who should be worrying about being scammy and gross... NOT YOU, for offering some money off your product, or a bonus offer.
It should go without saying but for the avoidance of doubt...
You CAN care about your audience 👯 the planet 🌍 people 🥰 AND make bank at the same time. 💰
It's time to quit letting your over-worrying about being pushy/ salesy/ loud limit the money you're making
In my program, Freedom Friendly Funnels I'll be walking you through every-single-step to building your evergreen sales funnel, and firing it up to drive funnel sales in 6-weeks. 🔥
Along the way, I'm going to guide you through implementing a limited time offer with *integrity*, where you:
💡 Discover what tech to use that created a genuine deadline
📣 Craft your messaging so your limited time offer feels good
🔥 Fire up a feel-good marketing system that drives easeful sales
It's been a long time coming, but...
Freedom Friendly Funnels is getting it's last few licks of paint and will be launching v. soon with... you guessed it, a limited time off for those of you on the waitlist. 💝
Click below to join the waitlist. As a waitlister, you’ll be the first to hear when the doors open aaaaand you’ll get a special early-invite offer too 😘
Eeeep I'm excited for this.
This post was first shared with my email community. Subscribe below to
💌 PASSIVE POWER 🚀
Where I share what’s working (and what’s not 🤦) to power up your passive income ~ delivered to your inbox every week.Wanna tuck this in your pocket for later? Pin it to Pinterest:
