3 ways to use authentic urgency inside your evergreen sales funnels

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Adding urgency to a sales funnel is a really great way to boost sales conversions. Urgency essentially means a reason to buy now (or within a short time period.)

There are various tools that can help us to add urgency to evergreen sales funnels and in this blog post I want to show you 3 tools you can use to achieve authentic urgency.

I am not promoting ‘Countdown Hero’ as one of the founders has been found guilty of some pretty horrible crimes – including identity theft and distribution of private images via people’s emails.

That leaves us with 3 options. 2 tools designed for adding authentic urgency and another which is a lead generation tool that can be used as an imperfect work around.

But first, why we need to add urgency to sales funnels?

There’s no avoiding the fact that using urgency in your evergreen sales funnels will increase your conversion rates.

It is so easy to put things off and think ‘I’ll get that later’ when there’s no reason to get it now. But the reality is most often, we forget to return to get the product we saw advertised. Not only have we missed out on a great product, but the product owner has missed a sale!

Having a reason to buy within a short period of time helps to focus our minds and prioritise buying decisions.

As someone with ADHD, I am very forgetful and so I need a deadline to make anything happen. Therefore I personally really appreciate a deadline – preferably with a countdown timer to remind me! You’ll be surprised by how many people are just like me – they love a reason to buy now!

What to offer to add urgency?

A discount – this is the most common way to add urgency to a funnel. Offer a discount if they buy during the sale period.

A bonus – if you don’t want to offer a discount then another option is to add a bonus instead – something extra someone gets when they purchase during the sales window.

Increased support – if you are selling a self-direct course or an ebook then you could offer some additional support as a bonus. For example, office hours or an online community.

Credit – you could offer credit that people can redeem against other offers in the future!

How can we add urgency in a way that is authentic?

Unfortunately not everyone uses urgency in a way that I feel aligned with – there are lots of pushy, sleazy marketing tactics that might give you the ick.

To avoid icky strategies, I recommend following a few golden rules.

1. The decision time window needs to be fair. Too short a sales period makes people feel rushed and panicked and can lead them to make the wrong decision.
2. The urgency needs to be genuine. If you say there are 72 hours and then at the end of those 3 days, the countdown resets, this comes across as inauthentic.
3. It should not be easy to hack your sales funnel. You do not want people to be able to cheat the system by using a different device! This makes it unfair on those who follow the rules.
4. Your goal should always be to encourage your potential customer to make a decision if the product is right for them – not to try and force them into a sale regardless. Addressing frequently asked questions on the sales page can help with this.
5. You should never make someone feel bad for deciding not to buy. Suggesting they are doomed if they don’t buy your offer is a bit icky in my opinion! So instead focus on how your offer makes their life easier/better/saves them money and leave the alternative scenarios out of it!

How to add authentic urgency to a funnel

You may be familiar with tripwire funnels and upsell offers. These are time sensitive offers that appear as soon as we take action – such as signing up to a newsletter. The countdown timer is set to expire after a certain amount of time and then the page disappears.

These simple tripwire style funnels can be created using tools like Elementor, WordPress plugins or built in countdown timers within cart tools such as Thrivecart.

Therefore it would be easy to presume that you could achieve similar for your email funnel using the same tool.

This is not the case.

The reason it is not the case is that you do not know when someone will click on the link in your email, therefore triggering the countdown timer.

So if you have a 5 days sales funnel and someone only clicks on your 3rd email, they are then going to get 5 days to make a decision but your emails are suggesting there are only 2 days left. That is confusing and can make your offer appear as inauthentic.

Luckily there are tools to help you to achieve this although they are not free. That said, the amount of money you are likely to make when you use these tools FAR outweighs what you will pay for them so they usually work out very cost-effective.

What tools can you use to add authentic urgency to an email funnel?

At the time of writing this article there are 3 tools I know of (not including Countdown Hero for reasons outlined above.)

You need a toool that sends your subscriber to a special discounted version of your sales page that then diverts to your regular priced offer after a certain amount of time has elapsed.

Deadline Funnel is the most robust. It is the priciest but for good reason.

Thrive Ultimatum does a similar job to Deadline Funnel at a slightly reduced cost but with several limitations.

Convertbox is not designed for creating evergreen sales funnels however there is a way of using it as a work around. It’s imperfect but a cost effective way of adding a funnel for those on a budget.

Let’s look at each option in a little more detail…

Creating an evergreen sales funnel using Deadline Funnel

This is the tool I now use and I find that my sales funnel converts much better using this than Thrive Ultimatum.

The main reason for that is that it is more robust meaning fewer emails saying ‘the link doesn’t work – I can’t see the discount!’

Deadline Funnel works to sync your emails and your sales pages so that your offer window works seamlessly.

It works by creating a webhook when someone has a tag added to them inside your email service provider. (Or they’re added to a group/segment.)

This tag essentially triggers the start of the funnel so you have full control over when they see the offer and for how long.

Because emails and the sales page/cart are fully synced, you can add a countdown timer to your emails and it will be exactly the same as on the sales page.

And because it’s based on the tags a subscriber has, not when they click, it will work across devices too. So when someone tries to access the offer on a mobile device having opened it on their desktop the day before, the countdown timer will remain the same and consistent. Therefore it cannot be ‘cheated.’

Deadline Funnel starts at $39/month which might sound like a lot but if you are selling courses, you will probably only need one sale a month to make it worth the cost!

I often make multiples of thousands dollars each month using this tool – even when I am not working! In fact, evergreen sales funnels built with Deadline Funnel were my biggest source of passive income during my 4 month maternity leave!

Here are the results of just one of my sales funnels last month. As you can see I made $1485 from a funnel which 258 people passed through. I have 5 of these evergreen sales funnels set up inside my business and these are just the results of one!

Because Deadline Funnel is triggered from within your email automations, you can use it with any page builder or cart processor that you like. There are no restrictions.

I also really like that because it is triggered with a simple tag, you have a lot of flexibility. For example, you could choose to add the trigger tag to your whole newsletter and send all existing subscribers through your sales funnel at once – a great way to test your funnel out and make sure it converts before setting it up for new subscribers!

You also have the option to send your subscriber through more than one funnel. For example, I send everyone through the funnel for each of my main courses with a few weeks between each. This increases product awareness and means that each subscriber spends more on average as they are shown more offers that might appeal to them over a longer time period!

If your budget can stretch to Deadline Funnel then this is my top recommendation!

I offer bonus credit for anyone who uses my affiliate link to purchase Deadline Funnel – learn more about my Deadline Funnel bonuses here!

Creating an evergreen sales funnel using Thrive Ultimatum

This is the tool I first used, mostly because it was the cheapest way I found to create an evergreen sales funnel.

The prices have gone up recently requiring a monthly subscription but it does still remain a little cheaper than Deadline Funnel.

Thrive Ultimatum works differently to Deadline Funnel as it is triggered at the entry point to the funnel. The act of signing up for a lead magnet is what triggers the funnel.

This is a little limiting as it means you can only put your subscriber through one funnel for one offer.

It also means that you have to use Thrive’s page builder ‘Thrive Leads’ which I find tricky to use, has outdated designs and is prone to malfunctions.

And because the funnel is triggered by signing up for a lead magnet, you will have to work backwards from your funnel to determine how many days after signing up the offer should be live for. It’s easy to make an error at this point.

I decided to move to Deadline Funnel because I found Thrive Ultimatum glitchy and found the above limitations frustrating. I started to make a lot more money once I switched and so for me, it was well worth the price difference.

Thrive Ultimatum is available as part of the Thrive Suite for $299/year which works out around $25/month

Creating an evergreen sales funnel using Convertbox

Now Convertbox isn’t an urgency based tool, it is primarily for lead generation and creating pop up notifications.

However one of the types of pop up is a ribbon which can be shown at the top of a sales page with a countdown timer designed to divert the person to a different page after the time has elapsed.

So Convertbox works well for offers like tripwires.

It can also be used for evergreen email funnels but is very much an imperfect work around.

The reason this pop up tool can be used where other pop up tools can’t is because it communicates with your email service provider and can show different pop ups to subscribers who have certain tags or who are in certain groups within your ESP.

Therefore you can set it to only show your offer to people who have a certain tag within your ESP.

Now you still have the issue that the countdown timer is based on when the person accesses the sales page and not when the first sales email is sent.

However there is a way to get around this.

You would set a rule to add a tag when someone opens the sales page.

This tag can trigger a new automation where you can send emails telling someone how long they have left to access a certain deal.

As I’ve said, this is an imperfect and slightly more time consuming strategy but if you already have Convertbox, it can be cost effective until you can justify purchasing a tool like Deadline Funnel.

I love Convertbox for so many reasons. If you want to learn about other ways I use it inside my business, check out this article: 21 creative ways to use Convertbox.

I offer a big bonus for anyone who uses my affiliate link to purchase it – learn more about my Convertbox bonuses here.

So which tool should you use to build your evergreen sales funnel?

If you feel confident that your sales funnel will bring in more than one sale a month then I would encourage you to invest in Deadline Funnel. It is the only method I fully trust to work seamlessly.

If you want a purpose built tool but can’t stretch to Deadline Funnel then Thrive Ultimatum does work. You will likely want to move to Deadline Funnel eventually but it could work for you in the interim and it will save you $14/month.

If you are not confident of making sales then Convertbox could be a good way to test out evergreen funnels and gain some confidence before you invest in a more pricey tool. Convertbox is a one-time-only payment and can be used for many purposes within your business – from growing your email list to offering discounts, promoting affiliate links or even acquiring testimonials!

All 3 of these tools are covered in depth inside my course Fearless Funnels. You’ll learn how to create a high converting sales funnel from choosing the right lead magnet to writing the emails and setting up the tech!