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our potential customers will always have a thousand and one excuses to not act on your offer. The key is to tickle their interest and create a shopping urge by emphasizing that the opportunity will be gone tomorrow and they need to act now.
Last chance emails can make your customers pay attention to your sale or any other short-lived deal, which may otherwise go unnoticed. These are special emails — they allow you to use a bit more direct and sensational language and spice it up with the most eye-catching images and emoji. Let’s see how you can use your customers’ FOMO to your advantage!
What is a last chance email?
A last chance email is an email you send to your audience when you want to motivate them to act on your expiring offer. It could be anything — a last day sale, a limited series of products, or a one-time promo code that they can apply. The fact is, your offer is limited in time, it’s about to come to an end, and you want to make sure your subscribers won’t miss it.
So far, so good. But how do you actually motivate them to seize the opportunity? You need your email copy and design to be synergistic to make that happen. The secret is to convey a sense of urgency without turning it into clickbait. In other words, your email shouldn’t be deceiving in any way — don’t set a countdown timer for 24 hours if your sale lasts for a week.
It’s always better to personalize your last chance emails and notify users when their favorite items are on sale. Let your email trigger a chain reaction:
Your subscribers learn that you have a limited-time offer.
They check out your featured products and recognize an item they were looking at long ago but couldn’t afford.
They realize that now is the best time to buy it because the price will never be this low again.
This is a simplified timeline, but, at the core, all last chance campaigns or sale extended emails are similar. They tap into the buyer’s fear of missing out on a great deal and regretting it later. It’s not even manipulation — you just get one step ahead of them and help your audience discover your products on their most favorable terms.
Look at some of the psychological marketing tricks you can use to make your emails more effective.
Design and copy recommendations for last chance emails
It’s no secret that our attention span is decreasing, although it hasn’t dropped to 8 seconds yet, despite what some marketing resources say. However, users do have very little patience and desire to read every single promotional email from top to bottom — there are just too many of them.
But they still enjoy staying on top of things. With the right email design and copy, you can help them achieve exactly that.
Cut to the chase. Don’t talk about your brand or your team — use other types of emails for that. Instead, focus on the “here and now” and explain in a few words how little time there is left to grab your special offer.
Use the boldest headlines you can think of. Your last chance emails should be loud and reflect the scale and importance of your offer. Don’t shy away from a more informal, maybe even cheeky tone to unapologetically grab all the attention.
Put emphasis on scarcity. Add a countdown timer or just mention when exactly your offer expires and how many items are left. After reading your email, your customers should be left with the impression that there will never be another sale like that and they can’t let this lucky opportunity slip through their fingers.
Oversimplify it. Use ultrashort and concise sentences. If you give a promo code, make it easy to copy and don’t hide it under the fold. The same with a CTA button — it should be even more noticeable than usual because you can’t risk it being missed.
Add social proof. It will fuel your users’ FOMO because they will see all those happy customers who have already acted on your offer. Although last day promotion emails aren’t for lengthy testimonials, you can insert short emotional reviews or just show how many purchases have been made in the last 24 hours.
Put your subscribers in a buying mood. Tie your offer to the change of seasons, upcoming holidays, a big event, an emerging trend, or any other cultural or social occasion, and support that connection with images. You’ll create an emotional response and give your users another reason to consider purchasing from you.
Tell them why. Why should they buy your product right now? Why can’t they just think about it and come back later? Show them the price difference or any other benefit that really makes your current offer stand out. Maybe, it’s the last batch, and you won’t be producing it anymore? Mention that too!
Does it sound too abstract? No worries, we’ll give you more examples in just a moment. But first, let’s talk about last chance email subject lines.
Subject lines for last chance emails
Your subject line is the first thing your subscribers see, so it should be practically screaming about your short-lived sale. Use it as a visual hook to catch your users’ eyes. Emoji like or are encouraged — you want to trigger an emotional reaction so you need to sound excited as well.
Your last chance email subject lines need to intrigue and give a hint rather than reveal your whole offer because you want your users to open your email and take a good look at your products. Just emphasize the fleeting nature of your offer by saying how long it will last.
Using all caps in email subject lines isn’t usually recommended, but it may be useful for your last chance emails. People react to all caps automatically. Upper case usually means something important, and that’s the effect we are aiming for. It’s sort of a harmless psychological trick because we are used to seeing all caps being reserved only for urgent messages.