Hey Reader,

I kid you not, I once saw someone say, “Grab one of the only 3 eBooks remaining — when they’re gone, they’re gone.”

It made me wonder where do pixels, bits, and bytes go when they’re “gone-gone”. But, more importantly, does anyone fall for this fake urgency crap?

Sure, the author offered some tortured explanation about the eBook being in limited supply because he wanted to give ME (and two other lucky people) an edge. And edges get dull if everyone has them, right?

This is manufactured urgency at its cringiest.

I bet you’ve seen the classics too:

• “Cart closes at midnight.”
• “Only 5 seats left!”
• “Act now or miss out forever.”

These tactics are like ketchup: not inherently evil and occasionally quite enhancing. But if you use them to mask bad taste (read: a bad product), you’re basically pouring Heinz on burnt steak and praying nobody notices the char.

I'll tell you all about building better urgency in a second, right after a quick message from today's partner, who's generously offering a free resource to help you thrive on LinkedIn without having to join a pod.

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Manufactured urgency can serve…sometimes

TL;DR: it only works when it’s real.

There are only so many clients you can take on before your calendar explodes. Only so many physical products you can ship. Only so many people you can reasonably coach at once.

Real constraints = real urgency.

It works very well in marketing, I’m not going to lie. Even a “cart closes at midnight” reminder helps people buy things they actually need, especially those who tend to procrastinate on purchases.

A few examples of manufactured urgency that make sense:

1. Coaching program with limited capacity:
   ​“I work with 5 founders per quarter. Once those spots are filled, I can’t add more without compromising the results.”
   → That’s capacity, not fake scacity.
2. Workshop with a looming deadline:
   ​“The live session starts Friday. If you don’t register before then, you’ll miss the chance to ask your questions in real time.”
   → Urgency tied to time and grounded in the actual event.
3. Software upgrade with real consequences:
   ​“On October 1st, we’re sunsetting the old plan. If you don’t switch, your automations will stop running.”
   → Stakes + timeline. That’s urgency that forces a decision.
   ​

Real urgency is rarely loud. It shows up as quiet panic. Your job is to give it a microphone.

Urgency (manufactured or real) works because our brains are wired to avoid loss and maximize gains.

The psychology behind urgency

• Scarcity increases perceived value. “If there are only 3 spots left, it means that others already jumped on this because it’s valuable.”
• ​Loss aversion makes people care more about avoiding a missed opportunity than gaining a new one. “If the cart closes at midnight, I will never get a chance to buy this again.”
• Scarcity cues can literally make people rate products as more attractive, even when the scarcity is artificial. “I don’t want mass-market clothes that everyone’s wearing. My unique clothes act as a status symbol.” However, amped up scarcity tactics can make buyers aggressive because they see other buyers as competition.

So yeah, urgency works, and you shouldn’t stop using it.

But the moment you claim “limited eBooks,” you’re not building urgency—you’re auditioning for the role of Village Idiot in the Marketing Hunger Games.

Let’s see how to do urgency right.

Two types of urgency: external and internal

External urgency is usually manufactured by the seller, like in the examples above.

• YOU chose when to close the cart.
• YOU chose how long the discount is available for.
• YOU chose how many coaching seats to open up.

The buyer has no choice but to comply with your restrictions.

But buyers also need to do something else: reconcile the external pressure with the internal urgency they feel.

Here’s what internal urgency looks like in practice:

• THEY are already anxious about running out of time.
• THEY are already buried in tasks.
• THEY feel like their work amounts to nothing.
• THEY are already worried the duct tape holding everything together will snap.

Internal urgency, the kind that matters, doesn’t come from your sales page. It comes from your audience’s lived experience.

When you speak to that pressure—when your offer becomes the relief valve—you don’t need blinking timers. They’ll move because they feel the squeeze, not because you shouted “last chance.”

How to find the right urgency

Finding the kind of urgency that keeps people up at night is detective work.

1. Listen for their language

Don’t settle for “pain points” written on a whiteboard. Look at the exact words people use: in support tickets, DMs, Reddit rants, Slack complaints. The urgency is in the adjectives: “exhausted,” “falling behind,” “about to quit.” Those are the signals you are looking for.

Those are also the exact words you should be using in your copy.

[A quick primer for audience mirroring.]

2. Watch behavior, not declarations

People say they “want” lots of things. Watch what they put off instead. Procrastination is stress they don’t know how to resolve. Scrambling is stress they can’t control.

Look where they’re burning energy, not where they’re nodding politely.

For instance, they may tell you that they need a bigger audience on LinkedIn, but what they really want is the revenue they expect that audience to generate.

3. Map the stakes

Ask the uncomfortable question: what happens if nothing changes? If the answer is “meh, nothing really,” then you don’t have urgency. But if the answer is “my business breaks, my best employee leaves, my credibility tanks,” now you’re staring at real stakes.

PSA: if you get the “meh” answer very frequently, your offer might be the issue. It might simply be something people don’t feel like they need. Check out the Demand-o-Meter (you’ll find a link to the custom GPT inside this article) if you suspect that might be the case.

4. Trace the timeline

Urgency has a half-life. If the problem feels like a vague “someday,” people hit snooze. If it feels like a ticking clock—“my client’s threatening to cancel next week”—it’s radioactive. Your job is to identify where they are on that decay curve.

5. Look for the hidden enemy

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​Sometimes urgency isn’t about what they want to achieve, but what they’re desperate to escape. Bureaucracy. Burnout. Bad bosses. Frame your offer as the escape hatch, and you’ve found urgency they’ll act on.

6. Connect the micro to the macro

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​A single problem (“my email list isn’t growing”) is rarely urgent in isolation. But tie it to the bigger consequence (“if my list stagnates, my launch flops, and I can’t quit my job”), and suddenly you’ve got the real thing they fear/want.

✋ Limitations

Urgency isn’t a silver bullet. Sure, it might help you sell a bit more, but if people don’t genuinely need what you’re selling, a countdown timer won’t change their minds.

A few more use cases when urgency is useless:

1. Some procrastinators won’t respond to it

Some people live in perpetual chaos and still won’t buy. They’re professional procrastinators. Research shows about 20% of adults chronically procrastinate, no matter how high the stakes. In other words, you can lead a horse to urgency, but you can’t make it check out.

2. Fear appeals can freeze people

Push too hard on “do this or else” and you don’t get conversions—you get paralysis. Fear works only if you also offer a believable, doable solution. Without it, people shut down.

3. Scarcity fatigue is real

If everything is “last chance,” nothing is. Over time, audiences learn your urgency is fake, and trust erodes fast. Plus, too much appeal to scarcity angers your buyers.

Urgency without the sleaze

Urgency works best when it reflects your buyers’ reality, not when it tries to overwrite it.

If you want sustainable, consistent sales, stop inventing pressure. Find it where it already exists in your audience’s daily life, and frame your offer as the cleanest release valve.

Remember: there’s a limit to how much you can agitate the pain and infuse urgency in your marketing copy — “buy this today unless you want to die poor tomorrow” is manipulation, not marketing.

Need help making this work in your content?

Inside The Profitable Content Engine, I show you how to consistently create content that taps into urgency and tension that actually exists—without resorting to fake scarcity or gimmicks.

Plus, Covertly Lab, my custom GPT people rave about, will make sure that all your content is tied to existing customer pain points. So that you tap into internal urgency with ease, not sleaze.

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​Get instant access!​

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🔦 Community Spotlight

This entire newsletter issue has been inspired by my friend Prerna Malik's LinkedIn post. And it’s not the first time she’s been an inspiration to me.

Her Skeptic Buyer Bot is another example. Imagine if you could know exactly how your most skeptical, been-burned-before buyer would respond to your copy.

Well, that's exactly the problem Prerna's Skeptic Buyer Bot solves for you — and it's FREE.

With just the click of a button, this wildly popular, behavior science-based bot reads your sales pages, emails, and ads through the eyes of your most cautious prospects.

​Grab it here!​

When you own your story, people pay attention. A Good Reputation is one of my favorite newsletters and your weekly dose of brand-building advice rooted in storytelling, strategy, and self-awareness.

Each week, Renee shares an idea or framework to help you clarify your message, connect with your audience, and (most importantly) connect with yourself to create content that actually resonates.

​Subscribe for free here, thank me later!

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👀 ICYMI

I've been building a lot of stuff and talking in a lot of places recently. In case you missed some of them, here they are:

🤖 FunnelBro 3000 🚀 is my custom GPT that roasts bro marketing and tells you the psychology behind their manipulation. From ascension funnels to cult-like marketing, it's got it all — and it's free, unlike the $997 masterminds you see everywhere. Try it out if you're looking for a good laugh. ​

🤖 Demand-o-Meter is a more serious GPT, designed to tell you if your product idea has a chance to meet your revenue goals. Just tell it what you want to do and it will tell you if you should go, pivot, or hold. Access it here.

🎙️ I'm hosting a free workshop with my friend Bianca B. King next week. We'll chat about newsletter growth and Bianca's proprietary Mirror Method that teaches you how to transform your lived experiences into stories that sell without feeling salesy. It's happening on Sep 11 — reserve your free seat here.

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That's it from me today! See you next week in your inbox. Here to make you think, Adriana ​

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