Bronto Blog

There is nothing worse than being excited about doing something and having those plans fall through for some reason or another, especially with little or no notice. This happened to me personally while booking a flight recently. I was half way through the process (choosing my seats actually) and with my next click, I was taken back to the start of my search. The itinerary I was booking was sold out. Luckily, I was able to start again and get a similar flight, but it did change my perception of the airline a bit and made me consider using someone else.

Having a subscriber who would like to participate in your offer is great, but if they open your message a day too late they may see the offer and click through only to find that the product is sold out, or the event is full. This can have a very negative effect on your subscribers, and lessen the trustworthiness of your brand in their eyes.

If you send out time sensitive emails, offers that expire, or marketing messages centered on items with limited quantities, it is important to keep these messages working even after the deadline has passed. I’ve compiled a few simple tips to help keep your messages fresh and relevant.

Tip #1: The old Switch-a-Roo

Here is a quick way to make sure that your subscribers are seeing the most up to date information on time or inventory sensitive messages. If you are using an image to show your product or offer, consider creating two versions of the image. One with the image of the product and another that shows the product as sold out and calls them to click for other great deals.

This is simple to do, and will let subscribers that are late to opening your messages know right away that the product is no longer available. All that is required is replacing the original image with the new one, as long as they have the same file name, new openers will see the new image.

Unfortunately, this will probably not be a good indicator of availability to clients who have already opened the message and waited to purchase, as most email clients store these images in a local cache so they do not have to be downloaded again. These subscribers will see the image that was there when the message was opened initially.

Tip #2: Change up your landing page

If the call to action in your message leads to a landing page or direct purchase page, it is a good idea to keep these relevant as well. Instead of sending your subscribers to a purchase page with only a sold out item, send them to a page that gives them suggestions on other items or offers that they may be interested in.

While your subscribers may be disappointed to see the offer they wanted has expired or sold out, providing them with other options will keep them engaged and wanting to see what comes next.

Tip #3: Keep them in the loop

Let your subscribers know what is coming, keep them informed of upcoming specials and offers that are of interest to them. This is one of the easiest and most effective ways of keeping time sensitive messages fresh – let people know they are coming before they come. This will encourage your subscribers to watch for your upcoming emails and keep them ready to jump on the offers that you are sending.

So there you have it, a few simple, very effective tips for keeping your time-limited messages fresh, relevant and effective. If you have any other tips and tricks that you’ve successfully implemented, please share them in the comments.

Lucas Weber
Support Associate at Bronto