• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Logo of The Circuit Sales System

The Circuit Sales System

  • Home
  • Podcast
    • Latest Episodes
    • Entrepreneur Stories
  • Blog
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Press
  • Reviews
    • Reviews
    • CSS Video Testimonials
    • Student Wins
  • Resources
  • Course Sign In
  • Show Search
Hide Search
Planner on a desk with a pink sticky note that reads "Deadline" underlined. Surrounding the planner is a keyboard, clock and magnifying glass

Fake Deadlines Are Damaging Your Brand—and Sales

Giving your customers deadlines is a must to get them to take action. Letting customers buy whenever they want often leads to lower sales. As humans, we’re good at delaying taking the actions we need to take—even if they stand to benefit us.

But while using deadlines is a savvy marketing tactic, too often marketers use fake deadlines. As in, “you have to purchase by X date”…but then the customer doesn’t purchase and there’s no consequence. They can still actually purchase.

Using fake deadlines in your evergreen funnel are likely causing major damage to your brand then they are benefiting your sales. Here’s why.

What Is a Countdown Timer?

A countdown timer shows how many days, hours, and/or minutes a user has to take an action. You may see these within emails, landing pages, sales pages, and more. The idea is, within your evergreen funnel, every user has their own personalized deadline. This urgency is designed to increase conversions by getting users to take action because they can’t just buy whenever they want.

Our team is a fan of Deadline Funnel, but it’s just one of many options, like ClickFunnels.

The issue isn’t the countdown timer itself. It’s how marketers are using countdown timers that becomes extremely problematic.

Banner with words "Sell (and Scale!) your course or program on autopilot, every single day - get the free training"

Are Countdown Timers Effective?

Countdown timers are effective…if you’re setting a real deadline.

A lot of course or program creators will use fake deadlines. For example:

  • Every time you visit a page, the countdown clock has the same amount of time on it or
  • The page stays live and available even after the countdown has ended or
  • The price is supposed to go up after a certain time but the page doesn’t reflect that

When you do that, when you set a fake deadline, it erodes trust with potential clients. Potential clients are then trained: they don’t have to pay attention to deadlines and that the business owner doesn’t mean it.

It’s a disingenuous tactic and starts the relationship on a bad foot, not to mention establishes a crummy precedent for the company.

Create Trust With Your Customers

If you want to use deadline funnels to create urgency, that’s great. But you need to use real deadlines. Not some fake deadline that your customers can see right through.

This, of course, may mean you need to change up your countdown marketing strategy.

Learn more about how you can give your customers the right offer, at the right time, in the right way >>

Watch More

CSS student Krista knows just how much fake deadlines can damage your integrity. In this episode of the Energize Your Online Business podcast, we learn more about her story and how she managed to turn things around and regain her audience’s trust.

Your Turn!

Are countdown timers effective in your marketing? Why or why not? Tell us in the comments below!

Note: This page contains an affiliate link.

Written by:
Allie Bjerk
Published on:
December 15, 2022

Categories: EvergreenTags: marketing tactics, revenue

Primary Sidebar

Latest Posts

Ep. 58: 5 easy sales page tests to run for some major wins

TUNE IN: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Stitcher Looking for closed captioning or a …

Continue Reading about Ep. 58: 5 easy sales page tests to run for some major wins

Ep. 57: Generating Extra Income to Focus on High-Ticket, One-on-One Coaching – Nicola’s Story

TUNE IN: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Stitcher Like many entrepreneurs, Nicola has some pretty big, …

Continue Reading about Ep. 57: Generating Extra Income to Focus on High-Ticket, One-on-One Coaching – Nicola’s Story

Jess Keating headshot

Ep 56: Show Me the Money—But Keep the Stress with Jess Keating

TUNE IN: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Stitcher Killer offer. ✅ Tried-and-true …

Continue Reading about Ep 56: Show Me the Money—But Keep the Stress with Jess Keating

Top Resources

  • Why Live Product Launching is a Financial Gamble
  • What is an Evergreen Offer? And Why Don't They Sell?
  • Why Tactics That Work for Digital Marketing Masters Won't Work for You
  • Switching from Live Online Course Launching to Selling on Autopilot
  • Why Your Course Needs an Automated Sales Process
  • Fakes Deadlines Are Damaging Your Brand—and Sales
  • Teaching Doesn't Get People to Buy—Here's What Does
  • Price is Rarely the Real Reason People Won't Buy
  • The Secret to Sales Pages That Convert
  • How to Add 5-Day Challenges That Actually Convert
an orange color bulb icon, large size

Footer

Circuit Sales System

Copyright © 2025 · Circuit Sales System

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • FAQs
  • Contact Us
Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}