This launch tactic nearly doubled our sales in ONE day
I don't know why more people don't do this
Most email launches are like an U:
You have a big spike of sales on the first day.
Another big spike of sales on the last day.
And then, all the other days in between are pretty flat.
Luckily, there’s a way to combat this (while also maximizing your launch’s revenue):
The Halfway Expiring Bonus Tactic
Halfway through your launch, roll out a surprise expiring bonus for everyone who buys your thing before the end of that day (and yes, everyone who’s joined already also gets it automatically).
Here’s why this works so well:
It creates urgency (in an ethical way) - of course you need to keep your word and make sure only people who bought within the deadline get access to the bonus.
It doesn’t require a ton of extra work from a delivery perspective - if you’re smart about it, you can leverage something you’d already created or do something that’s relatively low-lift but high-value (a bonus Q&A session, for example).
People who’d already bought feel rewarded - just make sure to proactively communicate this to folks who’d already pulled the trigger so you don’t get inundated with emails asking whether they also get it or not.
How to pull it off
Now, there are 3 things you need to really nail in order for this tactic to be effective:
This expiring bonus NEEDS to be the core message of your launch email(s) for the day. Otherwise, people won’t know about it and you won’t create any urgency at all for them to take action.
You want to save this for Day 3-4 of your launch. That way, people have enough time to familiarize themselves with the offer and decide whether they’re interested in buying your thing (if they aren’t interested in the first place, it’s unlikely your bonus persuades them to buy).
The bonus should be tightly aligned with the offer. I should make your main offer feel more valuable and compelling (rather than create a net new purchasing decision, which ultimately has the opposite effect).
Example
A few weeks ago, my friend Matthew and I launched a new offer called Stack 30 - a 30-day Substack note-publishing challenge.
Now the first two days we had a decent number of cells but nothing crazy
Day one we sold ~25.
Day two, ~40.
On day 3, though, we announced a surprise expiring bonus - a live workshop, free to anyone who bought before the end of the day.
And as a result, we jumped from 40 to around 80 sales in a single day.
One final tip: don’t pre-announce your expiring bonus at the beginning of the launch.
The surprise factor is what makes it feel like a flash sale and creates a lot of the urgency.
The Prompt
Now, as usual, I’ve put together an AI prompt to help you put this tactic into practice without starting from scratch.
This specific prompt will help you brainstorm a personalized Halfway Expiring Bonus idea for your next launch:
