As last-minute holiday shopping reaches its peak, it gets harder for your emails to grab the attention of customers. With Christmas just days away, panic takes hold of shoppers and it becomes difficult for them to focus on every offer that reaches their inbox. That means it is time to up your email marketing game.

One of the best ways to cut through the clutter of holiday inboxes, boost opens, and drive sales is by using “Last Chance” email subject lines. These are subject lines that emphasize the short-term nature of an offer and provoke a sense of fear of missing out.

Here are three ways you can adapt your subject line tactics to grab your share of last-minute holiday sales.

1. Promote FOMO

Fear Of Missing Out or FOMO is a powerful motivator for consumers and a great way to capture and direct their attention. Afterall, everyone hates missing an opportunity – especially a great deal. That’s why emails with subject lines that include “Last Chance”, or a similar phrase, are effective at driving opens.

FOMO subject lines typically include something along the lines of the following phrases:

• Last Call

• Final Call

• Almost Over

• Don’t Miss Out

• Get It or Regret It

Each of these phrases instill FOMO without explicitly indicating how long remains before an offer expires. Adding a time element to your subject line can enhance its sense of urgency and take it to the next level.

2. Use Timing to Create Urgency

One of the best ways to create a sense of urgency in emails used to be the countdown timer. But with the advent of iOS 15 and its enhanced privacy features, using countdown timers became problematic. Fortunately, subject lines are a great way to make your email time sensitive. 

Using your subject line to state how much time is left in your offer makes it clear to consumers that a money-saving deal is about to slip through their fingers. You can use days or hours to specify the duration of your offer. For example:

• Sale Ends Toda

• Last Day of Our Sale

• Offer Ends Today

• Final Hours

But using hours implies a narrower time frame, so “Sale Ends in 48 Hours” is likely to perform better than “Sale Ends In 2 Days”. Whether you opt for hours or days, including a time element in your subject line is a great way to build urgency and increase FOMO.

3. Use Low Inventory to Prompt Action

Like timing, inventory or lack thereof play a role in your FOMO tactics. A subject line that indicates inventory of a popular item is either low or about to run out can be very effective at moving consumers to act. Especially if your marketing automation allows you to personalize the product offer based on your customer’s browsing of your website or abandoned cart items.

Examples of using inventory in subject lines include:

• Don’t Wait! They’re Almost Gone

• Hurry up, Almost Out of Stock

• Low Inventory, Get Them Before They’re Gone

• Get Your Deal Before It’s Too Late

Combining inventory and timing can be even more effective:

• It’ll Be Gone Tomorrow

• Get Yours Today Before It’s Out of Stock

As the holiday season comes to its conclusion, getting customers to open your Last Chance emails can mean the difference between hitting or missing your annual sales goals. Try the tips included in this article and get inspiration from some our subject line examples to close out your holiday campaign on a high note.