Best Deadline Reminder Emails: Examples Included

Introduction to Deadline Reminder Emails

Deadline reminder emails are the bedrock of email marketing.

They could make the difference between a sold-out product launch and having a complete flop of a product or event.

Deadline reminder emails need to do a lot with few words.

They need to:

• Remind people to check out your product or event

• Sell them

• Add a sense of urgency and FOMO

So, what’s the role of these emails?

The Role of Deadline Reminder Emails

The role of a deadline reminder email is to effectively remind people about an upcoming product launch or an event.

People should receive these emails if they have expressed some interest in your products. 

Otherwise, your deadline reminder emails won’t be effective.

These emails should rely on human psychology to influence people to buy from you.

With deadline reminder emails, you tap into three major drivers of human behavior:

1. FOMO (Fear of missing out)

2. Scarcity (There are limited amounts of seats/inventory)

3. Urgency (You need to take action before the deadline)

As an email marketer, your goal should be to use all three to increase sales without being too “salesy.”

Key Elements of a Deadline Reminder Email

For a deadline reminder email to be effective, it must use human psychology to its benefit.

But you need to remember to avoid triggering the email spam filters.

Adding words like “Urgent”; “Take Action Now”; “Action Required” in all caps is a surefire way to get in the spam box.

Now that we covered some of the don’ts of deadline reminder emails, let’s talk about the dos.

Clear Subject Line

In email marketing, clarity is power.

This is especially true for your subject lines.

Your subject line has to be clear and concise while piquing the interest of your readers so that they are enticed to open the email.

Here are a few examples of clear and concise subject lines:

• You only have 24 hours left…

• There are only 20 tickets left…

• Reminder: Your Meeting with John is in 24 hours

These types of subject lines work very well for deadline reminder emails.

It’s even better if you include more personalization by adding a person’s first name if you have access to it.

If you’re running a new product launch or an event, make sure you A/B test your subject lines before the big launch.

You want to have your best subject lines ready.

Deadline Details

The most important part of the deadline reminder emails are… you guessed it, the deadline details.

It’s the section that matters the most and can make or break your reminder sequence.

In that section, you’ll need to provide the following details:

• How much time remains until the deadline ends?

• What your readers are missing by not taking action.

• If there are any incentives for them to take action now (introducing scarcity).

You need to be concise and precise when you’re sharing these details so you can take advantage of tools like:

• Countdown timers.

• Calendar invites.

• Visual timelines.

Polite Tone

Using deadline reminder emails is important, but doing them right is even more important.

So here comes the question - “How do you politely write a deadline reminder email?”

You want to encourage and nudge people into taking action with your deadline reminder emails, not make them feel stupid or, even worse; like they are “being sold to.”

You want to be respectful and grateful in your tone.

This is especially true if you have multiple reminder emails set up.

Following up is necessary if you’re doing an event or a product launch, so make sure your tone is polite across all your emails to keep your relationship with your readers strong.

How to Write a Deadline Reminder Email

It’s writing time.

Deadline reminder emails are one of the most important emails you’ll ever create, so you don’t want them to feel like an afterthought.

They are more than just a notification alert.

Why Trust Me: Tanyo runs an email marketing agency focused on the finance industry. He helps his clients get higher engagement and more sales from their email lists. Tanyo also writes a newsletter on beehiiv called One Story Friday.

Starting the Email

You want to greet your readers in the first line and infuse a little bit of personalization if you can.

Here are a few examples:

• Hey [First Name],

• Hello [First Name],

• Dear [First Name],

You want to play around with those to make sure they align with your brand’s tone of voice.

After that, answer the question all people have when reading emails - what is this about?

You want to give context about what you’re reminding them of and why that’s relevant.

You need to do that in 1-2 sentences and go to the next point…

Detailing the Deadline

This is the bread and butter of the email, so if you can include some powerful visualizations, such as a countdown timer, you should do that.

That’s because you need to communicate a lot with your deadline email, and using visualizations is one of the best ways to do that.

Remember, an image is worth 1000 words.

After that, you should clearly state the deadline, for example, “Friday, July 28, 2023, at 09:00 AM EST.”

As you can see, it’s important to include the timezone so there isn’t any confusion about it.

After you’ve done that, you need to take care of a couple of things:

1. Introduce some urgency

Answer the question - why is this deadline so important that I can’t miss it?

2. Add FOMO

Make it crystal clear what your readers will miss out on if they don’t act now.

Then, add the call-to-action, which would be a big, easy-to-see, clickable button that they need to press to buy from you.

Closing the Email

If you plan to follow up on this reminder, you can simply say that to the readers.

“If you’re not interested in this (Product/event), please click here (Link for them to unsubscribe from your reminder emails), and we won’t contact you about this anymore.”

Then, thank them for taking the time to read your email and send them your regards.

Something like: “Thank you for reading, [First Name]” would be best.

Deadline Reminder Email Sample

In this section, we will answer two questions:

1. How do you remind someone they missed a deadline?

2. How do I send a reminder without being pushy?

We will include examples for every case.

Let’s get started.

Sample Email for Deadline Reminder

This example will show you how to email someone if they have missed a deadline.

With these types of emails, you need to be extremely professional and give them the benefit of the doubt.

You don’t want to accuse them of being lazy or something else without understanding why they missed the deadline.

Here’s an example:

Subject line: What happened with [Project Name]?

Hey [Recipient's Name],

Is everything okay?

I noticed that the deadline for [Project name] was missed.

I wanted to know if there’s a reason for that.

Please let me know.

Looking forward to your response!

Be well,

[Your Name]

Project Deadline Reminder Email Sample 

If you have a lot of employees or contractors, deadline reminders are essential for good project management.

That’s especially true if you offer remote work.

Here’s an example of a good project deadline reminder email:

Subject line: You have 24 Hours to Complete [Project/Task Name]!

Hey [First Name],

We just wanted to let you know that you have 24 hours to complete [Project/task name].

This is an important project/task for us, so could you provide us with a quick update on your progress?

Let me know if you have any questions or if you need more time.

Appreciate you,

[Your Name]

Submission Deadline Reminder Email Sample

This type of email is important if you’re running a blog or a media company and are accepting submissions for articles.

You want to add a sense of urgency to this one.

Here’s an example:

Subject line: You have X (Number of Hours/Days) to Submit Your [Project/Task Name]

Hey [First Name],

The deadline for submitting your work for [Article/task/project] is approaching fast.

The due date is on [Deadline Date], so you only have [Remaining hours/days] to complete this.

It’s critical that you complete this project on time to ensure you don’t miss the deadline for publication.

Please let us know if you have any questions or if you need help with your piece.

Be well,

[Your Name]

Best Practices for Sending Deadline Reminder Emails

There are a few best practices for sending deadline reminder emails we will cover next.

Here we go…

Timing of the Reminder

Your deadline reminder emails need to be sent when the likelihood of them being read is high.

Always take into account your reader’s time zone.

Depending on the context, you will want to have between 3-5 deadline reminder emails.

Let’s go over each one.

Reminder #1: Send this email 5-7 days before the deadline just as a quick reminder.

Reminder #2: Send this one 3-4 days before the deadline ends.

Reminder #3: Send this one 1 day before the deadline, increasing the sense of urgency.

Reminder #4: Send this one 16 hours before the deadline, adding a sense of FOMO as well as more urgency.

Reminder #5: Send the last reminder 12 hours before the deadline, adding as much FOMO and urgency as you can while being respectful and polite.

Frequency of Reminders

This entirely depends on the scope of work and project.

It is a delicate balance between over-communicating and under-communicating, with the latter being more detrimental than the former.

With overcommunication, you can become annoying for some, but you’ll end up being more productive and having more sales.

When being uncommunicative, you end up missing key deadlines for projects and sales. The best thing you can do is know your audience and their preferences so you can nail that perfect balance.

Use of Tools and Software

If you wanted to write, edit, and schedule deadline reminder emails 10 years ago, you would need a bunch of tools.

Nowadays, you only need beehiiv.

We have all the necessary automation you need to create, edit, and schedule your deadline reminder emails.

Write, Edit, and Send Your Deadline Reminder Emails Now

With the examples (and information) we provided, you’re now more than ready to create and send your first deadline reminder emails.

There’s only one thing left to do - sign up for beehiiv today, and start using our beautiful editor and automation tools to get more from your reminder emails.