Scarcity Marketing Mistakes And Tips
Scarcity marketing is considered a big, bad and evil sales technique. To be honest, with the way most guys run scarcity marketing tactics, it pretty much is a stupid sales technique.
But it doesn’t have to be.
A Simple Scarcity Marketing Definition
Scarcity Marketing tends to refer to using sales techniques that make your customer think there’s a limited supply. This mostly boils down to three things:
- There are only a limited amount of copies/products left
- The product will only be on sale for a limited amount of time
- The price is about to increase/It’s a limited time sale
You’ll have seen these everywhere from your local grocery store through to the doom-and-gloom financial guys who tell you the dollar is going to collapse next Tuesday.
So that’s your brief scarcity marketing definition.
Now, scarcity marketing comes in many forms and with many variations; countdown timers and the like through to Black Friday sales. The reason scarcity marketing is so pervasive is because it works.
Except for internet guru schemes, that is.
When most people think of scarcity marketing, they think, “Oh no it’s those big red banners. I’ll never fall for it!”
Plenty of online marketing guys get scarcity totally wrong. They think that the big red countdown and the “We’ve only got 5 copies left” is all they need to do.
They’re making a big mistake, and it’s pretty obvious when you think about it.
Scarcity In Marketing Needs To Be Real
I’ve been working on a project in the offshore business field. There are some sketchy guys and some pretty high quality guys like any other niche.
I found a guy with a slick internet presence. When I say that, I mean his funnels were set up well. His SEO was off the charts. As an example, one of his blog posts ranked for over nine hundred keywords. His home page split readers into the various camps and he said he only worked with a handful of people and you had to apply.
Well…
What should have been a perfect example of scarcity in marketing was ruined. I “applied” for his service, jumping headfirst into the funnel. I put in a fake name. (Bob Bobson.) Then I put in an obvious throwaway email. Then I waited.
Sure enough, I get an email through telling me that I passed the test and I was lucky to work with this guy. All I needed to do was wire $7000 through the payment gateway and we’d get a customised plan for me to start my offshore business empire.
This is a perfect example of scarcity in marketing making you look like an idiot. If you are going to say, “Thousands of people message me and you’re one of the select few” then that has to be true.
You can’t just say, “We’re running out of ebooks” and expect people to believe you.
If you’re going to use scarcity in marketing, then you have to use it wisely and authentically.
As Such, To Market Scarcity Involves Planning
Most of us can use scarcity to market things perfectly authentically. I can only work with a limited amount of clients – and nowadays I have to turn some people down.
Well, I don’t have to and I could work with a hundred clients at a time, but my work would be awful, and I’d be stressed, ill and my life would suffer too.
You see how we’re starting to build a bit of scarcity without resorting to banner countdowns?
Freelancers can only reasonably take on a limited amount of clients, and once you have a stable of clients, the amount of new clients you can take on is smaller. Ergo, there are limited places and if you want to sign up, then you have to be quick.
If you want to do the same with products, then remember:
- You have a limited amount of product
- You can add bonuses which are time-sensitive or attention sensitive
The important thing here is that to market scarcity well it needs to be real and you need to plan it into your business.
To go back to the example I saw above; if that guy is selling one-to-one, $7000 consultations then he needs to keep that open only to a select few people. There’s no point in blasting an exclusive offer to a mailing list full of people that have never displayed any interest in your offerings outside of giving their email.
The treatment for this is easy: filter your email funnels.
If you’re selling a $7000 consultation, then that should only go to people you know are willing and able to pay. Note: 99% of people are not in that bracket and never would be. That doesn’t matter. Filter them out and sell them something else (or don’t bother.)
Marketing Scarcity As Part Of Your Offer
Marketing scarcity can only work when it’s part of your offer.
If you have a limited service, then great; marketing with scarcity principles will work and you just have to point out the fact that you’re running a limited service. Like with all copywriting, you can emphasise and artistically put these things:
“I only work twenty hours a week” can become “Due to my strict schedule and other commitments, I’m limiting myself to just two or maybe three clients at most and I don’t know when other slots are going to be available.”
But ultimately, the more real your scarcity marketing is, the better.
And the second point as far as marketing scarcity goes is that you need to stick to your guns and actually make it limited. That also means limiting the people that see it.
By giving everyone access to your product or service, you’re making an unlimited offer. Only people who jump through hoops and work for your product should be allowed access. This will increase conversions and decrease the amount of people who think you’re a joke or scammer.
Finally, because I haven’t addressed this (though it goes without saying) if you’re going to use scarcity marketing, make sure you have the technological capability to do it.
Everyone laughs at the guys who have a countdown timer that goes back up when you refresh the page. Don’t be them. But on a more serious note, don’t be the person that runs a limited time offer that doesn’t work and means you have to either 1) accept late entrants or 2) refund a whole bunch of people.