Scarcity: 6 ways to make people wanna buy
1 Marketing Lesson
What’s good?!
Two days ago I told you I’m launching a new product for the first time in a long time.
And I’m using the opportunity to give you a peek behind the curtains.
So far, we’ve covered market research:
And yesterday, we talked about pricing and product suites:
Today, we’re talking about scarcity.
As you know, scarcity is a powerful psychological technique in order to influence customers:
See also:
Human beings, due to the status quo bias, prefer not to take action (Samuelson & Zeckhauser, 1988).
“Most real decisions, unlike those of economics texts, have a status quo alternative– that is, doing nothing or maintaining one’s current or previous decision. A series of decision-making experiments shows that individuals disproportionately stick with the status quo.”
So you’ll need to figure out a way to help people help themselves.
Here are 6 ways to motivate people to buy now:
Limited-time offers: Create time-limited promotions or discounts to encourage customers to make a purchase quickly. For example, "20% off. Offer ends today!"
Limited quantity: Highlight when a product or service is available in limited quantities. This can create a fear of missing out (FOMO) and motivate customers to buy. For instance, "Only 10 left in stock! Grab yours before they're gone!"
Exclusive deals: Offer special deals or discounts exclusively to a select group of customers. This can make them feel privileged and more inclined to take advantage of the offer. For example, "This offer is only available to our loyal customers like you. Enjoy 30% off on your next purchase!" ²
Seasonal or event-based scarcity: Tie your product or service to a specific season or event and emphasize its limited availability during that period. For instance, "Get your limited-edition holiday gift set before it's gone for the season!"
Pre-order or limited edition releases: Create buzz and demand by promoting pre-orders or limited edition releases. This strategy works well for products with a strong following or fan base. For example, "Be the first to own the exclusive collector's edition of our new video game by pre-ordering now!"
One-time opportunities: Highlight when a product or service is a one-time opportunity that won't be available again in the future. This can create a sense of urgency and encourage immediate action. For instance, "Don't miss this once-in-a-lifetime chance to attend our exclusive workshop with a renowned expert!"
Which ones am I using for my launch?
So to quickly recap what I’m launching in case you didn’t read the last posts.
I’m building the equivalent of an MMA gym but instead of teaching fighting, you’ll be learning everything you need to know about solopreneurship to make good money and live the life you want.
Instead of constantly shipping new products and selling those, you’re buying a year membership where everything is included. My guides, eBooks, group coaching, 8-week private coaching sprints, offline courses, live courses, and in-person meetings.
In the future, I want to use the limited quantity strategy by capping the number of students I allow in my Solopreneur Gym. Then when someone cancels, a new spot opens up. That’ll encourage people to join quickly before someone else snags that spot.
Staircase / Progressive Pricing
But for now, since my audience isn’t huge, I think a staircase technique (progressive pricing) makes the most sense.
How that works is you sell, for example, 10 eBooks at $10, and then once those are sold out, you jump to the next tier with the next 10 being more expensive.
E.g.
0-9: $10
10-19: $20
20-29: $30
>29: $40
What are the pros and cons of this approach?
Pros:
The pros are that you can utilize the limited quantity strategy even if your audience is small.
In order to say something like: “Only 400 eBooks left,” you need to be able to actually sell 400 eBooks.
That’s not entirely true because that sentence alone can encourage buying behavior, but it’s roughly accurate.
So using the staircase technique, you can actually sell out the tiers.
Cons:
One con is obvious. The people most likely to buy are your best fans. So in essence, you’re giving the highest discount to the people who’d pay the most (and thus need it the least).
I’ve never understood why people view that as a con though. Is the goal to extract as much money as possible?
Not to me.
Revenue is a really good proxy for how well you’re doing in our line of work (similar to # of fights won in MMA or # of NBA Finals won in basketball) but it’s not everything.
I’ve always hated how big brands treat their best customers the worst and strangers the best. Feels like a slap in the face.
So I’ve got zero issues with my biggest fans getting a great deal.
Other people in this space will tell you that you should charge your biggest fans the most. They’re willing to pay more for early access.
This is one of those nuanced situations. No right or wrong here. Depends on your values and what makes sense for your business. It’s not unethical per se to do that, so just think it over.
Pre-Order the Solopreneur Gym Today:
So to wrap up, I’m opening up pre-orders for The Solopreneur Gym.
This link is buried at the end, instead of the beginning, so only my best fans will see it.
If you’re looking to get a great deal, now’s your chance.
The landing page is still ghetto, and over the course of the next few days, I’ll be improving it and teaching you along the way how you can write your own sales page. So you get to see how it’s done in real-time.
However, if you want to get a year membership to Solopreneur Gym at the best price possible, then take advantage of the early bird before it’s sold out.
The price is increasing every tier, so get it today.
Notes
¹ One important note. I got “white belt” students and “black belt” students. The white belts make the mistake of overthinking. They never do anything except procrastinating by learning. As a white belt, YOU DO NOT NEED NUANCE! You need to get off your ass and just chop wood and carry water. Everything works when you’re a white belt.
However, once they implement that success and see results, the lesson they internalize is a bias toward action. That’s good but when you’re a black belt it bites you in the ass. Nuance actually becomes important the more advanced you get.
Take math for example. You start with calculus because it’s good enough. Later in real analysis, you learn the actual underpinnings that allow you to make certain assumptions. Or take MMA, as a beginner you’ll learn how to punch and do takedowns. When you get more advanced you fake takedowns just so you can come in with a punch. So even though that’s a less effective way to punch, it becomes necessary because your opponent is also at such a high level.
Where self-taught people screw up is when they’re learning things online and are studying black belt stuff even though they’re still white belts. This is EXTREMELY typical of the armchair entrepreneur/fighter/basketball player/etc. They “know” everything in theory but in actuality they’ve got 0 skills. Actually, lower than zero because they’ve got all these unproductive habits they need to unlearn now.
² There’s research that shows that discounting to your userbase only moves sales that would’ve happened in the future to the present, so I can already hear the marketing scientists in my audience protesting.
Keep in mind that all this research comes from the same place. Big brands people don’t care about. I.e. unconsidered purchases. When you’re a solopreneur, you’ve got a deeper connection with your audience because you’re in a parasocial relationship with them. So what I’ve seen with my peers, students, and my own audience is that when you lower the price you’re more likely to capture the prospects that have a lower Willingness To Pay.
References
Samuelson, W., & Zeckhauser, R. (1988). Status quo bias in decision making. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 1(1), 7–59. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5152072_Status_Quo_Bias_in_Decision-Making