| I hope this isn’t something you’ve ever fallen victim to. But, then again, since it’s pretty common in less-than-scrupulous circles of internet marketing gurus, you might have.
It goes like this.
The “guru” promises you an exclusive mastermind access, only 10 people (or some other small number like that). You join, and you eagerly wait for the first mastermind session to start. When the day finally comes, and you join the Zoom call (or whatever platform they’re using), you’re greeted by no less than 50 people.
Turns out the guru has lied…
… and instead of just selling 10 spots, they sold as much as they could.
People often spend 5 figures on scams like this - hoping to be just one of 10 people who get access to the guru.
Let’s look at another scenario.
Let’s say there’s a huge launch and the seller announces, with a lot of fanfare, that “3 days from now, at noon, the cart will close forever!”
You go to their landing page at 3 pm the next day and what do you know… you can still get in.
Another example of fake scarcity is having only “X copies of a PDF left.” Which normally doesn’t sound too believable. Sure, there are ways around it - one example would be saying “Since the information contained in my product is super powerful and effective, I’m only selling it to X people, that’s it. I don’t want to dilute its power by selling it to everybody.” However, generally “just X copies of my exclusive PDF left” doesn’t sound too believable on its own.
Now, let’s look at the bigger picture here.
What do all of these have in common?
They’re all scarcity plays. Scarcity is a powerful motivator - the less there is of a thing, the more that thing is worth, right?
Here’s what I want you to know about scarcity.
It only works when it’s believable.
And a big part of it is that your audience needs to be 100% convinced that once the deadline comes, or the number of people you’ve said you’ll allow in, are in, they won’t be able to buy anymore.
In other words, they need to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you’re going to stick to your guns.
It may take a while to establish that sort of reputation. (And if you’re an affiliate marketer, it’s even harder. You need to make sure you only promote products where the creators stick to their word regarding deadlines!)
But once you do, you’ll see a steady conversion increase whenever you decide to deploy real scarcity.
Your reason for it also needs to be believable. And more often than not, it’s not that hard to come up with one… just takes a bit of practice - and honesty!
(And trust me - if you spend a little time coming up with any reason for your scarcity, you’re going to be miles ahead of most marketers who don’t even have a reason at all!)
Here are a couple of examples of believable scarcity to get you started.
- - “Since the information contained in my product is super powerful, it’s an advantage I don’t want everybody on the planet to have. I only want people who take action to possess this kind of power. Which is why I’m limiting access to 10 people on a first-come, first-served basis.”
- - “The moment the deadline for this product hits at noon 3 days from now, my team will get to work onboarding all the new members. Which is why we won’t be able to accept any late entries.”
- - “Since the perfect size for a mastermind, in my experience, is under 7 people, that’s the number we’re accepting, no more no less.”
And so on.
Remember these things and you’re going to be so far ahead of most marketers, it’s not even funny.
To Your Success, Paul Hanson
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