I was perusing my email the other day and noticed that there was an offer from Great Wolf Lodge. If you don’t know, Great Wolf is a chain of indoor water parks attached to a hotel. My family, especially the kids, love it.
We have spent the last few of my daughters birthdays there. And while it is not inexpensive, it is easier for sanity reasons to celebrate a birthday there instead of at the house with a screaming group of children. I prefer the screaming kids are not in the property where I live and work.
Anyway, back to the email. The email in big letters read “Limited Time: Book Now and Save!!”. You have probably gotten emails that are very similar to this from other companies. The kicker was in the next line Limited Availability!
So even though we recently went to GW, I am now considering it.
So what were the goals of the marketer?
Number one was for me to see the email.
Number two was to get me to read the email.
Number three was for me to consider going.
Number four was to get me to book a stay.
They accomplished pretty much all of them with the idea of scarcity. I know what Great Wolf Lodge is. I know that my family enjoys it, so I am already sold on the notion. However, instead of just going a couple of times a year now, they have me thinking about increasing my spend by 50% WITH JUST ONE EMAIL!
How powerful is that?
You have probably heard of the idea of scarcity. We want what we can’t have or what only a few have access to.
Sometimes simply because it is a challenge.
One of our oldest blogs is entitled “The Velvet Rope,” it is basically about scarcity and combined with status. We want to be the ones in the VIP lounge, right? There are only a few seats there, and those people have “status”. We want to attain that for ourselves.
So how can you use the idea of scarcity in your business? Well if you sell a product or offer a service, you can do what G.W. did in this email. You can provide a discount tied to a time period. Or you can offer limited amounts of coupons for the deal.
Or offer both for an even more compelling offer.
Now let’s say you don’t necessarily want to give a discount. Perhaps you can offer a limited amount of seats at your next webinar. Or a limited time offer on a white paper that you plan to charge for in the future.
If you have a subscription base, you can offer a limited time for free, perhaps the first month.
The key is to build an offer that triggers FOMO, Fear Of Missing Out and scarcity and even status. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to book a trip to the water park.
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