How Justin Welsh Wins The Game Of Pricing With Psychology & Nudges!

Justin Welsh has made 5.2 million dollars online.

And he has a fairly unique pricing strategy...

In this case study we'll be going over 6 psychological pricing and sales nudges (and some bonuses) that Justin uses to sell his products.

This is not a Growth Nudge Case Study, this is a Conversion Nudge Case Study so the focus here is to earn more (where-as growth case studies the focus is to stand out), so I will not be breaking down any of his growth marketing techniques, and will instead be focused entirely on pricing and sales.

That said, I also want to make sure you know that not all of Justin's 5.2 million dollars comes from his course sales, with a chunk coming from newsletter sponsorships, affiliate sales, and some other small channels.

Justin also has a launch of his new program The Creator MBA coming in just 5 days, and I"ll be touching on a bit of that later on as well (and I'm sure I'll be back to add in some fun nudges once that fully launches as well).

To start off, I want to go over some of Justin's sales nudges, since some of them are likely to be a bit more obvious.

I don't want to focus too much on Justin's launch, because launch tactics can be an entire breakdown in themself, so for this one I'm going to stay focused on the nudges he uses for his LinkedIn OS and Content OS courses that he has had for a couple years now.

Justin has made over a seven figures a year selling these two courses, and I want to discuss some of the nudges he has used to make this happen without needing to open and close them (cohort style).

Justin Welsh Sales Nudges #1: Social Proof

Justin Welsh is the king of Social Proof.

Social proof is a psychological phenomenon where people tend to rely on the actions and opinions of others to make decisions, especially in uncertain situations. 

The social proof nudge in marketing leverages this concept to influence consumer behavior by showcasing evidence that others have chosen a particular product or service.

And Justin Welsh knows just how powerful this is.

His sales pages are FLOODED with testimonials, feedback from other authorities and familiar creators, ratings/reviews, and the amount of students that have accessed the course(s).

It can feel like you have some sections of endless scrolls of reviews and testimonials throughout the page.

*Note: We will be tying this nudge into a few other nudges you see throughout this case study as well (authority and overdelivery) to show how Justin has created a full loop.

Bonus Nudge: Herd Mentality

Closely related to social proof (and having overlap), herd mentality refers to the phenomenon where individuals are influenced by the actions, behaviors, or preferences of a larger group. 

The reason I want to point this one out specifically is because while Justin makes use of testimonials, reviews and authoritative feedback, he also uses social proofing that plays on the herd mentality in other ways as well.

Justin is consistently telling you about the thousands of students that have joined LinkedIn OS as you make your way through the page:

• "Join 30+ LinkedIn Top Voices and 17,000+ students to accelerate the growth of your personal brand on LinkedIn."
• "4.98/5 (from 17,000+ students)

And to top it off, he drives it home with one of the last lines on the page stating:

• "Last week, another 211 new students signed up."

Social Proof is likely the most transparent nudge you'll find on almost all of Justin Welsh's landing pages.

Justin Welsh Sales Nudges #2: Scarcity

Don't worry if you can't see some of the text in the image.

I will be breaking down each one with more depth, and I'll share the sales copy I'm referring to here as well. 

The image is mainly for a point of reference to show where you would be seeing it on the page, or in an email.

There are SO MANY ways to use scarcity, and it's actually a main principle in Richard Cialdini's 7 Principles of Influence from his bestselling book: Influence.

Scarcity is a strategy used to create a sense of urgency and exclusivity among consumers by showing that an item or opportunity is in short supply.

By emphasizing scarcity, we can aim to nudge potential customers to make a decision quickly, as the fear of missing out (FOMO) often drives them to take action.

Here are a few ways Justin Welsh does that (as shown in the images):

1. At the top of Justin's sales pages you'll find a timely discount.

For example, his Twitter OS course currently read:

"Build a Better Content System in 2024 with an Limited-Time 35% Discount on The Content OS."

And yes, the typo exists on his page, and he still sells tons.

His LinkedIn OS course reads:

"Grow Your LinkedIn Audience in 2024 with an Limited-Time 35% Discount on LinkedIn OS."

Again, yes, the small typo exists, but over 200 people still bought last week.

There are a few takeaways here:

1. We're all human. The rest of these nudges and the value Justin provides far outweigh a small typo on "a".
2. Justin's scarcity is REAL. He is consistently changing the discount, so you don't know if it's going up or down and don't want to miss out on it if it does end up going up!
3. This will also overlap with Justin's pricing nudges: transparency and price anchoring.

2. Justin reminds you of this scarcity to push the FOMO effect via email.

If you don't take action on the page and leave the cart without buying Justin sends you an email reminding you of the discount, and the fact that you don't want to miss out.

He even writes: "As a reminder, I'm offering the course for $97 (vs. $150) for a very limited time."

And proceeds to add in some more social proof and herd mentality as well!

3. Justin is using scarcity in his upcoming launch.

As I have mentioned, I don't want to put too much emphasis on launch items, especially considering Justin's insane success with his two courses without running cohort style or opening/closing, but with his launch coming in a few days, I do want to make note of some of the scarcity he is using.

In his breakdown of the Creator MBA pricing (which we'll discuss more in transparency below), he writes this about each package:

1. "The baseline “Do It Yourself” package is going to launch at $497, and will then go up to $897 after launch."
2. The “Do It Together” package, which includes a year of peer-to-peer community access, 12 live group office hours (plus recordings), and a post-launch 2-hour workshop on how we put this all together, is going to cost $897.
3. And the “Do It 1-to-1” package with 4 yearly calls with me is going to cost $6,997 and is limited to just 5 customers.

Ready for the kicker?

The next line reads: "These last two packages will only be available during launch."

So here are three pieces of scarcity he's using right in these lines:

1. The course will go up to $897 after launch. 
2. The "Do It 1-to1" package is limited to just 5 customers.
3. The second, higher tier, packages go away after launch.

Can you feel the FOMO!?

Justin Welsh Sales Nudges #3: Authority

Justin obviously builds massive authority with his content, but he wouldn't be a master marketer if he didn't use his authority as a nudge to drive more sales.

Authority is another one of Cialdini's 7 Principles of Influence that I mentioned in the last sales nudge (scarcity), and Justin reminds us of his throughout his sales pages.

Right away you read: "This is the system I used to go from 2k to 500k+ followers and $5.2M+ in income."

Which he continues to remind us of, including directly below in the very next section!

And in that same section he proceeds to tell us we can "Learn LinkedIn from the #1 ranked LinkedIn creator in the world." (which is him, if that wasn't clear), and even adds a visual effect showing how he is number 1 on Favikon for LinkedIn's creators.

In marketing, the authority bias is a psychological principle that suggests people are more likely to trust and follow the recommendations of authoritative figures or experts.

In this case, Justin is showing us HIS authority.

And, I also showed how he uses other authorities in his sales strategy above in our social proof section.

Justin Welsh's Pricing Nudges

Next up we have Justin Welsh's pricing strategy.

There will be overlap with the sales techniques of course, but these are all going to relate to the strategy around the prices of his courses, and why it works so well for him.

Justin is very open about how he landed on the price of $150 dollars (which is our second nudge below: Transparency), so I will also be sharing some of the direct insights he shares with us, and how they have effected other nudges (like social proof).

Justin Welsh Pricing Nudges #1: Price Anchoring

First up we have price anchoring.

Price anchoring is a pricing nudge that involves showing a higher price first (the "anchor") to make a lower price seem like a better deal.

For example, seeing a $100 item next to a $50 item might make the $50 item look like a great bargain.

There are quite a few ways to use this (I break down a handful in this LinkedIn carousel), but what Justin is using is called Strike-Through Pricing.

Justin is not only using scarcity, but also price anchoring us on that original price of $150, which makes the $97 price point seem like a no brainer (especially with all these other nudges already making $150 seem like a steal)!

Price Anchoring in The Creator MBA Launch

We saw some of Justin's pricing strategy above in our scarcity section, and I'll discuss it a bit more below as well, but it also fits into our price anchoring nudge.

With Justin's launch of his new Creator MBA he is also using price anchoring (but this time not Strike-Through Pricing) by having 3 different levels for the launch, $6,997, $897 and $497.

The highest priced $6997 dwarfs the other two, and also takes advantage of the decoy effect, making our brains think the $897 to get so much more seem like a no brainer!

I'm excited to see if Justin will continue using his Strike-Through / Scarcity nudge stack once the two high priced Creator MBA tiers are closed.

Justin Welsh Pricing Nudges #2: Transparency

The next nudge Justin uses in his pricing is transparency.

We buy from people we know, like and trust - and Justin builds a lot of trust with how transparent he is.

Sales and scarcity tactics can often do more harm than they do good if they're used the wrong way.

For example, if you're faking scarcity, or lying about prices, it can have the opposite effect, but Justin is extremely open about his $150 price point for his courses.

Our audience has a desire for authenticity and trustworthiness, which is what makes transparency such a powerful marketing nudge.

Because Justin is extremely transparent, this makes the Scarcity and Price Anchoring Nudges even more powerful as well.

Transparency in The Creator MBA Launch

I will show a bit more of Justin's transparency in his pricing when we get to the next nudge, but for now I want to show you how it pertains to his upcoming launch.

I shared the information about his launch prices for each tier level above.

Those are in emails he has been sending out each week for a couple months providing specific details about the Creator MBA launch, all the way down to the specific offer, pricing, and structure - which Justin calls BTS (or behind the scenes) emails.

It doesn't get much more transparent than that!

He even wrote in his email:

"I believe a lot of you are going to be very happy with the above number. Judging from the replies I’ve received, many of you were expecting this to cost a few thousand dollars."

Transparent, but also more to our next nudge as well...

Justin Welsh Pricing Nudges #3: Over Delivering

Our last nudge could be seen as quite a few things, but I'm calling it over delivering.

This can tie into what Jonah Berger discusses as "Practical Value" in his book Contagious, or even go as deep into behavioral science and the psychology of deals like Daniel Kahneman's Prospect Theory.

For a quick definition on that, prospect theory suggests that people evaluate potential outcomes not in absolute terms, but relative to a reference point.

It goes much deeper, of course, but for the sake of this specific nudge we'll leave it there.

In this case the reference point I'm referring to is competition.

Justin Welsh discusses his four hypothesis when coming up with his price point (which stems back to transparency in his pricing), where he discusses his target audience, the value of the outcome, and of course, competition.

He says: "My theory has always been that by coming in at a lower cost with a higher-value offering, I could capitalize on word-of-mouth (referral) marketing. And this has worked out pretty well for me so far."

Can you see how this comes back to what I mentioned about social proof?

While you may be used to seeing similar courses priced between $250-$997 because they can sell at that price point by using nudges (and because the perceived value can definitely be that high, or higher) - Justin comes in at $150 and overdelivers on your expectations.

And guess what, it brings in another bonus nudge: reciprocity.

How To Replicate Justin Welsh's Nudges

You don't want to just jump in and start doing exactly what Justin is doing with all of these nudges, but you still definitely want to learn from them and see what you can replicate in your own business.

For a quick recap, let's take a look at some of the nudges we broke down above:

1. Scarcity
2. Authority
3. Social Proof
4. Overdelivery
5. Transparency
6. Price Anchoring

With a couple bonus nudges being reciprocity and herd mentality as well.

If you want to learn more about building authority you can read about how top creators borrow authority to build their own in this LinkedIn Carousel.

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