Five Ways Creator-Marketers Use Scarcity To Drive Massive Sales!

Scarcity is one of the most powerful marketing levers you can use, and you likely see it every single day.

In our case study of The Psychology of Amazon we saw just how much they take advantage of this, to the extent that they purchased a whole company devoted to "Daily Deals" (Woot!).

Scarcity is also yet another one of Robert Cialdini's 7 Principles of Influence (which we will continue to see, especially for our Friday Conversion Case Studies) from his book Influence.

But before I get too carried away, there may be a few people who don't know what scarcity is, and why it's so powerful, so let me do a quick recap to bring everyone up to speed...

Scarcity refers to the psychological effects that happen when individuals perceive a limitation (or short supply) of resources, opportunities, or goods.

This allows us to create: 

• Increase in Perceived Value
• Urgency For Action Taking
  
• FOMO Effect (Fear Of Missing Out)
• Emotional Decision Making

But I have a strong feeling you already know the power of scarcity as a marketing lever.

So instead of going through the power of scarcity in this case study, I instead want to go through 5 different ways you can CREATE it.

You see, scarcity is most powerful when it's real.

No one likes "fake" scarcity.

But because it's so powerful, people end up adding fake timers, spammy sales, and things that actually retract from their trust instead of creating urgency and increased authority and perceived value.

Here are five ways top creators-marketers add scarcity into their marketing plan to increase conversions:

 Justin Welsh: Scarcity With Limited Time Discounts and Launch Only Pricing/Options

We're going to start off with one that seems pretty simple, but works wonders for Justin Welsh, who has made over 2M in course sales from just two courses priced at $150 last year alone...

And he uses this simple strategy to not only overdeliver at that price point, but also create Scarcity and a Social Proof Loop as well.

We have discussed Justin's pricing strategy and how he overdelivers in a couple ways:

• The Psychology of Justin Welsh's Pricing
• Four Social Proof Loops for Endless Social Proof

But for this one I strictly want to focus on how he uses scarcity, especially because persistent discounts aren't always something you want to do...

Note: Consistently discounting your products can decrease their perceived value, so this tactic we're breaking down is something you want to test (as you should be testing EVERYTHING) to see how it fits with your specific offer. It works for Justin at this price point, but may not be a good fit at other price points and in other value ladders.

Justin Welsh's Discount Scarcity:

We are going over two different tactics here that Justin uses/used in his previous launch, but as I mentioned, I'm starting with his recurring scarcity tactic that you can generally find throughout the entire year.

Here's the simple strategy:

1. LinkedIn OS and Content OS Courses are priced at $150. 
2. Justin runs discounts between $15-50 off at random times throughout the year.
3. Justin uses scarcity nudges to let you know these could be going away at any time.
4. Justin sends you an email reminding you that the current discount is only available for a limited time (if you leave the cart/landing page you get this nudge).

So why does this work without hurting the value of his course over time?

1. Justin already has his courses priced fairly low compared to competition.
2. Justin overdelivers on his content and creates massive social proof loops and sells with other nudges like authority, and price anchoring (the $150 regular price is the anchor, in this case).
3. He really does consistently change the discount.

Make a special note of the third one, because that is a big one.

Justin Welsh's Launch Special Scarcity:

For Justin's recent launch of Creator MBA he used a few different scarcity tactics, all built around launch-only special offers.

In the image I added above you can see two lines reading:

1. "The baseline "Do It Yourself" package is going to launch at $497, and will then go up to $897 after launch."
2. "When I make the course available for sale again, it will be priced 2x higher and there will no longer be an option for the community or group office hours. If you miss the deadline, I won't be able to make any exceptions."

To give you some context to that section line, Justin rolled out his "Do It Yourself" package, which was the base package for the Creator MBA course, but he also rolled out two other levels: "Do It Together" and "Do It 1-to-1" at much higher price points that were only available during the launch.

So Justin created a higher perceived value, used price anchoring (with his highest priced option being the anchor), and also built a ton of urgency by not only getting rid of a massive discount, but two of the other offers completely.

FOMO anyone!?

To recap, Justin uses a ton of different psychological pricing and scarcity tactics, but these are two variations you can easily inject into your own marketing plan (with some testing):

1. Discount Scarcity
2. Launch Special Scarcity

Be sure to actually change or completely turn off the discount at specific times of the year, and actually close the launch special when you say you will, and people will take you seriously during the next launch/discount scarcity as well!

 Matt McGarry Cohort Launch Scarcity

The next type of scarcity you can use in your marketing plan is an "open-close" type of scarcity that is repeating.

Similar to how Justin Welsh used a close tactic with the launch of his course, you can rinse and repeat this type of scarcity by running what is called a cohort.

A cohort is a course that is taught live with a community (and generally an instructor or multiple instructors) that usually takes place over the course of a specific period of time, similar to what you might find in a college course.

So in this case you are able to easily inject scarcity because you can only keep the cohort open for so long before it starts and people will no longer be able to enter.

Matt McGarry Cohort Launch Scarcity:

In the example I'm showing above you can see Matt McGarry announcing his cohort The Newsletter Growth System.

NOTE: I'm specifically sharing this cohort because I'm in it as I'm typing this right now! This cohort is running from the end of January to The first of March (essentially all of February).

Matt announced: "I'm looking for 68 people who want to supercharge their newsletter growth for 32 days."

And then proceeded to provide updates in the comments. You can see one of them; he writes: "There are not 18 spots left. We'll most likely fill those and end enrollment today."

I also saw him provide updates before that one, but they are now deleted [as he gave each update].

Each little update: 

1. Increased Perceived Value with Social Proof
2. Increased Scarcity and Urgency

You can see in the final update Matt closes the cohort doors after just 3 days.

This is the power of scarcity and urgency, especially REAL scarcity.

In this case there is a very specific and real reason as to why their has to be a limited number of students and only open for a specific amount of time:

1. Matt only has the capacity to take on so many students as he will be providing each individual coaching and feedback during the live cohort.
2. Once the cohort starts no one else will be able to join or else they will fall behind and potentially slow the rest of the members down.

Cohorts are not necessarily easy to implement (you need to have authority and a decent sized following like Matt), but they are extremely powerful if you're capable of utilizing them.

 Casey Parram Workshop Scarcity

Next up as our fourth scarcity technique used by top creators is one used by Casey Parram: Workshops!

A Workshop, in this case, is a call with Casey and a limited amount of members learning from him about a specific topic and getting one on one feedback from him.

In this example Casey is doing a Workshop on creating and selling offers, so he would teach them about his framework for optimizing offers, and then they would get feedback and direct help on their offers and specific businesses.

Casey has a unique way of using workshops to increase scarcity while also learning from his audience at the same time.

As you can see in this one Casey is doing quite a few things:

1. Limited Slots (Only 6 Slots Available =Scarcity)
2. Limited Time To Sign Up (Closes At A Certain Time = Urgency)
3. Discounted Pricing for Specific Time (Discount = Price Anchoring)

You can also see Casey nudge these points, highlighting on the fact that it is first come first served, and he will be losing it once all the spots are full.

The beautiful thing about this is the fact that:

1. It doesn't take much work to set up.
2. You don't need that many people to join (like a cohort or community).
3. It's a great way to learn from your audience with direct access to them WHILE getting paid.

The fact that you're able to easily use scarcity and urgency WHILE learning and getting direct feedback from your audience makes limited availability one-off workshops an awesome option for both beginner creators and advanced creators alike.

BONUS: Another great way to re-use your workshop recordings is to offer them as free lead magnets, tripwires (or low ticket offers), and bonuses in other programs/products.

 Mike Romaine (Me) Welcome Offer Scarcity

Next up is my own case study: The Welcome Offer.

My Welcome Offer Loop has injected over $50,000 a year into Superhero Jacked.

There's a lot that goes into MY specific framework being that I get very specific with my audience (it has a TON of different layers to it because of all the fandoms I write about), but for the sake of helping you inject it into your own business I will just focus on one layer of it (in this case based on if you were to sign up for The Naruto Inspired Workout Lead Magnet).

NOTE: If you'd like to read about how specific I get and the actual FULL framework I use for Superhero Jacked's Welcome Offer Scarcity you can see my full LinkedIn Carousel here.

My Welcome Offer Scarcity Framework:

1. People sign up for the email list via a lead magnet or other offer.
2. They are immediately offered a welcome offer that is specific to what they signed up for (when they sign up they are telling you they are ready to take action)!
3. This offer is only available for a limited time and is severely discounted (in the case of Superhero Jacked it is only available for a day, and you only see it on that URL and never again.)

NOTE: For Science Based Marketing I will be testing an offer that is only available for 24 hours and you only see it on the confirmation page upon signing up for the newsletter, and in the initial welcome email VS. available for 5 days during the initial welcome sequence.

Here are some best practices for the Welcome Offer:

1. It's best to have a low ticket offer $7-97 at a severe discount.
2. The price point should be specific to your niche.
3. The scarcity is the fact that the offer will go away after you give them that initial 24-72+ hours to take action as a new member.

Remember, they are ready to take action if they signed up, so give them a chance to.

 How To Use Scarcity In Your Marketing To Make More Money

Scarcity is one of the most powerful marketing tactics you can use to increase conversions and earn more money.

But it's not always easy to inject in your marketing plan because you can actually detract from your brand power if you're using fake scarcity.

Here are the 5 Ways Top Creators are using Scarcity in their marketing:

1. Discount Scarcity
2. Launch Special Scarcity
3. Cohort Scarcity
4. Workshop Scarcity
5. Welcome Offer Scarcity

I personally think the cohort scarcity is the hardest to use, and the discount scarcity can be the trickiest to use without devaluing your product, but you need to test and find the best methods to use in your own business and niche.

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