Fake Urgency: A Cautionary Tale
TRANSCRIPT:
So I thought I would pop on very quickly with a little bit of a quick fix mixed with a little bit of an Annie rant, all about how to create urgency, actual urgency, in your business.
And this is a lesson of what not to do inspired by the greats, or at least the bigs. Now here's the thing, Prosper Loans, I used them in the past to consolidate debt, they seem like a very nice company. I had a nice time with them, da dee da. But this week my husband got this terrifying thing in the mail.
See this y'all? Y'all see this? It's got this final attempt right here. It's got United States, weird seal, it looks like military over here, and then it's kind of delivery notification, which we all know costs extra. Why on Earth? This is terrifying.
So then you open it up thinking it's this big important thing or we're all getting audited or da dee da, or we have some giant debt that we don't know about, but really he's been pre-approved for up to $40,000.
Come on, what? Here's the thing. What they're trying to do with this envelope is one of two things. Or no, sorry, it's one thing, they're trying to create urgency. They're trying to make you think that this is actually a final attempt on something super important so that you frantically open it. But when you do one of two things happens. Either you go, "Dammit Prosper!" which is not at all what you want, which is what most people will do. Nobody likes to feel duped.
Or, you're whipped up into such a financial freak out frenzy thinking that you owe money all over town and the government's coming to take your house that you then look at the loan, look at the $40,000 or whatever you're pre-approved for, and feel desperate enough to take it. Also bad marketing.
We cannot, cannot, cannot keep relying on gimmicks that manipulate people to action. Now here's the thing, scarcity, urgency, it sells for a reason. We love a limitation. We love a challenge. We love competition. If it's only five people, "ooh, I better be one of those five." But the way to do it correctly is not this.
It's by actually having real scarcity and real urgency. Being intentional about that scarcity and urgency. Being transparent about why it's scarce and/or urgent, right? And not relying on cheap tricks, like a highly decorated envelope. If you're gonna have a mad dash for this product, if you're only offering this special rate for 10 people because it's a group program and that's the size you want, tell them that.
"There's only 10 seats, and here's why." If you're running an early bird special, tell them why. Tell them where the price is going. Tell them where the price is not going. Be more transparent in this and the scarcity will work wonder. So before for you try to drive traffic this way, remember we're going for gimmick-free marketing here.
Limits are great. They work. They just have to be real. So with all due respect Prosper, we ain't going there.
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