The Most Powerful Online Marketing Tool Ever!

A quote that’s attributed to several different historical figures is that “there are only two certainties in life; death and taxes”

Unless you live on a choice of Caribbean islands or in certain Arab states or Monaco. Then the only certainty is death.

We don’t particularly like to dwell on it, but all of our lives are finite. But it’s not just us as individuals…

One step up and our sun will one day reach maximum entropy and will die, our planet with it. (don’t worry – not just yet – you can stop looking out of the window). 

But, not just that…Another step up…

Without getting bogged down in the second law of thermodynamics, the whole universe will, at some point, go the same way (there are some differing theories, of course, but they are all equally gloomy).

So, how can we incorporate the impending and inevitable heat death of the universe into our online marketing to make more money?

Good question. Here’s how this rather gloomy subject becomes your biggest money-making tool.

If something is finite (and absolutely everything is) then it has a scarcity value. And the more scarce it is, the higher the value attached to it. 

We understand this as it is part of the human condition. There is nothing more valuable than your time, for example.

Scarcity can, of course, affect price.

That’s why, these days, many more young people in London will struggle to buy a place of their own. There is insufficient housing stock in a city that a lot of people want to live in so that scarcity keeps prices high. This is the same in lots or cities around the world (and small places that are “tourist hotspots”).

But the higher value from scarcity doesn’t always relate to high prices. Scarcity can be used to motivate as well.

Oasis tickets are on sale now. There has been a scarcity of Oasis for 15 years and there’s no guarantee that this re-union will endure even to the end of the planned tour. So there is a feeding frenzy to get a ticket.

Another example…I saw The Rolling Stones years before I met my first wife but she’d never seen them live. When they toured 3 years after we got married I suggested we go as “they are getting on now and it may be the last chance you’ll ever get to see them”. 

That was in 1990, lol. And they just ended their most recent tour last month. They sell out stadia based on that perceived scarcity value and do so every year. (but at least she saw them when they had both a bassist and a drummer, haha!)

So you need to always incorporate scarcity into your marketing.

“But there is no scarcity of digital products, It’s all just a bunch of 1s and 0s”

True enough. So you need to create it yourself.

If you are promoting something as an affiliate that is on a launch special or a flash sale, the scarcity is there for you, all built in. Use that in your email campaign.

So, if you are promoting something as an affiliate that is not on a launch or a flash sale (in other words, has no scarcity attached to it), you could offer a time limited bonus for the duration of your promotion. Use countdown timers in your emails to emphasis the point and send your traffic to a bridge page selling your bonus with the countdown timer on there as well.

If you have products of your own you can do “three day flash sales” where you sell at a lower price for that short finite period.

If you don’t want to discount your products, you could do what Tony Shepherd does and open and close your products periodically.

But don’t ignore scarcity. It is your biggest and most powerful marketing tool.