If you haven’t heard of the term “FOMO” before, it means, “the fear of missing out.” We all tend to have this fear of losing out on amazing opportunities. You can use this fear in your target audience to your advantage to market your brand and products. This method of marketing is called FOMO marketing.
To leverage FOMO, you need to alter the way you communicate with your audience and implement different techniques for it. Through it, you can get your audience to jump on the opportunity you’re providing them.
However, to implement it well, you need to first understand what FOMO marketing is.
What is FOMO Marketing?
FOMO marketing is a form of marketing where you leverage the consumers’ desire to grab every opportunity that they get. The messaging in it is framed such that you push the customers to make an impulse purchase rather than regretting the lack of action later.
It works because as a species, we’re risk-averse creatures. In case of purchases, risk-avoidance means that we fear putting our money into a product that might not match up to our standards.
At the same time, this risk-avoidance also opens up the possibility of regret in the future. It means that we may end up regretting that we didn’t take an opportunity. For instance, let’s say that you want to purchase a home and have an idea of what it should look like.
If you suddenly see an ad on Facebook that shows a similar home with a discount, your FOMO will rise. Maybe you weren’t that keen on purchasing it, but just by seeing this ad, you’ll be pushed to think about it. This is the exact sense of panic that FOMO marketing aims to create.
Now that you know what FOMO marketing is, here are a few techniques to improve your sales through it.
1. Set a Time Limit
Setting a deadline is critical for FOMO marketing. We’re conditioned to respect deadlines right from our childhood, and this puts us under pressure. This stands true when we’re making purchase decisions as the time is ticking away. For this reason, we end up making impulsive purchases.
However, do keep in mind that the deadline that you set has to be absolute. If you keep extending it, your customers will get used to the fact that the deal will be available after the expiry too. At the same time, this can hurt your brand reputation because you’re not abiding by your word.
Amazon uses this form of marketing exceptionally well. They put up “Deal of the Day” offers, which last for 24 hours. To claim the deal, you need to purchase it within that duration.
2. Use Social Proof
Social proof can be used to trigger FOMO. However, you need to understand when to use it for maximum impact. Ideally, it should be used at the end of the purchase funnel when consumers are about to make a purchase decision. Sometimes, social proof is all that people need to make a purchase.
A great way of doing this is by posting and sharing testimonials on your social media posts from your existing customers. When people read positive experiences other consumers have had with your brand, they’ll be more likely to purchase from you.
Similarly, you can use social proof notification tools such as True to show who is purchasing from you currently. If your website visitors know that others are buying from you, they will want to purchase from you too.
SeedProd, for example, uses TrustPulse to come up with such pop-ups on their website.
3. Quote Celebrities or Influencers
Influencers or celebrities can be a great way to promote your brand and products. When they talk about your products, you can quote them on your website and give a boost to your FOMO marketing campaign.
Combining both modes of marketing can give a significant boost to your sales. Influencers will increase brand trust, get you more traffic and leads, and you can use their message to get even more sales.
Instagram is the best channel for influencer marketing. About 79% of marketers felt that it’s their most important channel. Additionally, the influencer rates for it are fairly low. This can help you market your product to a massive audience and create FOMO with a small budget too.
Do ensure that you position their messages where your prospective customers can see them clearly. This can help grab their attention to instill FOMO. You can add them to your landing pages, product pages, etc.
4. Market Product Bundles
Product bundles are used across many industries for upselling. When a person buys a product from you, they are offered other complementary products as well. Purchasing them as a bundle gives them a discount.
Brands reward customers with discounts when they purchase bundles from them. You can combine this with FOMO marketing by adding a countdown clock. By putting a deadline on these deals, you can push the customers to purchase them.
Design Cuts uses this technique. They come up with massive discounts on their product bundles, but all of these offers are available for a limited duration. If you purchase the package within the time, you’ll be eligible for the discount. Else, you’ll have to pay the original price for the products.
5. Leverage FOMO on Multiple Channels
Every brand needs to take an omnichannel marketing approach to reach all their target customers. People prefer different social media channels to communicate with brands, and you can use this to your advantage.
You can let the audience on one of your channels know that you’re releasing exclusive content on other channels only. This creates FOMO in their minds and may push them to follow you or sign up on other channels as well. Through this method, you can increase your follower and subscriber base on multiple channels just through FOMO.
There are many brands out there, such as Amazon, that come up with app-only deals so that their customers will download their app.
6. Improve Your Messaging
The way you convey your message to consumers makes a lot of difference when it comes to FOMO marketing. Your words should create a sense of urgency in your target audience and push them to purchase from you.
So you need to craft messages which make them feel that they might lose out on the offer as time is running out. Using strong verbs can help your messages create FOMO in your prospects.
You can use phrases such as:
- You’ll miss this offer…
- This is your last chance to buy…
- Time’s running out!
- Last few spots left…
Your message needs to push the audience to take action instantaneously. Make them feel that, if they don’t take action now, they’ll regret their decision of not doing so.
In the below screenshot, Expedia shows that only one room is available in these hotels. This is sure to push those who are considering booking a room in them as they’d lose out on the deal and the room if they don’t book soon enough.
7. Use Competitive Spirit
We don’t like missing out on amazing offers, but we also hate the fact that others may get the offer instead. You can use this competitive spirit to your advantage and create a stronger FOMO.
A great way of doing this is by showing that others are also looking at the products that you’re interested in. On one hand, it gives social proof that the product is good and many people are interested in it. On the other, you feel that you’re competing with a huge crowd to get the product. This can push you to make the purchase impulsively.
Booking.com, for example, uses this to promote their hotels. Note how they’ve mentioned that the hotel was booked 3 times in the last few hours. At the same time, they’ve shown that one more person is interested in the hotel for the same dates. This is sure to stir up the competitive spirit in their customers.
8. Highlight Missed Opportunities
To give a bigger boost to FOMO marketing, you should consider showcasing all the opportunities that were missed by your customers. When they notice that they’ve lost a good deal just because they were late or didn’t take a call quickly, they’ll start becoming anxious.
This anxiety is nothing but FOMO, and it can push them to make their decisions quickly so that they don’t miss out on other deals. Sometimes, this is all that’s required to push them over the edge.
Booking.com uses this strategy to their advantage as well. Note how they’ve leveraged FOMO by using the phrase “You missed it!”
Final Thoughts
FOMO marketing involves creating a sense of urgency in the minds of consumers to market your brand. You can instill this sense of missing out by changing the way you send your messages out to your customers.
Ensure they understand that they need to race against time or compete with others for the product, and show them the opportunities they’ve missed.
By utilizing the power of influencer marketing, you can increase FOMO even further. Social proof can also help your cause. And lastly, you can use it to drive people to other channels as well.
What are the other FOMO marketing techniques that intrigue you? Let us know in the comments.
Originally published at https://www.socialpilot.co.
