Bump Your Book, Product or Service Sales By Using The Scarcity Principle

Marketers have used the principle of scarcity for decades to help increase their sales. Once you understand how the scarcity principle works, you can employ it to help you sale your books, products and services as well. In fact, once you understand how it works, you can get rather creative in how you employ it.

So, what is the scarcity principle? Simply, it taps into a person's desire to get now what he or she believes will not be available in the future. We are entering the holiday retail season and you are about to witness retail establishments employ the scarcity principle in full force. Here are some ways marketers tap into this principle:

• Limited Time- If people believe time is scarce, it often influences them to buy today. Sales are the quintessential marketing employment of the limited time scarcity principle. "For two days only! This weekend only! Celebrate our company's birthday Friday and Saturday and get 30% off everything!" These are examples of how companies limit time in the hopes that people will act now to get discounts before time of out.
  
  
• Limited Resources- If people believe that an every item will be taken by someone else, it often influences them to get theirs before the inventory is depleted. "While supplies last! Limited quantity! For the first 100 people who call in! Only 500 left in stock!" These are examples of how companies limit resources in the hopes that people will act now to get theirs before inventory is depleted.
  

E-mail marketers use the scarcity principle a lot. When was the last time you opened a marketing message to see someone say that they had a special discount for today only? They give a link about 5 times, each with encouragement to click now or run the risk of missing this great discount. I also love tying in an event with the scarcity principle. Have you seen marketers invite people to their website to celebrate their 1,000 sale buy giving everyone a 25% discount today and tomorrow only? What about the author who celebrates the launch of their new book by giving the first 250 people who order the new book an e-book copy of the author's last best seller? How can you employ the scarcity principle to sell your books, products or services? Here are some ides:

Time
• Sales- Schedule a traditional sale for a specific period of time (if you want to reinforce the scarcity principle visually, add a countdown timer widget on your site counting down the time left for people to act before the sale is over).
  
  
• Holidays- Birthdays, national holidays, and company milestones are all fodder for scarcity sales.
  
  
• This Time Only- Have you purchased something online and right before you checked out, you got a message that said something like, "If you act now, you can upgrade (or add a supplemental product) for a discount. But to get this crazy deal, you must act now. If you don't, this offer will not be repeated."
  
  Resources
  
• Only XXX Items Left (insert quantity number)- Limit the number of items available and watch people snatch them up. You can also add a counter ticking down the items left before the inventory is depleted, but be careful... if the inventory doesn't move, then you will effectively be proving that there is no scarcity and people will feel comfortable waiting to act at a later time.
  
  
• For The First XXX Callers
  
  
• Free Gift While Supplies Last
  

With a little thought and brainstorming, you can come up with a plethora of ideas on how you can employ the scarcity principle to move your books, products and services. Once you get into it, you can actually have fun with this and even bring levity to your prospects while selling more items. If you have used the scarcity principle in a creative or successful way, I would love to hear about it.

Tony Eldridge