There’s no better advertisement than a velvet rope or the back of someone else’s head.
FOMO can turn a crowd of the most logical accountants into a feeding frenzy of emotional buyers. Gather a crowd, and you’ve made half the sale.
Principle: A crowd of 10 converts better than 10 individuals
In December 2016 some high-priced tickets go on sale for a music event on the island of Exuma.
400 influencers all drop an orange tile on their feeds at 5pm to launch this event, yielding 300M social media views, ubiquity and a strong sense of FOMO within 48 hours.
5000+ ticket-purchasers (many intelligent professionals) look right past months of red flags - some even boarding flights to the event after the headline band pulls out.
$10.99M runs directly into event founder, Billy McFarland’s personal bank account - all to be clawed back out when every lawyer in the country takes him to court.
In a 1:1 conversation without use of social media, no intelligent person could bypass the red flags surrounding the Fyre Festival. But a crowd is a persuasive sales pitch.
Imagine if you had this hype AND a product that worked.
Tactics
You’re not gathering a physical crowd. You’re in ecom. So let’s signal to your prospects that there’s a line, and they should get in it.
Waitlist with visible count: 12,347 on the list + You’re #188 today (Waitlist app)
Public reservations: let people place a $1 deposit to “lock your spot.” Show # of deposits today.
Inventory brackets: display brackets of products available (<50 left in drop 1) not exact numbers - < 50 left in Wave 1” (app)
Real purchase feed: Nancy in Midtown, MA just bought X (Quikify app)
Drop timer with phases: Drop 1 - 300 units (ships Nov. 12), Drop 2 - 600 units (ships Dec. 12) (Countdown Timer app)
Micro celebrations - 10,000th customer just joined 🎉 + real first name and city (program a Wisepops popup to fire at different thresholds)
Drop waitlist with live headcount: 1,486 waiting + a countdown timer to drop (Crowd Handler app)
Get the right people paying attention to other people obsessing, and you’ve created an environment where sales will 📈.
Habits
Begin treating your customer base, not as a series of one-off transactions, but as a community and a tool you can leverage to gather more like-minded people.
Ask yourself daily, how can I implement more signs of genuine social proof?
God speed,
Mike
Today’s inspiration: The 7 Human Hijacks