This blog post is just for you
- Thu, June 09 2011
- Filed under: Marketing essentials
We all know that the principle of scarcity is very effective in getting people to act. For example, “there are only 2 tickets left!” or “there are only 2 hours left to act!” gets attention. Limited time and limited quantities prompt action.
Now there’s research showing another form of scarcity works well: the uniqueness of an opportunity. Making people feel an offer is only available to them and not others is likely to make them act.
(Hence the title of this blog post: it is just for you. Did it capture your interest?)
The team at Inside Influence reports the results of a study in which subjects were offered a discounted travel mug not yet available for sale, at a discount. Then the subjects were told one of three things. In the first, unique opportunity condition, they were part of a random drawing in which they had a 1:6 chance to get this deal (they didn’t know it, but everyone won the drawing). In the second, common opportunity condition, everything was the same as the first but they believed they had a 1:2 chance of getting the deal. In the third test, which was the control, there was no drawing - everyone in the group was offered the deal.
Everyone was invited to get the mugs within the next week.
Guess what? 27% of people in the unique condition showed up to buy a mug, but only 3% and 8% of the common and control groups, respectively.
Wow. It seems that if you think you’re special, you’re more engaged in an offer!
The implications? If you want to offer a special program for donors to support or encourage behavior change with a unique opportunity, this approach may be worth trying.
As Inside Influence notes:
In a world in which deals are increasingly being tailored to customers via e-mail, social networking sites, members-only groups, and direct mail, informing people that they have been specially selected to receive the offer (where true, obviously) will go a long way toward producing interest in, and compliance with, your offerings.
I’d love to have someone test this with fundraising and behavior change!
Comments
Katya, what a timely post! I just met with a nonprofit client yesterday and we were discussing naming opportunities for her organization’s brick paver project. Donors have the opportunity to get their name and some info engraved on a brick paver. To promote scarcity, we decided to roll out the naming opportunities in phases with the 1st group being in the most visible “prime” areas while the final group will represent a real “last chance” to participate. The data from this post helps to reinforce our decision-thanks for sharing! Blase