Time bound offers are a surefire way to convince potential buyers to make a sale. When buyers sense a possible deadline on offers, a sense of urgency creeps in, and convinces them to make a purchase.
No wonder you’ve got companies offering limited-time discounts all around. “Hurry up… sale ends soon”…. these words tend to have an I-need-to-buy-this or an I-need-to-check-this-out-effect on buyers.
Well, this is not just by chance, in fact our need to act on limited-time offers is driven by a psychology.
The FoMO Principle
Fear of missing out or FoMO is “a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent”.
– Wikipedia
The Fear of Missing Out (or FoMO) is quite real and existent among millennials. In commerce, this psychological effect motivates buyers to take an action. It’s the fear that others are enjoying benefits of something, you’re not.
Now marketers – the opportunists that they are – take advantage of this very fear to increase demand for products.
One technical approach to utilizing FoMO as a marketing technique is – the scarcity principle – whereby you increase demand, by limiting availability.
And here’s how you make it work with regards to increasing course sales in LearnDash!
(Now, you have to be aware, that LearnDash by itself might not provide the needed options to employ this technique; you would need an e-commerce plugin along with LearnDash – either WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads)
Limited Time Offers
When it comes to course purchases, students often procrastinate. It’s true.
The course is available for purchase whenever needed, there’s always a later time to make a buy. But what if we change this? What is we add a sense of urgency to the mix.
There are two ways to go about this:
- Limited time discounts
- Limited time sales
Limited Time Discounts
Discounts, Sale Prices work well in several scenarios to boost sales. You could run sales on occasions, introductory offers on courses, limited time discounts on bundled purchases and so on.
Proof of concept: We notice an average increase of 35% in purchases during our Black Friday Sale
To employ this technique, here’s what you need to do:
- If Using WooCommerce: If you’re using WooCommerce, you’re in luck. Scheduling sale prices is inherently available in WooCommerce. 😀
- If Using Easy Digital Downloads: To schedule sale prices in EDD, you need the Discounts Pro extension.
Limited Time Purchases
With limited time discounts, the sale price is available for a certain time. But here’s a twist. What if you limit purchases altogether. Say you prevent students from making a purchase after a certain deadline!
*Fear of Missing Out Mode Engaged* Try it out and watch purchases roll in!
Here’s how you go about it:
- If Using WooCommerce: To limit course purchases, you need the WooCommerce Scheduler plugin.
- If Using Easy Digital Downloads: The plugin that works to this end is, Purchase Limit.
A time limit on course purchases is great when you have to sync with external instructors too; or when you have live virtual classes as part of your course content (think Blended Learning!), and cannot add students on an ad hoc basis.
Either of these strategies can be used to drive course sign-ups and increase your profits!
So, What Are You Waiting For?
You’ve got biggies in the industry already using this marketing strategy to boost sales. Think of Amazon, Flipkart, and other e-commerce stores. This is one strategy that works!
Anything that is denied to someone, becomes exclusive to someone else. And, anything that becomes exclusive, has a higher demand value.
Employing this very prevalent Fear Of Missing Out when marketing your courses, can increase enrollments and bring you bigger profit margins!
So get the plugin you need, and watch your sales go through the roof!! 🙂
