Scarcity Archives - Donnie Bryant | Direct Response Copywriter

Let’s make one thing clear.

I’ve been watching Love is Blind… purely for research purposes.

Whether or not you enjoy this sort of entertainment, you can learn a lot by studying the content people have strong emotional reactions to, positive or negative.

(This is why a Netflix subscription should be tax deductible for marketers.)

We’re going to tackle the show’s most captivating aspect:

How can people fall in love & decide to get married in 10 days or less?

Because we want your should-be customers to fall in love with you enough to give you money… as quickly as possible.

The dynamics at play are FASCINATING — useful for your marketing efforts, too.

I’d like to share 5 actionable insights to make people fall for you fast.

These insights will be valuable for you even if you’ve never seen an episode of the show.

Check them out in the following video or read about them below.

Or both.

1. Pick the right folks (or let them select themselves)

One of the biggest reasons Love Is Blind “works” is that the producers have curated people looking for the specific outcome:

They want to find the love of their lives. They’re frustrated with the polluted dating pool and they’re actively looking for a solution.

As a marketing concept, this seems basic. But it’s shocking how often we lose sight of it.

In the first place, make sure your offer is something people have a strong desire for. It should help them achieve a dream they already have… or eliminate a pain point they’re already frustrated about.

You don’t need everyone to buy your product/service. Concentrate on the small percentage of the population that’s actively looking for the transformation you produce.

Speak to them to the exclusion of all others. (Others will come anyway.)

2. Connect them with a FEELING they want

This is where things get really interesting.

You could argue the Couples on Love Is Blind don’t really fall in love in mere days. Which is probably true. But they certainly develop strong attachments at warp speed.

And they do so based solely on the words they hear in their conversations.

One of the comments you hear on the show constantly is that cast members feel that their future fiancé knows them better than anyone else in their lives.

They feel understood. The feel seen. (Ironic, right?)

Humans crave that feeling… and we attach ourselves to those who make us feel that way.

You can use your words to have a similar effect in your marketing.

And that’s exactly what you need to do to make your prospects fall in love with your business or offer.

It’s more than just using “power words” or hyping up your product or service. It’s communicating a deep understanding, shared values and painting a vivid picture of the beautiful future that’s possible with you.

There’s another theory I feel like we need to address.

Another reason cast member fall in love so quickly can at least be partially explained by a psychological theory called “object relations.”

To keep it easy-breezy, object relations theory describes how someone can instantly form a deep emotional bond with a new person because the new person reminds them of an important emotional experience or relationship from their past.

Most people are constantly looking to recreate that feeling (even if they don’t consciously think about it) in the present.

Now…

It’s impossible to predict how this will work, especially when marketing to groups of people who each have their own unique pasts.

But what you can get close by going for nostalgia.

When you understand your ideal customer, you can predict certain things from the past they likely have strong feelings about.

Work these into your marketing… and even into you own personal brand.

For example, if you know your best customers loved Axel Foley in the 80’s… see if you can embody some of his characteristics in the way you present yourself.

It’s more powerful than you might think.

Google shared data finding that 75% of GenXers watch YouTube to relive the good ol’ days.

Think about ways you can add nostalgia to your marketing to attract prospects, hold their attention and (hopefully) win their business.

3. Use scarcity to position yourself as “The One”

One of the biggest motivators for cast members on Love Is Blind is that they have limited options… and they know it. There are just 15 men and 15 women in the group – and there’s plenty of potential competition.

Having too many options can prevent you from ever moving forward. You may always be looking for the next best thing.

Scarcity helps you focus.

There’s two ways you can use scarcity to help your ideal customers fall in love with you quickly.

Position yourself in a niche where you have few, if any, competitors. No one else delivers exactly what you do… for the exact people you do it for.
Use real limits in your business. Produce a limited quantity of a product… work with a limited number of clients… put a cap on the number of attendees of an event.

Don’t make up fake scarcity to trick people. Honest scarcity can be a spectacular motivator.

4. Commit to spending “Quality Time”

No matter how fast they fall in love, couples on Love Is Blind have to spend quality time together. The more time, the faster they build the bond.

You don’t really see it on the show, but the reality is that cast members can spend as much time as they like in the pods with the people they want to talk to. They don’t have to cram everything into 60-minute daily sessions or anything like that.

The same thing is true for you as an entrepreneur. Your prospects and customers need to spend time with you. It may be less time than you think, but you can’t expect to maximize your relationship with (and profit from) them with just an occasional text message.

You need to be consistent & frequent in your outreach.

The more “love letters” you send… the more marathon phone conversations… the more moonlit walks on the beach… the faster they can fall in love with you.

If you need help coming up with more ideas about topics to write about for emails and social content, check out Inbox X-Factor.

You’ll get access to weekly content plans (so you’ll ALWAYS have a timely topic to write about), proven subject line templates, video trainings and more.

5. Urgency

The Love Is Blind experiment would fall apart if cast members were given an infinite amount of time to propose marriage.

Cast members know they have a short amount of time – just 10 days – to get what they came for. They have to be decisive & take action to avoid missing out.

Urgency also works in marketing. Set real deadlines. Use (honest) countdown timers.

Let people know they don’t have an eternity to make a choice

Using urgency the right way can help everyone get what they want faster, both in relationships and in marketing.

There you go.

I hope you’ll take time TODAY to think about how you can put these insights into practice in your business.

Because they really can maximize the speed with which prospects become paying customers… the amount of money they’re eager to spend with you…

And the positive impact you’re able to have in their lives.

Let’s get it!

Conversion is always an internal change. To borrow the words of Jeff Sexton, “all persuasion is self-persuasion.”

You use your words to paint vivid, evocative images in the minds of your prospects…their response will correspond directly with their desires, motivations and priorities…

You base your marketing messages or sales pitch on the quest they’re on, the vision they have for their lives and the way they see their place in the world…

You do your best to be convincing…but those who become your customers are those who convince themselves that you can deliver the results they want.”

Other than Jeff Sexton, I haven’t heard any other expert say that persuasion is always ultimately self-persuasion. But I tell you, it’s the truth.

And whether he knows it or not, Robert Cialdini agrees with this assertion. If you analyze the 6 principles from his book Influence, you’ll see what I mean. Check it out.

Reciprocity – When someone does something for you or gives you something, you feel indebted to them. You want to pay them back, because you don’t like to feel like you own anyone anything. Reciprocity is the desire to rid yourself of that feeling.

No one makes you feel the need to reciprocate, but when they take the first step by giving you something, they start the process.

The outcome is pretty predictable.

Consistency – We all want to stay true to the statements we make. We have an inner desire to maintain consistency to things we say or write. We convince ourselves that it’s important to do what we say we’ll do. We have an even bigger problem deviating from what we proclaim ourselves to be. If I say I’m an art collector, I better start acquiring some nice pieces!

Our desire to be consistent with the positive things other people think about us (or what we want them to think about us) can be even more compelling.

Social Proof – Everyone wants to be seen as an individual. But at the same time, we have a deep-seated desire fit in somewhere. There’s safety in numbers, right?

A lot of times, we really want to do something and all we need to gain the confidence to pull the trigger is the knowledge that other people (just like us) have done the same thing safely and with satisfactory results.

Liking – I like you. It gives me pleasure to buy from you. I enjoy the feeling of supporting you or your cause, feeling like I’m helping you succeed, etc.

So, naturally, I can persuade myself that doing business with you is a good idea. Even if I don’t really need what you’re selling. Or, if I have to choose between two vendors, I’ll often pick the person I like better instead of the cheaper choice or even the one with higher quality.

How many times have you done that?

Authority – We’re designed to trust people in positions of authority. It starts when we’re kids obeying our parents and believing everything they tell us. Even as we get older and gain autonomy, we never fully get rid of this disposition.

We protect ourselves from making bad choices by defer to people who know better than we do. Self-preservation is a powerful desire.

Scarcity – Missing out on something you could have had is a horrible feeling. We don’t want to feel that. We’ll jump through all kinds of hoops to avoid that feeling. That’s why scarcity or urgency works in marketing.

Sometimes we make a choice more to protect ourselves from this feeling of missing out on an opportunity than from the desire for the object itself.

The evidence is plain. Persuasion is always, at its root, self-persuasion. And although he’s never said it, Robert Cialdini agrees with me (and Jeff Sexton, of course).