There’s two things, two marketing strategies that are as old as time, that work.

URGENCY AND SCARCITY

If you can make something urgent (limit time or create FOMO) and make it scarce (limit numbers), then whatever you’re marketing will work.

You see marketing is simple – there’s a few core principles to follow for a great marketing strategy. But that said, a few core principles doesn’t make it easy – simple, yes, easy no.

And Clubhouse, the newest player in the social app world launched not long ago, is the perfect example of these marketing core principles.

Oh, and just in case you haven’t heard of Clubhouse or seen everyone begging for invites on other social apps, then let me explain from the start.

Clubhouse is a social media app that’s voice only, and you have to wait to get an invitation from someone who’s already on there.

There’s no video, just your voice and you get to host rooms or go into rooms with other people who have joined that room.

It’s like talking to your podcast audience about your area of expertise, but they can ask you questions or give you their thoughts, opinions right there – live.

It’s not recorded, once you leave a room that’s it.  And if you’re hosting a room, once you finish it – that’s it.

It’s like an audio only Zoom chat.

As a host you can invite people up on stage to talk, and as a participant in a room you can raise your hand to ask to come on stage to chat.

Of all the social media apps, I have to say, this could be my very favourite and I think it’s going to give LinkedIn a run for its money (but that’s another blog post all together!).

So that’s Clubhouse.

But the how to use and why you should use it (and you SHOULD) isn’t what I wanted to talk about today.  I wanted to talk about how Clubhouse have created, either intentionally or accidentally (I suspect a little of both) one of the best marketing strategies I’ve seen in a long time.

Clubhouse have created urgency and scarcity to get onto their platform in a way I’ve rarely seen in recent times.

They are not only giving the “big boys” of social apps like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter, a run for their money, it is genius in the fact that everyone is using the other apps to get invited onto clubhouse, to share their knowledge of clubhouse and create complete FOMO for anyone who’s not on it (or in this case, has an Android phone – as it’s only iOS at this point).

Clubhouse is innovative.  And as Peter Drucker said many years ago, there’s only two things in business – marketing and innovation – the rest is stuff.

So, Clubhouse has created urgency (FOMO), scarcity (you have to be invited to get on and invitations are a little rare) and they have given us, the user, a social media platform that completely different to the ones we already have – innovation.

I cannot understate the brilliance of all of this.  I am in marketing love heaven with these guys (or girls, I have no idea who’s behind it really!)

So, the real question is, going forward with new ideas for yourself and your business, new goals, new things to sell perhaps or new things to create to sell is this:

How can you create urgency and scarcity?

Oh, and by the way – scarcity is often the better influencer of purchase!

Here are some of my thoughts around offers to do this:

• Limited time offers (offer only good until midnight Saturday)
• Limited availability (we only have 3 spots left)
• Fast action bonus’ (first 50 buyers will get extra bonuses)

Do you have any of these inside your business? What are your offers?  Grab a piece of paper and write them down.

Are they urgent?  Are they scarce?

It’s basic economics as scarcity sits at the heart of supply and demand. When something is scarce, it naturally increases in value – like wise when something is commonplace, its value diminishes.

And as humans we have this natural desire to be included, not to miss out on something.

So, you can see where I’m coming from when I say that Clubhouse has (at this point in time) the perfect formula.

I just wanted to point out here – that’s there’s a difference in “thinking scarcity” as a business owner and using scarcity as a marketing strategy.

If we have a scarcity mindset as a business owner, we are normally thinking about money – the thing that makes the world go round.  Have a scarcity mindset when it comes to business or money will NOT serve you well.

The temptation for a business that needs customers or clients, or money is to try and be everything to everybody. Rather than targeting their marketing efforts business owners in this state tend to generalise as much as they can. In the vain hope that this will maximise the number of potential leads they can generate.

THIS IS A MISTAKE!

To create a CONSITENT FLOW OF LEADS, you need to be VERY CLEAR about who you want to attract.

So, we go back to the marketing fundamentals of who is your target audience, ideal client, ideal customer avatar and what do you want to be famous for.

If you head back to my Podcast episodes 4 and 25 you can learn more on those subjects.

https://socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/4

https://socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/25

So, just to be clear, we aren’t talking about a scarcity mindset, rather we are talking about you creating a product or a service that your audience perceives as more valuable simply because it’s scarce!

Ok, just to wrap things up a little.

I want you to:

• Have a look inside your business, what you sell, what you offer and see what you can make urgent and/or scarce to sell more of, and
• I want you to start looking at the world as a marketer. Look around you, watch TV ads (especially those infomercials – they are brilliant at urgency and scarcity – sometimes I almost want to buy that floor mop I’ll never use!) take a look at yourself and what you buy and why and start implementing those principles into your own business.

There’s a reason why we buy two lots of green tea bags because they have a 2 for deal!  If we read the fine print that says “save 10c” – we would probably still buy the two!

Watch how marketing works on you – you’ll be surprised what you can learn!

Oh, and if you’re in business, get on Clubhouse!  If you can grow your business by connecting with Like Minded Business Owners and create collaborations or even new customers by interacting with others – then Clubhouse, my friend, is the place to hang out at this point in time.

I’d love to see you there – @jenndonovan

And you still do need an invitation to join – so if you aren’t on Clubhouse and want to be, head to my Like Minded Business Owners Facebook group and ask there who might have one for you – everyone has been super generous and sharing their invitations in my group. OR – or send me a DM on Instagram or an email jenn@jenndonovan.com.au

ABOUT THE AUTHOR!

Jenn Donovan is a marketing strategist and social media extraordinaire, coach and mentor to savvy business owners. Owner and Founder of Social Media & Marketing Australia.

With a passion for making business simple, because it’s isn’t easy but it should be simple or at least simpler, she’s built a reputation for helping other small business owners simplify their marketing and businesses so they can reach their goals, be more profitable and live the dream (finding the freedom they set out to achieve when they started … the illusive small business owner freedom dream …!)

Jenn believes in giving before asking and that’s why she’s the host of the popular Small Business Made Simple Podcast.