4 Ways to Use FOMO in Marketing

The world is so filled with all kinds of content and experiences that it’s no wonder a notion such as FOMO has become a predominant trend that dictates customer decisions. The fear of missing out, which is what FOMO stands for, is a growing behavioral trend among modern-day consumers. Everyone wants to be in the know and they don’t want to be excluded from what’s trending. For brands today, this drive is more than just a factor in purchasing choices. It’s an opportunity to improve brand perception and increase the desirability of your products and services due to the interest other people are giving your brand.

So, without further ado, let’s take a closer look at a few marketing strategies that will effectively increase FOMO among your customers, thus enticing them to spend less time hesitating, and more time buying from you. 

Present your stock levels

The overabundance of options creates a false impression among your customers that they’ll always have access to the items they want or may be interested in. They can only see the product represented in your e-shops and digital catalogs without knowing exactly how fast you’ll shift to a new collection. To give them an idea of availability, you can regularly present stock levels for each product you’re selling – especially if there are only a handful of items available, which means that you’ll use the scarcity of the product to sell it faster.

This is what major sellers such as Amazon do on a regular basis, since they have so many brands as well as individual products available, it can be difficult to market and advertise them all equally effectively. This particular FOMO tactic helps them stir more interest, and allows them to sell out certain products to make room for fresh collections. 

Use social proof on your site

When you’re in a physical store, and you see many people reaching for the same item, you will naturally be curious about the product. If the stocks begin to deplete right before your eyes, you’ll feel even more encouraged to hurry up, check it out, and maybe even get it for yourself. To mimic the very same emotion in e-commerce purchases, brands can use a social proof tool such as Cue to notify their website visitors each time someone purchases a product on the site. A little pop-up window in the bottom left corner with the name and location of the person will often do the trick.

This is one of the most effective ways to showcase the perception your existing customers have for your brand and thus inspire your website visitors to become buyers. When they know that others trust your business, they’ll be far more inclined to trust you, too, especially if they are first-time visitors on your site. 

Time your discounts and sales

Many retailers have trouble selling items that are either outshined by their latest collection, or that have been sitting on their digital shelves for too long – people tend to forget about them. To get the ball rolling, many fashion sellers utilize a simple, but powerful tactic of placing a countdown timer on each item that’s on sale. Sure, the discount alone is often more than enough to get more people to look at those particular items, but the fleeting nature of that sale is what will get them to buy instead of bookmarking the page for later, or abandoning their cart.

The ticking clock right next to the sales notification allows your customers to know precisely how much time they have to get that item while it’s on sale, otherwise, they’ll be looking at regular prices the very next time they visit your site. For retailers with vast product collections, this makes for a great way to inspire faster purchases.

Remind them they have competition

Have you ever used Booking.com for finding accommodation when you travel? Many people use this world-famous platform, and it’s certainly considered a godsend for such endeavors, but this time, we should look at one of the simplest, yet most effective ways they get their customers to make up their minds faster. If you open up a listing of a certain apartment for rent abroad, you’ll find a red-colored note at the bottom telling you exactly how many people are checking out that very same property. 

To a great extent, knowing this information can inspire urgency in customers, since they will make sure to get the accommodation perfect for their getaway. Nobody wants to be stuck with a subpar room on their exotic vacation. This single note can “nudge” customers in the right direction and help them make up their minds with ease. 

Life can get pretty hectic, and people nowadays have too many choices to make every day. In all of that fuss, they should be reminded that your brand’s experience or product is the one to make a difference and the one they shouldn’t miss out on. Use these simple, but effective FOMO marketing tactics to your advantage, and harness the rising interest in your business to boost conversions.