FOMO is the new YOLO. Sounds catchy, doesn’t it? But what does it mean? Well, I will first have to cover the basics and do some explaining.
What Is FOMO?
It stands for Fear of Missing Out or, to use “smarter” words, the pervasive apprehension that other people might be having rewarding experiences from which we are absent. It is a psychological trigger for which our brains have no resistance. Plus, let’s face it — nobody likes feeling left behind.
What Was YOLO Again?
It is a simple acronym for You Only Live Once. It is also the reason for many base jumps, dives with sharks, tattoos in odd places, awkward mornings, nights spent in jail, etc.
The Connection?
If we zoom out and see FOMO as a lot more than a psychological trigger, but also acknowledge its marketing potential, you can easily see how a well-crafted FOMO memo can trigger an instantaneous YOLO reaction. Yes, of course you will go to that amazing club opening on a Tuesday night, despite the fact you have to be at work by 8 a.m. the following morning. Of course, you will “YOLO” it. But you will FOMO it more.
The Role of FOMO in Marketing
To adapt the meaning in business terms, the role of FOMO in your marketing strategy is to create a message that taps into your audience’s innate fear of missing out on a good opportunity you are presenting it with. Make your website content writers start incorporating FOMO marketing to prompt your target clients to take action and buy your product, go to your opening, and book your service.
Seriously, do that now or you’ll miss out a lot!
Is It Worth the Effort?
I’ll let statistics answer that for me. Various data sources suggest that FOMO has the greatest impact on millennials. Around 69% of millennials experience the FOMO phenomenon, and around 60% of them actually make reactive purchases because of it. Millennials are far from everyone who gets the FOMO disease. In fact, more than 50% of people using social networks suffer from FOMO. With over 3 billion active users on social media worldwide,
You have over 1.5 billion opportunities to grow your business.
The Leverage — Let’s Talk About The Hows
I’ve tried to put these down as simply and concisely as possible.
- Show That People are Buying — Prove your product/service is desired by many. Nothing serves as a better stimulus to click the “Buy” button than seeing how many people have already done it.
- Highlight Missed Opportunities in your Messaging — Tell your audience it already missed something great you offered. It will prompt people to not miss what you are offering them now!
- Show Stock Levels — The urge to get people buying comes from knowing they are “fighting” for a limited number of items. A limited number of items means those items are highly sought-after.
- Make Your Visitors Watch the Clock — Set a timer for order sessions. That’s another tactic that triggers FOMO.
You can also call it “loss aversion” if you feel fancy enough. It’s still the same thing.
- Stir Your Clients’ Competitive Spirit — Not only do we not like missing out on things, but we also hate the thought that others might get something awesome before we do. That’s why a good FOMO campaign will inspire action.
- Limit Free Shipping — We’ve all been there: adding something extra in our shopping cart just to make enough to reach the free shipping threshold. Do the same, it will work.
- Be Explicit about FOMO — I hate to break it to you, but even though people fall for the trap, they still know that trap is called FOMO. Or at least, some of them know. Don’t be afraid to say it out loud, especially if your primary audience are millennials.
- Let Your Content Expire — Remember when I talked about ephemeral content? Exactly.
- Trigger FOMO with Images — I always say (and it’s always true) that we are visual creatures. Back your strategy with the right image and you will nail it.
- Make Your Offer Exclusive — Think about those platforms that offer premium accounts (e.g. LinkedIn, Amazon Prime) granting access to information and services other users can’t get their hands on.
- Promote Experiences — Allow user-generated content on your website and let potential clients get real proof of actual clients. You can sit back and relax, your existing customers will do the job for you!
- Offer Rewards for Early Decisions — Even if you don’t place a time limit per order session, offering freebies to the first clients to purchase your product will prompt action as well. And the freebie does not even have to be something special. It’s free, people like it more by default.
- Boost FOMO Marketing with Email — FOMO is the perfect addition to your email marketing campaigns: you can flash exclusive deals, last chance to buy, and anything else of that sort —
People will literally and figuratively buy it!
And remember, you only live once, so don’t let the fear of missing out get to you! If you struggle to incorporate FOMO in your marketing messages on your own, just ask for help. Our team of website content writers can handle it!
