Hey there 👋 - Abhi here!
Happy Thursday to the 20,819 marketers reading this newsletter :)
I'm sitting out here in San Francisco, all excited about the good weather and a couple of games of pickleball. But you know what I'm more excited about? This piece.
Today we're going to cover:
- Time-Based Scarcity
- How Bumble used this technique to skyrocket engagement
- Upselling for convenience, time-bound offers, and time-tiered pricing
Estimated Reading Time = 4 minutes 36 seconds
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Now to today's piece 🤝
Time-Based Scarcity
At its core, the scarcity effect is simple:
We place more value on objects that are scarce and lesser value on abundant objects.
But if we look deeper, there are two kinds of scarcity:
1/ Quantity-related scarcity
This is the one we all know and love. Think, "Only 2 items left in stock."
2/ Time-related scarcity
This is the one we often overlook. We often neglect. But let's change that.
Let's start by breaking down Bumble's 24-Hour Rule...
Now I'm not on Bumble, my girlfriend would kill me, but most of my single friends are.
And they introduced me to something really interesting:
It's a simple rule to promote conversations and prevent ghosting. And it works:
The key statistics:
- 18% rise in male responses to female-initiated chats
- a chat is 70% more likely to continue once there is a reply
- a 9% increase in women sending the first messages...
So from a romantic perspective, this was a great move from Bumble.
But what about their business? How does this nudge help them grow?
I'll break that down, along with a couple tactics for you, in the next segment ;)
Before that, 3 click-worthy marketing resources I found this week:
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3 Tactics For You
1. Upsell for Convenience
If you look at Bumble's business model, they only make money when:
- users make in-app purchases (eg. SuperSwipe)
- or when users upgrade to Bumble Boost or Bumble Premium
Increased chat usage doesn't help their business. At least not directly.
So how did they connect the dots? With an upsell for convenience...
To get rid of this frustrating, time-induced scarcity, you had to upgrade to premium:
I find it interesting that Bumble created both the scarcity and the solution to monetize it.
For you, that could mean engineering a time crunch (ideally one that benefits the users in some way) and providing an upsell as a way to eliminate that frustration.
2. Time-Bound Offers
Adding timers to your website is a rather direct takeaway.
But I'll do you one better: Connect that time crunch to an emotional event.
For instance, Ernest Jones (a British jewelry brand) added a countdown timer before Mother's Day, showcasing how much time the customers had to order the gift in time.
And they experienced a 28% increase in holiday sales. That's worth millions...
But you know what they're still missing? An element of personalization.
Connect Fairing to your e-commerce store, collect post-purchase data in seconds, and put your customers onto personalized email sequences.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Personalization sells. Leverage it.
3. Time-Tiered Pricing
Too many companies are out here prioritizing their new customers.
I'd go the other way. Reward your early customers with a tiered pricing system.
Take a look at this pricing structure Steph Smith uses for her courses:
It's not directly time-related, but it adds time pressure:
Don't act quickly, and you'll end up paying more.
Act now, and you'll save a couple of bucks.
The perfect way to push those people off the edge and get customers paying...
That's all for this Thursday! 1 marketing breakdown & 3 tactics to get you started
If you missed it last week, we analyzed Apple's Guide to Packaging Psychology.
A Review From A Fellow Marketing Psychologist...
So if you want some more "informative" and actionable content, I'm dropping a digital course on Copywriting Psychology soon. Join the waitlist here
And join quickly cause I'm going to use that same time-tiered pricing model ;)
Anyways, see you all next week!
Abhishek "I Love Working At Cafes" Shah
My Cafe of the Week: Fiddle Fig Cafe
In case you're confused, I'm the brown boy on the left having a cultural Chai Tea Latte ;)
If you're a fellow coffee aficionado, though, help me out and hit me with a rec. Thanks!