Have you heard of ‘FOMO’?
No?
Then you’ve probably missed out.
FOMO is the ‘fear of missing out’. |
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| It’s a marketer’s dream. A consumer’s nightmare. FOMO is behind the success of expiring content. |
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What is Expiring Content?
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Content
that expires. It’s the digital equivalent of a flash sale. It’s a photo
that sticks around for 24 hours, and 24 hours only. Unless you
screenshot it, obviously.
Expiring content is why Kylie Lip Kits
sell out in minutes (more on this later). It’s why people pay $600 for
hideous Yeezys. It’s why Snapchat managed to rack up a $24 billion
High-P-O. If you’ll pardon the pun.
Expiring content is having its moment in the content marketing spotlight, and it’s only getting stronger. |
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How does FOMO Marketing work?
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| 1. |
Scarcity. It pushes urgency to the forefront of content marketing. It
creates an artificial desire to buy something. It makes us feel like we
have no choice. If we know only 40,000 Ed Sheeran tickets exist, we’ll
probably try to buy one. If we know we only have 30 seconds to buy one
of those 40,000 Ed Sheeran tickets, we’ll try harder. Even if we don’t
really like Ed Sheeran. |
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| 2. |
Regret. One of our biggest fears. We fear the inability to reverse
time, the risk of a lost opportunity, the impossibility of a second
chance. We don’t want the regret of someone else getting there first.
FOMO Marketing takes our innate desire of self-preservation, and
applies it to the consumer goods world. It’s almost like ‘survival of
the fittest’. |
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| 4. |
Exclusivity. Something I always go back to. Engagement is crucial in
today’s marketing world, and you’ll only achieve this through creating
that special relationship with your customer. Expiring content is
exclusive — it makes your customer feel like they’re the only one.
Didn’t manage to see DJ Khaled getting stuck on a jet ski? Too bad,
because I DID. So I’m extra special. Ps. Follow DJKhaled305 — you won’t
regret it. |
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FOMO marketing shows the relationship between human nature and
purchasing decisions. It’s a psychological strategy whose success rides
on the ability to bring out our deepest, darkest insecurities. It goes
under the radar — it hits our subconscious. |
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Fear of the ‘What-if?’
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It’s Friday night. You’ve got plans to head down to the pub.
But it’s raining, you’re tired, and you’d rather be in bed with Ben & Jerry. You don’t really want to go out. |
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Fear strikes.
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What if you miss out on the best night of your life?
What if you miss out on meeting your soulmate?
But what if you get home, and Ben & Jerry aren’t waiting for you in the freezer?
You weigh up the ‘What-ifs’. You end up going to the pub. The risk of missing out is just too high.
It’s that constant need for involvement; for something greater. A sort of greed, if you will.
You
know how silly you’re being. The pub’s there every week, you don’t even
like beer that much, and you’re more likely to meet your soulmate on
Tinder. No offence.
But you still fall victim to FOMO. Because of the ‘What-ifs’. Because of the uncertainty and fear. |
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| Applying FOMO to the Digital World |
This isn’t anything new.
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FOMO marketing goes back to the beginning of flash sales. The days of ‘Limited Edition’ Pokemon cards.
But now, technology’s vamping up the FOMO process.
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The next step for marketers:
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To maximise FOMO for the upcoming
generations. To harness the power of urgency by pushing out endless
forms of expiring content before it’s too late. Before we’re secure
enough to realise we don’t actually need all four Krispy Kremes in the
offer.
Technology
provides the perfect platform for the modern-day FOMO. We see
everything — we see what our friends are doing, what our friends’
friends are doing, what our friends’ friends’ dogs are doing.
And
it’s getting worse. It’s hitting the younger generations by the second.
Millennials and the Gen Zs are becoming more susceptible to FOMO as the
opportunity for connection continues to expand. The young are scared.
They’re scared of forgetting to stick a picture of their latest
‘avocado bowl’ on their Snapchat Story. They’re scared of not having
the latest iPhone to take that Snapchat on. They’re scared of not being
cool enough, and they’re scared of missing out.
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The Experience Economy
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We’re in the middle of the experience economy. People are spending money on experience, over ‘things’.
78%
of Millennials do this. They’ve realised that material goods don’t
always lead to happiness. People are starting to value life differently.
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Why’s this relevant to FOMO marketing?
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People’s
buying patterns are changing. You’ve now got a big opportunity to
revolutionise your content strategy. The intangible is valuable. We
want the experiential.
Going back to the Millennials, 69% say they experience FOMO. They invest time, money and effort in a bid to avoid missing out.
Marketers
should start by focusing on Millennials and Gen Z. Forget
Baby-Boomers — they didn’t grow up on technology. They didn’t care
about what everyone else was doing back then, so why should they care
now? But the younger Gens? They care. |
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Quick Tips
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It’s obvious, but start with Snapchat. If you haven’t included it in your content marketing strategy, then now’s the time.
Buffer do a great intro to Snapchat marketing, right here.
If
you have included it, there’s always a way to make it better. Social
media marketing changes at the speed of light. Reassess your strategy.
The bottom line is:
Experience sells. And FOMO allows that experience to sell tenfold.
Have
a read of Simon Sinek’s bestselling ‘Start With Why’. It explains the
Apple phenomenon. Steve Jobs didn’t release the iPod and expect us all
to figure out why we liked it. Instead, he started by identifying the
reason we needed it. And then he told us, through advertising, through
design, and through word-of-mouth. Jobs made us realise that if we
didn’t buy one, we’d be missing out on the experience. The ‘Apple
Club’. Jobs started with ‘why’. |
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Final Remarks
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You’d think that the more product you have, the more you’d sell.
But it’s quite the opposite.
In
a world of too much choice, time and freedom, we want to be told what
to do. We need a bit of guidance, and guidance comes in the form of
restriction. Restriction creates fear. Fear converts.
So think
about the exclusivity of your product, whether you can release any
‘Limited Editions’, and how you can use the power of expiring content
through Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook Stories to make your product
just that little bit more exciting in the mind of your customer. Use
FOMO.
You’ll be hitting the content marketing big-time. |
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