FOMO, or fear of missing out, is the phenomena of people fearing they will miss out on a great offer if they don't take action. It's an effective copywriting strategy that every writer needs to know.

1. FOMO Copywriting
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2. What is FOMO?
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Fear of missing out, or FOMO short, is the phenomenon of being afraid
that you'll miss out on something exciting if you don't take immediate
action.
We see it everywhere.
Look at social media.
Everybody posts the good side of their life, leaving out the bad.
This can easily make people log on, see other's "awesome" lifestyle, and
feel like they're not doing enough.
That can be translated into writing to push people to take action like
purchasing a product, as well.

3. Add a hint of exclusivity1

4. Exclusivity
If everybody can get it, why bother?
Think about luxury brands like Gucci, Louis Vuitton, or Mercedes Benz.
They're some of the best marketers globally.
This is because they charge a massive premium for a product because it's
rare, scarce, and puts customers into a clubhouse.
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5. Exclusivity
This is a mock/satire advertisement from the WWF for a luxury coat with
the title "Limited Edition" and "Only 60 left in stock."
However, the campaign message was to not treat animals as a luxury good.
Despite this, they wrote incredible copy and it serves as a great example of
what many luxury companies do to instill FOMO.
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6. Exclusivity
● Focusing on the high-quality materials or process used to create a
product.
● Emphasizing the price if the product expensive as higher pricing is
associated with value.
● Show images of customers wearing or using the product.
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7. Exclusivity
Another technique is to emphasize member-only sections of a website.
This can make users feel left out and eager to sign up to be involved.
Otherwise, it's like being the last kid being picked for dodgeball.
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8. Exclusivity
This only brings me to my next point of
gated content or special offers.
Backlinko does this perfectly on their blog.
Some articles are locked and labeled as
"Exclusive Content for Backlinko
Subscribers."
That's enough to make any reader scream
"Gimme!"
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9. Time restricted offers2

10. Time restricted offers
Imagine this...
You're in a store. There are a few hours left before it closes.
Needless to say, you wouldn't feel much of a rush to get
what you needed.
On the flip-side, imagine it closed in 15 minutes! 😱
You'd be running around the store like Usain Bolt to grab
everything, right?
That's also why time-restricted offers are so effective.
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11. Time restricted offers
Look how Best Buy does this:
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12. Low inventory3

13. Low inventory
Everybody wants what they can't have.
If a product is in low stock, the demand for it tends to increase.
Unless you were napping in your sophomore economics class
(Don't worry, I'm guilty too), you should remember the supply
and demand curve.
Think about it like this:
● As inventory goes up, demand decreases or remains the
same.
● If inventory goes down, demand increases.
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14. Low inventory
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You can take advantage of this as a
copywriter by writing low-stock warnings on
appropriate pages.
Check out Canada Computers. (Shout out to
my fellow Canucks.)
They highlight how much of a product is left
in stock at any physical location you choose.

15. Display customer
activity4

16. Recent customer activity
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Copywriters and marketers can amplify the previous technique
further by clearly displaying recent purchases.
For instance, have you ever been on a website and in the corner it
said: "John Doe just purchased X product?"
That's real-time FOMO.
Paired with the other techniques in today's article, it could easily
increase conversion rates and revenue.

17. Recent customer activity
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Marcus Taylor, the founder of Venture Harbour,
invested in a music campaign. He called it a
“Groupon deal for musicians.”
He obsessed with increasing the conversion rate
because the campaign was going to reach
millions.
A small bump in conversions would make it rain
money.
Taylor ultimately increased the conversion rate of
the campaign from 2.5%–10.8%!

18. Recent customer activity
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He listed six strategies that helped him achieve
this:
1. Make your offer as clear as possible so
customers know what they're getting. (And
missing out on.)
2. The offer must be hyper-relevant to the
target audience to maximize engagement
and impact.
3. A clear value proposition needs to be
advertised.
4. Increase trust with money-back guarantees,
FAQs, and testimonials.
5. Keep the landing page as simple as possible
to reduce distractions.
6. Create FOMO by displaying how many
products have been purchased.

19. Recent customer activity
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Note how it clearly says the number
of bundles that were ordered on the
split tested variation of the sales
page.
That alone ramped up conversions
from 3.5%–10%. 🔥
This works so well because of social
proof. If others are buying it, the
product must be awesome.

20. Exit intent offers5

21. Exit intent urgency
What if you have the perfect copy, offer, and funnel, but they
still don't convert?
Hit em' before they leave!
Exit-intent offers are the perfect way to instill last-minute
FOMO.
Neuro's case study on optimizing exit-intent popups is a prime
example of this.
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22. Exit intent urgency
Neuro created pop-ups for different buyer personas and pages; they contained a unique copy and offers.
You can see in the above image that the pop-ups were optimized to address a specific problem, customer
anxiety, and provide a solution.
Conversion rates increased by 21.94% and revenue by 41.9% thanks to these changes.
You can achieve similar results by adding exit-intent offers to your website, and segmenting the copy based
on customer behavior.
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23. Tell a secret6

24. Tell a secret
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Who doesn't love a nice juicy secret?
People will scurry to hear about one
in many cases.
This is because it implies there's
something they don't know—and
uncovering it—may benefit them.
Look at the headline for this article
about selling on Amazon:

25. Tell a secret
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John Caples, one of the world's best
marketers, created the legendary ad
titled "They laughed when I sat
down at the piano but when I
started to play!"
This instantly gets you wondering
why people were laughing at the
character and what happened after.

26. Tell a secret
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Try using some of the following
power words when creating
headlines to achieve these effects:
● Secret
● Don't miss out
● Astonishing
● Behind the scenes
● Insider
● Classified
● Eye-opening
● Little-known
● Myths
● Restricted
● Controversial
● Confidential
● Censored
● Blacklisted
● Top secret
● Trade secret
● Unbelievable
● Under the table
● Unconventional
● Unheard of
● Unique
● Withheld
● Forgotten
● Hidden
● Forbidden

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