Should You Use Fear in Your Marketing?

Should you use fear in marketing? Well, let’s start by asking, “What would you do in this situation?”

Imagine you are a blacksmith and you make the best armor for knights in the land. And when I mean the best, I mean it’s so good that a dragon’s bite will not pierce it. In fact, knights that defend kingdoms against dragons travel many, many miles just to pick up custom suits of armor from you because they know it will protect them better than any other armor and help propel them to victory.

Now, one day, you’re working in your shop, and you see a young knight ride into town with shoddy armor. It’s terrible. It’s a bunch of little platelets tied together with string. Oblivious to how bad her armor is, the knight rides through town with her chin up proudly.

“Hello, mighty knight,” you call out to her.

“Greetings armor-maker,” she replies. Do you know which way to Mount Dastardly? I hear there is a dragon there, and I intend to defeat it to protect the realms.”

You look at her armor once again. Then, you think, “Does she actually intend to face a dragon wearing such shoddy equipment?” You decided to say something.

“Mighty knight, if you don’t mind a bit of advice, I think you need better armor if you are going to face down a dragon.”

The knight looks at you blankly. “No, I don’t. This armor will work just fine. As you can see it has many metal plates tied together that will protect me.”

Obviously, this knight is dangerously wrong. You know this because you make armor for knights to protect them from dragons. It’s what you do as a business. Maybe you should offer her your services?

“If it helps, I specialize in making armor for knights who face dragons. I have 15-years worth of experience. I can create a much better suit of armor for you, one that will protect you better than what you’re wearing.”

“Thank you for the offer,” the knight responds, “but this armor has protected me perfectly fine up to this point. I have faced vicious sparrows, badgers, and porcupines. I have enough experience to know that armor is armor. I do not need anything more than what I have.”

Okay, now it’s obvious that this knight is completely unaware of the problem. And that will be disastrous for her if she continues. At this point, she really needs to know what kind of danger she’s riding into.

“Did you know,” you say to the knight before she rides away, ”that a dragon’s claw can rip shingles off a roof with one swipe? Or that a dragon’s breath can burn ropes that hold together the parts of a bridge? Or that a dragon’s bite can go right through links of chain armor because it’s not solid and strong enough to stop it? Also, another tidbit of information: Of all the knights who have passed through here to fight a dragon with armor like yours, none have returned. Yet, all of those who have bought mine have. Are you so confident that you believe that your rickety suit of strung-together metal plates can defy those odds and risk not only your future but the future of the realm you are supposed to be defending?”

Yep, there it is. You went there. You stepped right into “trigger fear” mode. Why? Because it was important for that knight to realize the significance of what she was doing, what she was facing, and how her actions would affect others. It’s important for her to hear this, otherwise, her future might be significantly darker.

That is an ethical use of fear.

The Relationship between Emotion and Decision Making

How do you make decisions? Do you say, “Oh, I want that!”, and then make arrangements to purchase. Or, do you gather information in order to make the most informed decision possible based on the facts in front of you?

I think most people would like to say they are the latter. After all, it’s a far more reasonable position. Making decisions based on emotions sounds a bit silly.

But…

It turns out that, according to neuroscience, all people make decisions emotionally. Yes, for better or worse, we make decisions that make us feel good, and then we gather data to rationalize that decision. I realize this may be a shock, but that’s what studies are showing us.

That basically leads us to your two key leverage points in presenting offers. The first is an invite into a pleasant possibility. Heather often talks about this as painting a picture of your ideal client’s heaven. The second is to warn of danger. This is what Heather is talking about when you paint a picture of your ideal client’s hell. Basically, you are offering your clients either a pleasant or unpleasant emotional experience. When you are triggering an unpleasant experience, you are triggering at least a mild form of fear.

Here are a couple of ways you can use fear appropriately.

Agitation

Have you ever heard the saying, “You can’t know sweet until you have tasted bitter”? This is perhaps the best explanation for why you want to agitate your ideal client’s problems. Solutions don’t exist outside problems. If you offer someone a solution to a problem they don’t think they have, then you aren’t offering them anything of value. And, for better or worse, when people do know they have a problem, we human beings happen to be pretty good at hiding from them in the hopes that they just go away. That’s why you want to agitate your ideal client’s problem. It brings it to the forefront of their mind. It reminds them of how significant it is in their lives.

When you agitate, you are triggering at least a mild form of fear. Here’s an example.

Are you tired of sleepless nights worrying about whether your business can compete in the marketplace?

That’s actually a double whammy. It triggers a fear that the trend of sleepless nights will continue if nothing is done. It also triggers the fear of a future probability in which their business fails.

That question isn’t unlike the questions addressed to the knight. The goal is to make someone truly aware of the struggle they face. After all, the success of their business will surely have an effect on others, such as family, friends, and employees. You’re not trying to scare someone into buying your services. You are simply trying to take seriously the potential implications of inaction. You are trying to get them to move in a different, less disastrous, direction.

Understanding why people move is important. Our natural tendency is to move away from things that make us uncomfortable and move toward things that bring us pleasure.

Any time you trigger fear, you are creating the desire to move away from that experience. But, once they start moving, they need somewhere to go.

That’s why it’s important to follow up “hell” with “heaven.”

My proven 3-step process will teach you how to break into new markets overnight and double your monthly income.

That’s the solution. But it is important to help them first get into the right frame of mind (a desire to no longer be where they are). Triggering the fear in your marketing connects them emotionally to their problem, and as a result, personalizes the solution.

Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)

“C’mon, everybody’s doing it.” We’ve all heard that at some point in our lives.

Because human beings are social creatures who feel safer in numbers, the experience of being isolated or being left behind can be frightening. That’s where the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) comes in.

Remember, fear is an emotion that moves us away from something unpleasant. You can use that to encourage people to decide to buy your services.

One way to do this is to show a series of testimonials. Yes, testimonials are a great way to show people the value of working with you. But, by showing a crowd of people who are thriving because of your help, you are basically saying, “See here, everybody’s at the party having a wonderful time. Do you really want to sit home alone right now and miss out on all the fun?”

Another way to use FOMO is to let people know when supply is limited or when offers will expire. This lets them know that the opportunity will not last forever. Either they will enter in through that window, or they will miss out. In these cases, the goal isn’t necessarily to trigger the fear of missing out as much as it is to inform them that the opportunity is limited. Of course, by informing them, you are triggering the fear of missing out, but that should not be your primary goal.

In fact, that leads us to an unethical way of triggering FOMO. If you say you have a limited supply, then you need to actually have a limited supply. If you are only going to have an offer open for a certain amount of time, then you need to end the offer at that time. The use of fear in marketing shouldn’t include lying. Marketing should never be deceptive.

One of the easiest ways to leverage FOMO in an ethical way is something like a holiday sale. The timeline corresponds to the holiday, and everybody knows that this is a season-related opportunity. It’s also okay to have early-bird specials. I personally think this is the best way to use FOMO. You’re targeting those who are most likely to buy, and you’re giving them an opportunity to save a little bit of money by purchasing earlier rather than later.

Dangers of Abusing Fear in Your Marketing

Whenever you start triggering emotions intentionally, you are playing with fire. If you aren’t careful how you use fear in marketing, you can get burned.

Have you ever met someone who just seems to be negative about everything all the time? It’s almost like they live their lives jumping from one unpleasant situation to the next. There comes a point (at least for me) where I just don’t want to be around the negativity anymore and I start avoiding the person.

Overusing fear in marketing can have the same effect. Eventually, people are going to start noticing that fearmongering is coming into play. They don’t want to feel that kind of negativity all the time. Furthermore, they can easily start to assume you need to use fear to get people to buy because you don’t have anything worth buying in the first place.

If you recall from other articles, the goal of marketing is to help people to learn to get to know you, like you, and trust you. When you start sending signals that you are a fearmonger, they aren’t going to like you anymore, and they certainly are not going to trust you.

When is it Ethical to Use Fear in Marketing?

This is where I strongly urge self-awareness. Ask yourself questions like, “Why are you doing it?” Are you doing it simply to make the sale? Are you trying to scare them so that you can get their money? Or are you merely helping them to become aware of the significance of their problem and letting them know the truth about how limited their opportunities are? If you are doing the latter, then you will naturally gravitate toward an ethical use of fear.

Always keep in mind that you are trying to connect with your ideal client so that you can help them. Your use of fear in marketing should be subordinate to that.