Remember the time you forgot about an assignment only to remember it shortly before submission? The fear of missing deadlines spurred us on. We scampered to deliver, and hopefully, we did a good job.
Fear is a powerful emotion, one that also works quite effectively in marketing when used by a skilled copywriter.
The fear of missing out, of being left behind is a major driving force for people to seek out certain products and services. Is it a surprise then, that fear-based marketing generates more revenue and profits compared to its counterparts?
Fear-Based Marketing
Fear is often seen as a negative emotion, but when done right, it can prove to be a profitable marketing tactic. How do you use fear? How do you make it work in your favor?
The fear appeal has been used in marketing for years, and successfully. It is intended to motivate the audience by presenting a threat. The end goal is to make the audience purchase a product or contribute to a specific cause.
How does this work? By essentially telling people they’re at risk of moral or social degeneration, for example, if they don’t contribute towards a cause…or that they’ll miss out on a much-hyped limited edition product if they don’t purchase it right away.
Fear-based marketing works through a three-step fear appeal.
Introduce the Threat
Through the use of vivid words or pictures, illustrate the severity of a threat. Involve the audience. The reader must feel vulnerable or complicit in the threat posed.
Here’s an example:
Plastic straws wreck marine life. Killing sea turtles slowly, one straw at a time. Do you use plastic straws? If you do, it’s not too late to change that habit.
Support Your Claims With Statistics
Relate the threat to the audience, and add a personal factor. Why should they feel threatened and at risk? It’s time you introduce the statistics.
Here’s an example:
Contrary to popular misconception, men are at risk of developing breast cancer too. About 1 in every 100 cancer diagnoses in the United States is of a man.
Introduce a Solution
If you wish to highlight the effect of 12+ hours of screen time on the eyes of teenagers and young adults, don’t tell them to stop using phones altogether. Because let’s face it, they’re not going to do it.
Instead, give them a solution. Market blue-light spectacles as an effective tool to reduce the damage to their eyes. Highlight the multiple benefits of using it.
If you provide a solution that works well, you’re more likely to convince people to spend money on it. The bigger the risk a product can mitigate, the bigger the buying factor.
Conclusion
The key to fear-based appeal lies in persuading the audience, not paralyzing them.
Making use of robust statistics can make the appearance of a threat very much real.
People are more likely to believe in fear-based marketing when they know it comes from a reliable source and has multiple surveys and research backing it.
But the risk needs to be something that can be avoided with your proposed solution.
It’s easy to go overboard with this marketing tactic, so be careful. Make sure you know your audience and market accordingly.
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