The Get in First Mentality
As someone who is fully immersed in the culture of online advertising and internet marketing, one thing that still surprises me is the “Get in First” mentality, people who truly believe that if they don’t join a site or start advertising it right away, that they will be missing out on something.
Even successful, long term, professional marketers find themselves favoring new websites, services, and products vs ones that have had a long lasted life. The marketers who are creating these sites are custom tailoring their sales pages to synergize with your deep animal nature thought that things are limited. The scarcity effect. We have been programmed to believe things exist only in limited quantities. You remember the last time you had a birthday party in your work place? Carefully eyeballing the cake they purchased imagining how many slices it can make, and getting your place in line accordingly. Well the same “lesson” follows us to the internet, but the internet is not a birthday cake. There is no limit on websites, no limit on visitors, no limit on the size and scope of your market.
People believe and demonstrate every day a true belief that there is a limited amount of people to refer to their company or sale their product or service to. They need to “Get in Early” so they can scoop up the good referrals before everyone else gets them all. People legitimately believe this, and a huge market is created around just hype, building things up, using scarcity and other hot button marketing techniques to convince the end user that they really do need to sign up right now and make a purchase and promote right now, or they will lose out on something, referrals, commissions, could be anything really. The theory supporting this and allowing us to rationalize this sales tactic is that there are a limited amount of people in the market, a limited amount of buying power, and a limited amount of time – people are react quickly and carelessly because they feel like if they don’t, someone else will.
Well the fact is, you both can. That website is never going to say “Oh we have too many people, we’re making too much money, we can’t have any more new members” That will never happen, the product will still be there for you, and you will still be able to promote it (assuming of course it isn’t a scam and the owner closes it down randomly (or the gov’t does – be careful what you sign up for!)).
What you are telling me when you say oh get in now, get in while it’s hot, it’s in prelaunch sign up now, get in quick, etc. What you’re telling me is that somehow you’ve been in business all this time yet think there is a finite amount of customers.
Is there a limited amount of buyers?
If you used a billboard on the same spot of I-206 for fifteen years, then yes, maybe there are a limited amount of people who drive that route, if that’s the only way a person would know about your business. Even though that’s not a limited amount of consumers, that’s just your own limit in your ability to reach them. For the sake of argument we’ll say yes, that’s a limited amount of buyers, but this is really the only situation where that is so, because 92% of adult internet users use search engines, so weather you want them to or not, people can still find the site and make a purchase.
On the internet, there is no limited amount of buyers. 32% of the world’s population regularly uses the internet. That’s over 2 Billion people, so unless you have 2 billion unique members in the site you are promoting, you have a hell of a lot more potential customers out there. But even with this argument, we can say it is finite at 2.2 billion. However still that is not the case.
Each day about 358,000 people are born. 32% of them will go on to use the internet, and 88% of that will make purchases online. That’s 917 potential customers born every day. You know how they say a sucker is born every minute? Well so is a potential customer.
So is there a limited amount of consumers? Do you really need to get in first to get the most sales? Absolutely not, and to think so is rather foolish wouldn’t you think? Even a site with 3 million members, hasn’t even scratched the surface, and unless almost 1,000 people are joining EVERY day, they’re getting farther and farther behind. You will NEVER run out of consumers to purchase your product or service, the only thing that may diminish, is your dedication to the product or service. Stay focused, stay committed – if you believe in the product, you WILL sell it, regardless of how old or new it is.
