Fear-based marketing strategies are controversial.
Just like most other marketing tactics, they can either work extremely well or blow up in your face.
But studies have proven the tactic to be effective time and time again.
You can implement them in your ads to increase your CTR, subtly use them in a loss-aversion pitch, and more.
The options are nearly limitless with fear-based marketing.
But simply attempting to strike fear in the eyes of your potential customers could backfire.
It could position your brand in an unfavorable light.
Thankfully, there are a few ways to use fear in marketing to grab attention without it backfiring.
You can implement this strategy without making your potential customers feel bad about themselves and your business.
The key is walking the thin line between a neutral sentiment and all out, fear-based messaging.
Here’s how you can grab more attention without it blowing up in your face.
Why using fear in your ads can increase your CTR
Standing out is the key to generating a higher click-through rate.
We all know this.
It’s especially important when you have no brand awareness.
When your brand isn’t strong, and the average user can’t recall it from a search or an ad, your CTR simply won’t be sky high.
True brand awareness can drive sales for years to come.
But strong brand awareness is a pipedream for most companies.
You need ways to stand out amongst the hundreds or thousands of businesses in your space.
Unless you’re the first company to market, you’re going to be facing some serious competition.
When it comes to ads, it’s even worse:
You’re dealing with the powerful force of banner blindness:
People are so sick of ads that they tune them out as white noise.
The use of ad-blocking technology has increased in rapid numbers in the past few years.
More and more mobile and desktop users are installing ad-blocking tools on their devices to get rid of annoying ads.
On top of serious trust issues, consumers cite interruption and slow load times as the main reasons that they use ad-blocking tools:
Essentially, the odds are all against you.
It’s like playing a carnival game. Your chances of winning are extremely low.
Standard, boring ads that people see all day aren’t going to get the job done.
But there is good news here:
You have an opportunity to capitalize on fear, which most marketers aren’t using in their ads.
According to a recent WordStream study, the vast majority of ads are either neutral or positive in their sentiments.
Only 2% of ads they studied were negative in messaging or imagery.
That means that almost nobody on various ad networks sees negative, fear-based advertising!
To add to this, AdEspresso studied 37,259 Facebook Ads back in 2015. They concluded that the majority of ads were positive in sentiment:
The majority of ads that users see on Facebook and the Google Display/Search Network are positive or neutral.
People just aren’t seeing fear-based ads right now. And that’s a beautiful thing for marketers looking to break through the effects of banner blindness.
Take a look at this negative, fear-invoking ad from the Google Display Network:
The company that switched from a positive to a negative sentiment with this ad drove a 47% increase in their click-through rate.
WordStream decided to put this to the test with their own experiment.
They had been running this negatively-focused, fear-style ad for months:
It invoked the fear that the typical user was wasting their budget, losing money, and sinking their sales.
They effectively tapped into one of the biggest fears of using a platform like AdWords:
Losing money.
After all, AdWords isn’t a guaranteed success. Making the wrong moves is a recipe for blowing your budget.
They decided to test that fear-based ad against this positive one:
This ad was much more positive.
They provided hope with “instant savings” and getting “the most out of your ads.”
Can you guess the outcome?
The negative, fear-based ad had a conversion rate that was 18.8% higher than the positive one.
And that’s not all. The negative ad had a click-through rate that was nearly 70% higher than the positive ad.
That’s a massive difference for subtle changes in messaging.
Fear in marketing works, especially when it comes to increasing the CTR of your ads.
Why? Because, as the studies above show, people typically don’t see fear in ads.
Only a few percentage of ads are fear-based, leaving you a big opportunity to stand out and draw in clicks.
Try using a fear-based approach that isn’t too strong at first.
Test the waters to see what works.
For example, check out this awesome AdEspresso ad on Facebook:
While it’s not overtly negative, the use of “sucks” and “scam” in the messaging draws out negative feelings.
The image does too by depicting a violent sport.
Overall, the ad invokes a sense of fear, especially for those who have purchased Facebook likes.
Next time you create an ad on Facebook or Google AdWords, try using a fear-based approach to drive higher click-through rates and more conversions.
Use loss aversion to subtly create fear
One of the biggest mistakes I see in fear-based marketing campaigns is going too far.
Some people try to stand out too much, and they aren’t subtle enough.
Making a potential customer or user feel bad about themselves should never be your goal.
There is such a thing as taking it too far, and when that happens, it can blow up in your face.
One of the best ways to walk a safe line while still using fear in marketing is to take advantage of loss aversion.
Loss aversion is simple:
People prefer to avoid losing something rather than gaining something of equal value.
They’d choose not to lose five bucks than to gain five bucks.
Why? Because they didn’t have the five dollars in the first place. Simply failing to gain it doesn’t hurt that badly.
But in the first scenario, they already have the five bucks. If they lose it, that comes right out of their pockets.
Loss aversion is a powerful theory that you can put into practice in marketing.
This image perfectly sums up the weight of loss aversion:
The strain of losing money is stronger than the benefit of gaining the same amount.
Applying this to a marketing context, I’ll give you a prime example of loss aversion.
Do you remember that WordStream ad we discussed earlier? It was the one where they used fear to drive an 18.8% higher conversion rate and a 70% higher click-through rate.
It said, “Stop Wasting Money In Adwords – Use Our Simple & Free Tool.”
The emphasis is on the “stop wasting money” portion.
And the main definition of loss aversion focuses on the fear of losing money rather than gaining equal amounts of it that you didn’t have before.
Remember: people would rather not lose five bucks than gain five bucks.
People would rather not lose their money on AdWords than gain equal amounts of it back.
Try pulling at the heartstrings of your users by tapping into loss aversion.
Tailor your ad copy to focus on potential losses that will happen if they don’t take action.
For example, that ad above pushes users to use their tool to avoid those losses.
And WordStream is still running this strategy today. I conducted a simple search and found this ad showing up first:
It’s still working for them because it taps into loss aversion better than any ad I’ve ever seen.
Even their competitors are catching wind.
Here is the second ad in my search:
Both ads focus on loss-aversion tactics to get users fearful and hooked into clicking.
These ads make users think that they are going to lose their entire budget if they don’t.
Next time you run ads, try using a loss-aversion approach to drive sales.
If you have multiple messaging ideas in mind, try A/B testing them to see what strikes harder.
I love A/B testing loss aversion on Facebook and AdWords.
Both are extremely easy to set up. Next time you run a new ad campaign on Facebook’s Ad Manager, head to the setup process and choose between marketing objectives:
When selecting an objective, if they are eligible for split testing, Facebook will display this dialogue box before you continue:
Click the “Create Split Test” box, and you can test your creative pieces to see how different fear and loss aversion strategies work with your audience.
Create multiple ads and evaluate the performance after they’ve run for a few weeks.
You can do the same thing on AdWords by simply creating multiple ads in a single ad group.
Next, head to the settings page and make sure that you enable ad rotation:
This will allow ads to show evenly over a period of time.
After a few weeks, check back to see which ad has the highest CTR and conversion rates to pick your winner.
Split testing on AdWords and Facebook will be a great way to test your audience and the reception that fear-based marketing has.
Remember: each audience is always different, so be sure to test before dumping your budget into it.
Write fear-driven headlines for blog content
Fear-driven headlines are a gold mine.
People are always worried that they’re doing something wrong.
For example, check out this headline from one of my latest blog posts:
The image invokes a sense of fear along with the headline.
The headline is more negative in sentiment because of the words “mistake” and “sabotage.”
Those phrases together work to signal to the reader that their current process might be negatively impacting their business.
It’s subtle, yet effective.
It doesn’t cross lines that you shouldn’t cross.
Even the most subtle of fear headlines can get the job done:
This post suggests that your Facebook Ads aren’t good enough.
You could improve them.
And that subtle fear of missing out on better ads and performance is enough to drive tons of clicks and shares.
This post has nearly 2,000 shares.
You can even try flipping the script on typical marketing tactics.
For example, in pay-per-click advertising, people generally think that it’s better to pay less.
The less you pay, the cheaper the customer acquisition!
But personally, I think you should want to pay more.
And my headline surrounding this topic flips the typical perception or status quo of PPC costs:
It has over 2,000 shares and 15 comments. It’s a subtle type of fear that a user might be looking at their PPC account the wrong way.
It makes them stop and consider potential downsides that could be impacting their performance.
One of my all-time favorite examples of a negative headline that works is from the Unbounce blog:
Why your unique value proposition is killing your landing page conversions and how to fix it.
The recurrent use of “your” puts the emphasis directly on the reader and draws them in.
It personalizes the approach of fear, marketing it directly to the user.
In your next blog post, try using a fear-based headline to capture users and grab attention fast.
Here are a few of my favorite templates that I’ve used to grab attention without it blowing up in my face:
Why Your [post topic/keyword string] is [verb: hurting, impacting, killing] your [negative outcome of post topic] and how to fix it.
Your doing [post topic/keyword] wrong. Here’s how to fix it for better [positive outcome of fixing the pain point].
Here’s the one [post topic/keyword] you’re not using that’s costing you [negative outcome of topic].
Try tailoring these templates for your next topic and see how well the post performs!
Or use a headline optimizer/split-testing tool like Thrive’s Headline Optimizer to see how different ones perform.
You can even use these headlines for your next Facebook Ad campaign.
Don’t hammer home fear — end with excitement
One of the biggest problems I see in fear-based marketing is simply taking it too far.
Fear-based marketing shouldn’t scare your users beyond recovery.
It shouldn’t put your own brand in a negative light either.
Too much fear in your marketing messaging will only paint your business as a grim place that users don’t want to visit.
Sprinkling fear subtly is the best way to skate the thin line between too much and too little fear.
Writing fear-driven headlines is great.
They help you do exactly that.
But sometimes, people even take those headlines to the extreme.
They’re often unrealistic or simply too fear dense to be believable.
One of the best ways to use fear is to provide hope. Give the reader a light at the end of the tunnel that tells them everything will be okay.
Fear that simply invokes the feeling of impending doom won’t get you conversions.
Take a look at one of my recent blog posts talking about Facebook custom audiences:
It paints a fearful picture that the user isn’t customizing their audience enough.
But it also provides hope in the form of fixing that problem.
It subtly invokes a feeling of fear, but it ends on a positive note.
It doesn’t make the user feel like they’re left behind in the dust or hopeless, which is key.
You want people to think of your brand as helpful. They should see your company as one that solves problems and addresses pain points.
You don’t want them to perceive you as one that simply points out problems.
Do you remember that Unbounce blog post we talked about earlier?
It followed a similar format to mine above.
One thing I loved about this blog post was that it followed the idea of ending with something exciting, and it included a positive takeaway:
Softening the blow of a harsh reality is critical when using fear-based marketing tactics.
You can’t hammer home fear all day long and then leave your customers in the lurch.
Be sure to end on a positive note with your next blog post or marketing campaign or webinar.
Wherever you implement fear-based marketing strategies, always include an upside that users can look forward to.
Conclusion
Fear-based marketing strategies are tough.
You either perfectly master them, or they blow up in your face and cause your best customers to question your brand.
But when you do it right, fear-based marketing has the power to massively increase your CTR and sales.
If you want to take advantage of fear in marketing, you have to walk the middle ground.
You can’t get overly aggressive, but you can’t be too neutral either.
Start by using loss aversion to subtly create fear.
Loss aversion will help you instill fear in your customers without crossing any line or being offensive.
Next, try using simple fear-based images or headlines to increase your ad CTR.
Studies show that most ads are positive in nature. Do you want to stand out? Throw a little fear into the hearts of users.
Try incorporating fear tactics into your blog headlines, too. These are great for standing out in the SERPs and getting users to click.
Lastly, don’t get carried away. Don’t hammer home fear without ending on a positive or hopeful note.
Fear is great in marketing. But always make sure that you aren’t crossing the line.
Which fear-based marketing tactics have performed well for you?
Ahhh SEO. Love it or hate it you've got to do it. For a LONG time I've advocated using Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress. I have had a change of heart. As I have added more and more sites that I manage for Yoga Studios, Gyms, Salons, and Spas I have needed more features than the basic free version of Yoast can provide. Adding the LOCAL pack is an Expensive Proposition.
So I started looking for a replacement. Something that really guides my clients through the SEO process and makes it easier for them to get great SEO done. Enter Squirrly. It is a rather new plugin but is also gaining ground FAST. So far I'm very happy. The best part is that it can impoprt your Yoast settings so you don't lose any of your existing work.
We're always looking ahead at the future of marketing for our niches. The marketing landscape moves fast as technology improves and advances. I thought I'd give you a sneak peak into what we're working to enhance the marketing for our clients.
Chat Bots
Chat Bots on Facebook Messenger are the next big thing. We're working on it and learning as much as we can. What are they? Facebook has recently added all sorts of new Marketing Channels using Facebook Messenger. You can now direct users to message your page. But ... you're busy. How many times has been days since you responded to a message?
Well that is wherethe bot comes in. It will respond to questions, direct people to links like buying options and the schedule. We currently have several bots in beta for salon and yoga. Look for more information soon. If you're interested in having a chat bot click our Chat at the bottom of the page and we'll be in touch.
Superior "Branded App" Technology at Lower Cost with More Features
We've all had our headaches with the MindBody branded app. I know they are working on it. However, I want far more functionality and felxibility with an app. I am actively developing my own App Platform that will have amazing features and limitless functionality. If you can dream it I can do it. The Zen Media Social App Platform will have the following advanced features:
Integration into Google Analytics (versus Flurry analytics)
Push Notifications (superior to the MindBody Branded App)
Multiple Types of Notificaitons
Inbox of all recent alerts
Integration with OneSignal
Automated Alerts for Social Notifications like New Facebook Events
Unlimited Design Potential
Featured Posts from Your Blog
Full Branded Web Integration (hopefully with contracts coming soon)
Video (yes... video in your app)
The ability to Market it via Facebook and Google default App install channels (a special way of promoting the installation of your app and getting new clients via approved methods)
Google Remarketing and Facebook Pixel Integration
Native Social Sharing to Facebook/Twitter/Instagram from inside the App
Digital signage
We're working on a digital signage solution for Studios, Salons, and Spas that will have some amazing features. We're currently accepting demo sites so message us using our chat window on this page.
Features We're Planning:
Facebook Checkin Stream (encourage Checkins on Facebook, raising Awareness)
Social Media Stream
Upcoming Workshops Stream
Schedule Stream
Video and Photo Streams
Weather
Blog Posts
Much Much More
There is your sneak peak into what we're working on. There are some even more exciting things I can't tell you about just yet... so keep reading.
Branded Web feature you need to be using is the Thank You page. It is a vital step in your Customer Journey and you should use it immediately. There are a ton of reasons but here are the quick reasons:
You can use it to measure all the registrations in Google Analytics
It gives you a place to announce things like Workshops, Events, and Specials to your customers
It gives you a place to ask for a Google Review
It gives you a place to encourage follow your business on Social Media
The way it works is pretty simple. Everyone that buys a pricing option or schedules a class, event or workshop will be redirected to your thank you page. Magic!
There are easy steps you can follow to make this happen.
Create a Thank You page on your website
Login to Branded Web at Healcode.com
Click on Site Settings
Paste the URL to your thank you page
In Google Analytics click on Admin > Goals and create a goal that tracks all your thank you page visits.
Backlinks are super important for Local SEO. This SEO strategy is very simple and anybody can do it. To get your backlinks numbers up you can talk about what you already love: YOGA.
What is a high quality backlink?
A backlink from a popular website is always better. What do I mean?
A backlink from your friend's small yoga studio is ok but a backlink from Yoga Journal is AWESOME. Domain Authority is a ranking from 0-100 of how popular a website is. The higher the Domain Authrity the better. Getting a link from a high Domain Authority site to your site tells search engines that your site also has authority on the topic of yoga. Get what I'm saying here?
So how do I get these backlinks?
You start writing!
Most yoga websites will gladly take content from you. Your doing the job for them!
I've compiled a list of websites that you can submit too below.
Get Over Your Fear of Writing
You have time. You have knowledge. Share it. If you're concerned about editing my partner Marc-Cristobal Guilarte is available for editing. He has a masters in English and is extremely authoritative when it comes to Yoga knowledge.
You will help your business tremendously by writing blog posts for other blogs and linking back to your own site. Make sure they website is going to provide a backlink before you submit. You'll need to provide a biography and headshot as well.
Contribute to your local media
Reach out to your local TV station, Mommy Bloggers, Newspapers, and local Magazines. They want content and the best content is FREE because you wrote it and it is helping them and you! Don't be afraid to ask. What's the worst thing that could happen? They say no. Move on. Fight another day.
Google Reviews Are One Of The Most Important Marketing Tools Today
You know they are important but you probably don't have enough. I work with businesses that have been operating for more than 10 years, have a thriving community, but have 5 Google Reviews! Clients often say "but I have 65 Facebook Reviews!" So what? Facebook Reviews are nice but they are not heavily featured on the platform. People use Google to discover and find businesses and they read the reviews.
A lot of Salon Owners see REVIEWS as a PAIN not a TOOL!
You probably get reviews from the PISSED people not the happy people. You dread realizing you have another bad review. The trick is to outweigh the bad ones with good ones! People like your business. They will help you. I promise.
A Low Number of Reviews is a WARNING to Clients!
Getting Reviews
There are a lot of ways to get Reviews. You can just send an email asking for them but that takes a lot of your precious time and you have to remember to do it. Be honest. You won't remember.
Here are some strategies that you can implement today:
Add a link from THIS site to your Autoemails, Receipts, etc.
Add a button on your appointment signup confirmation page (If you aren't allowing online Booking you should... more on that later)
Have your Front Desk and Stylists/Providers ask for Reviews
The Zen Media Solution
Our LOCAL Product has a new feature to automate Review Generation and Feedback! It is included in the Core of LOCAL. All you have to do is upload a CSV you export from your system and LOCAL takes care of the rest! Bad reviews are captured, good Reviews prompt the customer to leave a review on a site you choose including Google, Yelp, Facebook, Foursquare, and YellowPages. Remember I recommend focusing on Google first!
A Zen Media LOCAL Client got 15 New Google Reviews in 2 Weeks After Signing Up For LOCAL!
LOCAL Does So Much More
LOCAL offers a lot of other great benefits. LOCAL is a citation management system that ensures that your business listing, hours, phone number, social media links, about text, and services are consistent on over 38 directories. This is a HUGE factor in your Local Search Engine Ranking on Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
LOCAL also offers you one place to respond to Facebook comments, and Reviews from Google, Yelp, Foursquare, and more. You can see how many reviews you have and respond in one interface.
My Salon has 65 5 Star Reviews and they are our BIGGEST ranking Factor and the Overwhelming Number of New Clients say "You Had So Many Amazing Reviews"
Google Reviews Are One Of The Most Important Marketing Tools Today
You know they are important but you probably don't have enough. I work with businesses that have been operating for more than 10 years, have a thriving community, but have 5 Google Reviews! Clients often say "but I have 65 Facebook Reviews!" So what? Facebook Reviews are nice but they are not heavily featured on the platform. People use Google to discover and find businesses and they read the reviews.
A Low Number of Reviews is a WARNING to Clients!
Getting Reviews
There are a lot of ways to get Reviews. You can just send an email asking for them but that takes a lot of your precious time and you have to remember to do it. Be honest. You won't remember.
Here are some strategies that you can implement today:
Add a link from THIS site to your Autoemails, Receipts, etc.
Add a button on your Branded Web Tools (Healcode) Thank You Page that points to the link you got above. (If you haven't setup a Thank You page in Branded Web Contact Me Today! You're Missing and Essential Part of your Sales Funnel)
Have your Front Desk and Teachers ask for Reviews
The Zen Media Solution
Our LOCAL Product has a new feature to automate Review Generation and Feedback! It is included in the Core of LOCAL. All you have to do is upload a CSV you export from your system and LOCAL takes care of the rest! Bad reviews are captured, good Reviews prompt the customer to leave a review on a site you choose including Google, Yelp, Facebook, Foursquare, and YellowPages. Remember I recommend focusing on Google first!
A Zen Media LOCAL Client got 15 New Google Reviews in 2 Weeks After Signing Up For LOCAL!
LOCAL Does So Much More
LOCAL offers a lot of other great benefits. LOCAL is a citation management system that ensures that your business listing, hours, phone number, social media links, about text, and services are consistent on over 38 directories. This is a HUGE factor in your Local Search Engine Ranking on Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
LOCAL also offers you one place to respond to Facebook comments, and Reviews from Google, Yelp, Foursquare, and more. You can see how many reviews you have and respond in one interface.
A Chicago Studio Increased Their Rank to the First Page of Google for 15 Keywords 60 Days After Signing Up For Local
Let's face it. Most studio's blogs suck. They either empty or filled with reposts of other people's content. BAD! WRONG! Content marketing is a topic all in of itself.
First, you can't rank for other people's content. If you just post an article from Yoga Journal you won't get any help from Google because Yoga Journal has already ranked for that content. To rank in Google your content must be original.
PLEASE NOTE >>>>>>
Blogging isn't a formal writing style. You certainly don't want to have a bunch of grammatical errors but it isn't a academic paper either. Relax and just write.
So where do you get ideas?
Remember you are accomplishing a few things by blogging. Answering Questions that people ask with your original ideas and content is the best thing you can do to drive freeorganic traffic to your website. Google loves quality content that is well written and answers questions people are asking. So let's find out what people are asking!
Go to this website and you'll find a place you can research what people are currently searching for. Type in a style of yoga and you'll see the search volume! Neato! It helps you judge of a topic is worth writing about.
This is by far one of my favorite sources for content ideas. Type in yoga and you'll see the top questions people are asking about it! Amazing! You'll get hundreds of ideas.
Soovle.com
Soovle lets you type in a topic and see what all major search engines return for auto complete. Neat! Answer those questions and you'll get a chance to rank for it!
Stay tuned for more sources for content marketing. This should keep you busy for awhile.
We've all been there. 250 Thousand Tabs Open. So what do we do about this?
Organize them! I use Chrome almost exclusively unless I am testing something for my development business. This article will focus on Tab Management for Chrome.
I’ve worked hard to build an easy to use WordPress based platform that my clients can easily manage themselves. A big part of a good website is engaging content so I prefer my clients to have the ability to add things like blog posts themselves. One of the features of my platform is the ability to quickly build an online course. How could you use this feature for your business?
How could you use this feature for your business?
You could create a mini-course about hair styling. You could explain a yoga sequence pose by pose. Do you know what you get from that?
Your existing clients feel like they are getting added value for their money.
People who find you through search results or a paid Facebook Ad are given a taste of your expertise but then you get the ability to sell them your services!
The great guys at Thrive have made a great video tutorial. You can see just how easy it is here. If you don’t think you can build it of course I’m happy to assist. All you have to do is provide the content! Check out the video tutorial here.
