The idea of providing a service, offering a product, or giving people access to a program for a limited time period has been a mainstay of marketing for over a century.
Since the 1950s, advertisers have created limited-edition and limited-time campaigns to stimulate demand in food, beverages, household goods, and mail-order catalogs.
And they work.
The concept applies the principle of scarcity to create more urgency, attention, and action. When people believe access to something is constrained in time, they show more interest in it and often act before the time runs out.
Research shows that when an opportunity is framed as scarce in time (the offer ends tonight), people anticipate the loss of the opportunity and become more motivated to secure it. They want to avoid missing out and any feeling of loss, so they find acting now more attractive.
This makes limited-time offers and invitations highly effective for producing interest and action.
As popular as they are with fast food chains and coffee bars (the Pumpkin Spice Latte is available only until Thanksgiving), they also have a place inside organizations.
Leaders can make any program or initiative appear more attractive and important by applying the same scarcity principle.
Limited Time Offers (LTOs) are great for increasing interest in internal programs that are difficult to fill up, and initiatives that require prodding to get people to engage or comply with.
Getting team members to complete surveys, participate in wellness programs, propose charitable gift ideas, take advantage of available team resources, nominate colleagues for awards, attend workshops, and complete forms are but a few examples where LTOs work to create urgency and activity.
Messages like “Only a few seats remaining,” “Nominations close on Friday,” “Three days left to submit your engagement survey,” “The first 10 team members to respond receive the full benefit,” and “Space is limited to only eight team leaders” suggest the time to act is now.
The enrollment or nomination window imposes a concrete deadline that nudges people to step forward and act.
Limited-time offers and incentives work best when they are meaningful, fair, and genuinely time-bound. Obviously, less gimmicky offers and invitations get taken more seriously by team members.
Any program, initiative, or service that is hard to fill or to gain compliance with is ripe for an LTO. Time is running out to try this in your organization. Don’t miss out.
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