According to Dr. Robert Cialdini’s Principle of Scarcity, “people assign more value to opportunities when they are less available.”

Translation:  if it’s about to go away, you will probably want it much more.

If the object of our attention plays hard to get, or is seen with a competing suitor, our desire is intensified greatly.

Business owners have understood this for centuries.  Sales that end on a particular date are extremely powerful sales motivators.  In fact, most marketing experts I know say it is one of the most powerful “psychological triggers” they know – if not the single most powerful.

Modern online marketers employ scarcity tactics as sales motivators to varying degrees of effectiveness.  The most common method goes something like this …

“Only 500 units will be sold – ever!”

This was extremely effective a few years ago, but if the reports I’m getting from business owners over the last year are any indication, it is quickly falling out of favor.  As more entrepreneurs say “only 500 units will be sold” and then sell more a month later with some ham-handed excuse, consumers are trained to mistrust the tactic.

It’s not that everyone who employs this tactic isn’t telling the truth.  Far from it.  It’s just that it only takes a few careless (or at worst dishonest) entrepreneurs to spoil the fun for everyone.

How do we get around this?

Well, one great way is to have a price that automatically increases over time – or as more units are sold.

If your customer doesn’t believe you, all they have to do is wait to see with their own eyes that you mean what you say.

The problem is, finding a programmer who can automate this for you correctly is rather difficult.

And this is one of the many reasons why we use Delavo exclusively now at all of the companies owned by Construct Zero:  Delavo completely automates this process for you right out of the box.

The Dynamic Pricing module (available to holders of a Delavo Silver or Delavo Gold license) allows you to dynamically:

- Change the price by time (every minute … every hour …)

- Change the price by number of units sold

- Increment the price by a set amount (10 cents, 1 dollar, 100 dollars – whatever you want), or by a set percentage (“the price will go up by 1% every day” etc.)

You can also set start and end dates for your sale.  All of this being managed automatically by the software – and all transparently to the customer so they can see with their own eyes that it’s not just a gimmick.

If you haven’t tried to sell a product with this method in the past, I strongly recommend testing it out immediately.  Just be ready for the flood of business this tactic tends to generate.  Not being able to handle the support load can spoil the fun of any million-dollar-day.

We’re proud to announce that Delavo version 2.8 was released today.

Here’s what’s new:

1.  New Module:  Trackable URLs

(included in Delavo Silver)

If you want to track the marketing effectiveness of any URL, this is the tool for you.

2.  New Feature:  Upgrade-able Products

(included in Delavo Silver)

This new feature will allow you to mark a product as an “upgrade” to another product.  This is perfect for anyone following the “Freemium” model … Or, well anyone wanting to put their customers on an upgrade path for that matter.

How does one take advantage of these awesome new tools?

If you already own a Silver license or above, just download the latest update when you log in to your Delavo installation.

If you do not, simply upgrade your license to Sliver or above and – voila!

To take advantage of this few tools, upgrade your Delavo license today.  (Or, if you already have a Silver license or above, these new features are already available to you.)