March 24, 2025 • 11 mins
Fear Sells: Using Scarcity in Legal Marketing
This episode explores how legal marketers can effectively leverage scarcity and urgency to connect with potential clients and drive prompt actions.
• Understanding the psychology of scarcity and its impact
• Fear of missing out as a motivator in legal marketing
• Strategies to highlight time-sensitive offers
• Showcasing demand to build trust and prompt action
• Ethical considerations in fear-driven marketing
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 0 (00:06):
Fear sells using scarcity in legal marketing.
Welcome to Legal Marketing 101.
I'm Toby Rosen.
Today we are diving into howscarcity can drive your legal
marketing strategy and help youconnect with more clients.
So let's start with the conceptitself.
This is as old as marketingmore clients.
So let's start with the conceptitself.
(00:27):
This is as old as marketingscarcity.
At its core, scarcity is theidea that when something feels
limited whether it's the time,availability or the resources it
becomes more desirable.
Think about the last time yousaw a limited time offer or a
while supplies last ad, or evenhow many items were left on an
online store.
It probably caught yourattention right.
That's because our brains arewired to place higher value on
(00:51):
things that seem rare orfleeting or just difficult to
attain.
It's the psychology of youdon't know what you've got till
it's almost gone.
In other industries, scarcityis everywhere.
Airline companies show onlythree seats left at this price
to nudge you into booking.
Retail brands thrive onseasonal sales with countdown
clocks, and even tech companieslike Apple lean into scarcity
(01:14):
when they're launching newproducts, often creating buzz
around limited pre-orders.
These strategies are simple,but they're incredibly effective
and they can work just as wellin legal marketing.
But now let's talk about fear,specifically the fear of missing
out, or FOMO.
It's a powerful motivator,especially in situations where
the stakes feel high.
(01:35):
In the legal industry, thisusually translates to fear of
loss, missing a crucial deadline, forfeiting compensation or
failing to take action when itmatters the most.
So, for example, think abouthow potential clients might read
a message like act now to fileyour claim before the statute of
limitations expires.
You're not just informing them,you're motivating them to act
(01:57):
quickly because the window toprotect their rights is closing.
This is the truth.
By combining this scarcity andfear strategically, you can
create urgency in our marketing,and this positions us as a
trusted guide who helps clientsavoid risks.
We're showing them the risksand then pulling them back from
the ledge.
It's not just about selling.
(02:17):
It's really about empoweringpeople to take action when it
actually does matter the most.
So now that we've unpacked thepsychology of scarcity and
fear-based marketing, let's getpractical.
How can you, as a lawyer, as amarketer in the legal sphere,
how can you use these strategiesto connect with potential
clients and actually inspireaction, both in an ethical and
(02:41):
an effective way?
So here are a couple ofstrategies that we're going to
talk about First is highlightingtime-sensitive offers.
So the statute of limitationsthing works well, but we can
also create urgency byemphasizing some kind of time
limit, and this is a reallyproven way to capture attention
and motivate action.
And instead of doing somethinglike we have this many items
(03:04):
remaining, we can offer limitedtime offers for free
consultations in a particularmonth.
We could say limited slotsavailable for free consultations
this month, reserve yours today.
And the reality is we can say aspecific month, or we can just
say this month, and it ends upbeing true all the time and it
ends up being true all the time.
Obviously, there are ethicsrules to look at for this, but
(03:29):
this approach works really wellfor firms that are looking to
attract new clients, whetherthey're doing a specific
marketing campaign or whetherthey're trying to build
something that generates moreconsults.
It adds a little bit moreexclusivity than just book a
free consult and it pushespotential clients to prioritize
reaching out to you before theoffer goes away.
But number two is leveraging thecase-specific deadlines.
This is something that reallyworks better with the statute of
limitations kind of stuff, butevery legal case has some kind
(03:52):
of built-in time constraint,whether it's a filing deadline,
statute of limitations orsomething else.
These are natural opportunitiesto emphasize urgency in our
marketing.
So we can say, let's say it'simmigration and there's a
deadline for getting a certaintype of application in.
You know, act now to file yourapplication before the deadline
passes.
Don't risk your chance atlosing out on this visa.
(04:15):
Or if there's a class actionsuit, or if there's some kind of
claim, a worker's comp type ofclaim, that's not going to be
eligible in the new year, actnow to file your claim before
the deadline passes.
Don't risk losing your chancefor compensation.
This doesn't just createurgency, but it also
demonstrates your expertise byshowing that you understand the
(04:35):
specific needs and timelines ofthe person that's seeing this ad
.
That's your audience.
But the other thing we want todo is showcase demand.
People want to work with firmsthat others trust and respect.
It's like the social proofthing, and if we highlight that
there is demand for our services, that can instill confidence
while also creating this subtlesense of scarcity.
So, for instance, we can saysomething like Join the hundreds
(04:58):
of clients who trust us everyyear, secure your consultation
today, because this approachleverages a little bit more
social proof and it validatesyour reputation, your firm's
reputation while encouragingthese PNCs, these potential
prospective clients, to actquickly before the slots fill up
.
Secure your consultation.
I've secured it, I'm good to go.
(05:18):
Number four is to promotelimited services, and if your
firm offers specialized servicesfor a particular case type,
something that no one else isdoing, use that as the
opportunity to emphasizescarcity.
We can use ad tech, somethinglike limited openings for
personal injury cases thisquarter, schedule a consultation
before it's too late.
Or if we work on a specifictype of PI, we can advertise
(05:40):
that we're the only ones whohandle that, but that starts to
get into a slightly differentarena.
So we're going to move on theright technology when it comes
to these scarcity drivencampaigns.
It can make things a lot moreimpactful and really make the
client experience a lot moreseamless.
So there are a couple things Iwant to mention here.
We've talked about these a lot.
I won't spend time on them, butfirst is automated emails,
(06:02):
because setting up automatedemail sequences.
This creates even moreurgencies.
So if you have someone who issubscribing to something or
sending in their information, wecan immediately follow up with
them, and in those follow-ups,if they haven't scheduled yet,
we can add countdown timers orlimited time offer banners.
Things like this make it reallyeasy to demonstrate to the
(06:24):
client that, hey, you know youneed to act quickly on this.
And it's really easy to dothese kinds of things with
MailChimp or HubSpot orActiveCampaign Really easy to
design and then schedule thesecampaigns to go out immediately
or to stagger them so that youcan actually build that timeline
that you said.
Hey, there's only so many daysleft, you can send that to the
user to build that.
(06:44):
And then there are dynamicwebsite banners.
Your website is probably one ofthe most, if not the, most,
visible touchpoint for potentialnew clients.
So adding dynamic bannerswhether they're specific to the
client that is visiting thewebsite or dynamic based on time
these can highlight limitedtime offers, service
availability, and all of this isgreat at driving immediate
(07:06):
action.
So it's something that wetypically will put in a contact
button or have it up in theheader.
But if you add an entire bannerfor this, only five
consultation slots left for thewhole month book.
Now you're going to get allthose five slots filled.
But here's the thing.
The key is to strike the rightbalance.
We want to create urgencywithout overwhelming or, more
importantly, misleading ouraudience when it's done well.
(07:28):
Scarcity-driven marketingdoesn't just sell services.
It positions your firm as thereliable, action-oriented
partner that clients actuallyneed and can turn to when the
stakes are high.
But here's the thing about allof this when you're applying
scarcity and fear-basedmarketing in the legal field,
you really need to understandyour ethics, because having this
balance between the urgency andthe ethical responsibility that
(07:51):
you guys have is important, andthe other reality is that
building trust with our audiencethis is the main priority.
We have to build this trust,and if we're being misleading,
if we're not being ethical, weare not going to be able to do
that.
So there are a couple ofspecific things we can do that
will help us remain professionaland effective, and really you
(08:12):
can do whatever you want andjust not do these things most of
the time and you'll be okay.
Number one is avoiding fearmongering.
While fear itself can motivatepretty significant action, you
can't exaggerate or manipulatethe facts.
I know that's something thatfeels like it could work, but
you really don't want to.
Potential clients are alreadygoing to feel overwhelmed by
(08:34):
their legal challenges, so yourmessaging should be clear and it
should be reassuring, but youdon't want to bring them into an
unnecessary panic situation.
For instance, instead of sayingyou're running out of time and
you're going to lose everything,we could say something a little
bit more constructive and framethat urgency in a slightly
friendlier way.
Taking action today can helpsecure your rights and protect
(08:58):
your future.
Maintaining this professionalismand trustworthiness this is the
key to establishing thatlong-term reputation that
clients can rely on and willcontinue coming back to.
We don't want to just scarepeople for no reason, but we
want to give them a little bitto establishing that long-term
reputation that clients can relyon and will continue coming
back to.
So we don't want to just scarepeople for no reason, but we
want to give them a little bitof hey.
If you don't do this, somethingmight not go well, but at the
same time, you should do thisbecause we can make things go
(09:21):
well for you.
And obviously, throughout this,we need to make sure we're
staying compliant with theregulations in your jurisdiction
, whether it's the BarAssociation rules on advertising
from the state mostly the BarAssociations but we really just
need to make sure that we'reavoiding misleading statements,
providing accurate disclaimerswhenever required and really
just being transparent.
This is the easiest thing to doin marketing is to be
(09:43):
transparent, because it's kindof like dating If you just are
yourself, you're going to findthe right people for you.
Because it's kind of likedating If you just are yourself,
you're going to find the rightpeople for you.
So make sure you're reviewingyour content, though, or consult
with somebody who's an expert,let's say, in compliance, so
that we don't violate any, haveany issues, don't get reported
by any other attorneys or youknow, it's just a headache we
don't want to deal with.
But the other thing we need tokeep in mind is that scarcity
(10:05):
works best when paired withempowerment.
So it's not just that this ishard to get, so it's not just
the deadline right.
We need to show how actingquickly, how making sure you get
this done or filing this thing,will lead to positive outcomes.
Something like filing yourclaim on time ensures you get
the compensation you deserve.
(10:25):
By emphasizing the solution, byemphasizing how this is going
to go positively for someone onthe other side, we position
ourselves as the source of bothguidance and reassurance.
This fosters trust and,ultimately, it drives action,
and, at the end of the day,that's what drives revenue, and,
and that's what we're all about.
Now I will say if you haven'tsubscribed to the first episode
(10:48):
of every month, make sure you'resubscribed to the premium
episodes of the Legal 101Marketing Podcast, because if
you haven't, you are missing out.
There's stuff in there thatyou're just not getting in the
other episodes each month.
So make sure you subscribe.
It's only $10 a month and youget that extra episode every
month where you pack a littlebit more in to those.
So that's my scarcity for youfor today.
I recommend you take a moment.
(11:09):
Figure out how you can inject alittle bit more scarcity, maybe
a little bit more fear, intoyour marketing, and how you can
use these tools to make thephones light up.
But if you yourself are afraid,don't worry, because we'll be
back next week with more fromLegal Marketing 101.
That's it for Legal Marketing101.
Check out RosenAdvertisingcomfor more.
Fear sells using scarcity in legal marketing.
Welcome to Legal Marketing 101.
I'm Toby Rosen.
Today we are diving into howscarcity can drive your legal
marketing strategy and help youconnect with more clients.
So let's start with the conceptitself.
This is as old as marketingmore clients.
So let's start with the conceptitself.
(00:27):
This is as old as marketingscarcity.
At its core, scarcity is theidea that when something feels
limited whether it's the time,availability or the resources it
becomes more desirable.
Think about the last time yousaw a limited time offer or a
while supplies last ad, or evenhow many items were left on an
online store.
It probably caught yourattention right.
That's because our brains arewired to place higher value on
(00:51):
things that seem rare orfleeting or just difficult to
attain.
It's the psychology of youdon't know what you've got till
it's almost gone.
In other industries, scarcityis everywhere.
Airline companies show onlythree seats left at this price
to nudge you into booking.
Retail brands thrive onseasonal sales with countdown
clocks, and even tech companieslike Apple lean into scarcity
(01:14):
when they're launching newproducts, often creating buzz
around limited pre-orders.
These strategies are simple,but they're incredibly effective
and they can work just as wellin legal marketing.
But now let's talk about fear,specifically the fear of missing
out, or FOMO.
It's a powerful motivator,especially in situations where
the stakes feel high.
(01:35):
In the legal industry, thisusually translates to fear of
loss, missing a crucial deadline, forfeiting compensation or
failing to take action when itmatters the most.
So, for example, think abouthow potential clients might read
a message like act now to fileyour claim before the statute of
limitations expires.
You're not just informing them,you're motivating them to act
(01:57):
quickly because the window toprotect their rights is closing.
This is the truth.
By combining this scarcity andfear strategically, you can
create urgency in our marketing,and this positions us as a
trusted guide who helps clientsavoid risks.
We're showing them the risksand then pulling them back from
the ledge.
It's not just about selling.
(02:17):
It's really about empoweringpeople to take action when it
actually does matter the most.
So now that we've unpacked thepsychology of scarcity and
fear-based marketing, let's getpractical.
How can you, as a lawyer, as amarketer in the legal sphere,
how can you use these strategiesto connect with potential
clients and actually inspireaction, both in an ethical and
(02:41):
an effective way?
So here are a couple ofstrategies that we're going to
talk about First is highlightingtime-sensitive offers.
So the statute of limitationsthing works well, but we can
also create urgency byemphasizing some kind of time
limit, and this is a reallyproven way to capture attention
and motivate action.
And instead of doing somethinglike we have this many items
(03:04):
remaining, we can offer limitedtime offers for free
consultations in a particularmonth.
We could say limited slotsavailable for free consultations
this month, reserve yours today.
And the reality is we can say aspecific month, or we can just
say this month, and it ends upbeing true all the time and it
ends up being true all the time.
Obviously, there are ethicsrules to look at for this, but
(03:29):
this approach works really wellfor firms that are looking to
attract new clients, whetherthey're doing a specific
marketing campaign or whetherthey're trying to build
something that generates moreconsults.
It adds a little bit moreexclusivity than just book a
free consult and it pushespotential clients to prioritize
reaching out to you before theoffer goes away.
But number two is leveraging thecase-specific deadlines.
This is something that reallyworks better with the statute of
limitations kind of stuff, butevery legal case has some kind
(03:52):
of built-in time constraint,whether it's a filing deadline,
statute of limitations orsomething else.
These are natural opportunitiesto emphasize urgency in our
marketing.
So we can say, let's say it'simmigration and there's a
deadline for getting a certaintype of application in.
You know, act now to file yourapplication before the deadline
passes.
Don't risk your chance atlosing out on this visa.
(04:15):
Or if there's a class actionsuit, or if there's some kind of
claim, a worker's comp type ofclaim, that's not going to be
eligible in the new year, actnow to file your claim before
the deadline passes.
Don't risk losing your chancefor compensation.
This doesn't just createurgency, but it also
demonstrates your expertise byshowing that you understand the
(04:35):
specific needs and timelines ofthe person that's seeing this ad
.
That's your audience.
But the other thing we want todo is showcase demand.
People want to work with firmsthat others trust and respect.
It's like the social proofthing, and if we highlight that
there is demand for our services, that can instill confidence
while also creating this subtlesense of scarcity.
So, for instance, we can saysomething like Join the hundreds
(04:58):
of clients who trust us everyyear, secure your consultation
today, because this approachleverages a little bit more
social proof and it validatesyour reputation, your firm's
reputation while encouragingthese PNCs, these potential
prospective clients, to actquickly before the slots fill up
.
Secure your consultation.
I've secured it, I'm good to go.
(05:18):
Number four is to promotelimited services, and if your
firm offers specialized servicesfor a particular case type,
something that no one else isdoing, use that as the
opportunity to emphasizescarcity.
We can use ad tech, somethinglike limited openings for
personal injury cases thisquarter, schedule a consultation
before it's too late.
Or if we work on a specifictype of PI, we can advertise
(05:40):
that we're the only ones whohandle that, but that starts to
get into a slightly differentarena.
So we're going to move on theright technology when it comes
to these scarcity drivencampaigns.
It can make things a lot moreimpactful and really make the
client experience a lot moreseamless.
So there are a couple things Iwant to mention here.
We've talked about these a lot.
I won't spend time on them, butfirst is automated emails,
(06:02):
because setting up automatedemail sequences.
This creates even moreurgencies.
So if you have someone who issubscribing to something or
sending in their information, wecan immediately follow up with
them, and in those follow-ups,if they haven't scheduled yet,
we can add countdown timers orlimited time offer banners.
Things like this make it reallyeasy to demonstrate to the
(06:24):
client that, hey, you know youneed to act quickly on this.
And it's really easy to dothese kinds of things with
MailChimp or HubSpot orActiveCampaign Really easy to
design and then schedule thesecampaigns to go out immediately
or to stagger them so that youcan actually build that timeline
that you said.
Hey, there's only so many daysleft, you can send that to the
user to build that.
(06:44):
And then there are dynamicwebsite banners.
Your website is probably one ofthe most, if not the, most,
visible touchpoint for potentialnew clients.
So adding dynamic bannerswhether they're specific to the
client that is visiting thewebsite or dynamic based on time
these can highlight limitedtime offers, service
availability, and all of this isgreat at driving immediate
(07:06):
action.
So it's something that wetypically will put in a contact
button or have it up in theheader.
But if you add an entire bannerfor this, only five
consultation slots left for thewhole month book.
Now you're going to get allthose five slots filled.
But here's the thing.
The key is to strike the rightbalance.
We want to create urgencywithout overwhelming or, more
importantly, misleading ouraudience when it's done well.
(07:28):
Scarcity-driven marketingdoesn't just sell services.
It positions your firm as thereliable, action-oriented
partner that clients actuallyneed and can turn to when the
stakes are high.
But here's the thing about allof this when you're applying
scarcity and fear-basedmarketing in the legal field,
you really need to understandyour ethics, because having this
balance between the urgency andthe ethical responsibility that
(07:51):
you guys have is important, andthe other reality is that
building trust with our audiencethis is the main priority.
We have to build this trust,and if we're being misleading,
if we're not being ethical, weare not going to be able to do
that.
So there are a couple ofspecific things we can do that
will help us remain professionaland effective, and really you
(08:12):
can do whatever you want andjust not do these things most of
the time and you'll be okay.
Number one is avoiding fearmongering.
While fear itself can motivatepretty significant action, you
can't exaggerate or manipulatethe facts.
I know that's something thatfeels like it could work, but
you really don't want to.
Potential clients are alreadygoing to feel overwhelmed by
(08:34):
their legal challenges, so yourmessaging should be clear and it
should be reassuring, but youdon't want to bring them into an
unnecessary panic situation.
For instance, instead of sayingyou're running out of time and
you're going to lose everything,we could say something a little
bit more constructive and framethat urgency in a slightly
friendlier way.
Taking action today can helpsecure your rights and protect
(08:58):
your future.
Maintaining this professionalismand trustworthiness this is the
key to establishing thatlong-term reputation that
clients can rely on and willcontinue coming back to.
We don't want to just scarepeople for no reason, but we
want to give them a little bitto establishing that long-term
reputation that clients can relyon and will continue coming
back to.
So we don't want to just scarepeople for no reason, but we
want to give them a little bitof hey.
If you don't do this, somethingmight not go well, but at the
same time, you should do thisbecause we can make things go
(09:21):
well for you.
And obviously, throughout this,we need to make sure we're
staying compliant with theregulations in your jurisdiction
, whether it's the BarAssociation rules on advertising
from the state mostly the BarAssociations but we really just
need to make sure that we'reavoiding misleading statements,
providing accurate disclaimerswhenever required and really
just being transparent.
This is the easiest thing to doin marketing is to be
(09:43):
transparent, because it's kindof like dating If you just are
yourself, you're going to findthe right people for you.
Because it's kind of likedating If you just are yourself,
you're going to find the rightpeople for you.
So make sure you're reviewingyour content, though, or consult
with somebody who's an expert,let's say, in compliance, so
that we don't violate any, haveany issues, don't get reported
by any other attorneys or youknow, it's just a headache we
don't want to deal with.
But the other thing we need tokeep in mind is that scarcity
(10:05):
works best when paired withempowerment.
So it's not just that this ishard to get, so it's not just
the deadline right.
We need to show how actingquickly, how making sure you get
this done or filing this thing,will lead to positive outcomes.
Something like filing yourclaim on time ensures you get
the compensation you deserve.
(10:25):
By emphasizing the solution, byemphasizing how this is going
to go positively for someone onthe other side, we position
ourselves as the source of bothguidance and reassurance.
This fosters trust and,ultimately, it drives action,
and, at the end of the day,that's what drives revenue, and,
and that's what we're all about.
Now I will say if you haven'tsubscribed to the first episode
(10:48):
of every month, make sure you'resubscribed to the premium
episodes of the Legal 101Marketing Podcast, because if
you haven't, you are missing out.
There's stuff in there thatyou're just not getting in the
other episodes each month.
So make sure you subscribe.
It's only $10 a month and youget that extra episode every
month where you pack a littlebit more in to those.
So that's my scarcity for youfor today.
I recommend you take a moment.
(11:09):
Figure out how you can inject alittle bit more scarcity, maybe
a little bit more fear, intoyour marketing, and how you can
use these tools to make thephones light up.
But if you yourself are afraid,don't worry, because we'll be
back next week with more fromLegal Marketing 101.
That's it for Legal Marketing101.
Check out RosenAdvertisingcomfor more.
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