Close The Cart–And Do It Quick!

In his book Hero On A Mission, self-development author Donald Miller says that deadlines force action, in stories and in marketing. He says, “Storytellers use the tool of expiring time to ramp up the drama. Without a ticking clock, a story gets boring.” 

I’m running marketing for Jordan Orme’s online course, The Editing Formula right now. We launched it last week on Tuesday, and we’re closing it this week on Thursday. It’s only open for enrollment for ten days. Then it’s gone. (Quick, go sign up now!)

Why did we decide to do this? Because it forces action from the customers, and it requires less management from us. The last time we launched the course, almost 1/3 of our sales came on the final day. Statistically, we should have received 10% of our sales on any given day, seeing as it was open for ten days. But we got more than three times that on the final day. Because it was going away. 

I’ve run marketing for other online courses in the past, and we kept the carts open for months on end. Some weeks, barely anything happened. Marketing got stale. Audiences got annoyed with all our advertising. 

It’s far better to open a course for ten days at a time, three separate times throughout the year, than it is to open one for 30 days at a time only once a year. Launches and closings have inherent marketing value, and drive action more than most anything else you could come up with. 

Close the cart, and do it quick!