Beyond Scarcity: Marketing Access Not Fear

I’m doing some scary things this calendar year.

You see, last year was a shadow work year for me. While working with one’s personal shadow and the larger cultural shadows we all fall under is an ongoing requirement for showing up to magickal work that I gladly accept, last year was a doozy. A shadow fest. A messy tumble into fear-land. A lot of trembling and wrestling and negotiating and realizing. You know, just typical millennial hag anthropocene witch life stuff.

I’ve climbed enough out of the squishy fear pit of terror worms (the first scary movie I ever watched was Tremors - thanks, Dad - and so I remain haunted) to start imagining what my world might be like if my insecurities and general life challenges loomed small in a life of large, persistent hope. What I’m trying to say is that I’m finally tackling (becoming friends with? frenemies with? be gay do crime comrades together?) some big projects that I have been both desiring but avoiding. Better yet, I’ve gotten clearer on what it is I need to be able to accomplish these goals (fyi, I’ve already started writing about these goals and upcoming projects in my newsletter if you’re someone who likes to be in the know). To bring these new projects to life I’ve been thinking about accessibility and different tools beyond the sliding scale to create financial support for community projects and seed-bombing the internet with free quality resources. Don’t worry, I’ll be writing about all of this in future posts.

One of the persistent fears in my life is scarcity in its various manifestations. It’s a tenacious fear that has blossomed in the age of the internet and in my own journey as a small business owner. I also know that this is a fear that is experienced by many of you reading this post and those who take my classes. So, as this is the year of big experimentations in my life and work, I’m trying something new to hopefully create more freedom and less scarcity for those of you interested in participating in any of my courses or services.

image via @mikejersken

One of the big tools of marketing and advertising is to create a sense of scarcity. In years past I even played the scarcity marketing game in my business. It was usually because I was feeling a deep scarcity and thought that a spur of the moment flash sale would get the money that I needed in the door quick. This way of doing business never sat right with me personally and I wasn't often successful. While I do think that having limited sales make sense business-wise (I can't sustainably offer discount prices on my services in perpetuity) I'm interested in creating a feeling of access rather than scarcity in my promotion of any sales.

This calendar year I'm casting some big spells against scarcity.

I'm just going to tell you right now, and post this information on my course pages as well as my FAQ/Contact page, when I'll be having sales and when I'll be offering extended payment plans every year from now on.

First, I've decided to offer two extended payment plan opportunities this year because the feedback I received from folks was that they would like to be able to sign-up for more than one of my courses with an extended plan at different times of the year so they can allow for budgeting. And that makes a lot of sense. I cannot afford to offer extended payment plans all the time (it is the type payment plan that folks most often do not complete and the one that takes up most of my time administratively to manage even with automation), but I really enjoy being able to make them an option.

Second, I'll be having my annual sale in June which is the only time of year that I offer any discounts on my offerings. I'll send out reminders for each sale, but hopefully it'll feel less, "Gotcha! Here's a sale!" and more "Hey, remember that thing I already told you about? It's happening if you're interested, my dude."

image via @cadop

 2020 Sales + Special Offers 

You can find the sales schedule for the current year on my FAQ - including details on my new J-term offering.

February 20 - 25:  Extended Payment Plan Sale
You'll be able to sign-up for The Lunar Apothecary at $40 a month for eight months and The Tarot Apothecary for $21 a month for four months.

June 22 - July 6: Annual Sale
My once-a-year sale on all of my content from ebooks to ecourses. I'll have more details on the discounts and available course bundles soon.

Sometime between Mabon and Samhain: Fundraiser!
I need to come up with a fun name for our annual fundraiser (Ideas? Let me know!). Last year we raised $800 for RAICES and this is a tradition that I want to grow and expand - more than the year we raised together the year before. In the months ahead I look forward to asking you what type of content you would love to see offered (I want to do something else in addition to the Samhain Oracle). 

August 27 - September 3: Extended Payment Plan Sale
Same as February's offer. 

image via @mikejerskine

If you’re interested in implementing similar ways of doing business in your own work, please do (and if you feel up for it, let me know in the comments or directly how it goes). It took me a long time to figure out how to do sales and offer extended payment plans in a way that made sense for me. What you see above might appear simple, but holy heck, it’s a result of a lot of trial and error. Make sure to give yourself space to make mistakes and, more importantly, change direction as needed without giving yourself too hard of a time.

Some of the things I consider when offering extended payment plans, for example, is what time of the month to do them. When I create an opportunity of access for those in my community who need the greatest financial support, I typically do it near the end of the month or straddling end of one month and the beginning of the next. I do this because I received consistent feedback from folks that this was the most common time that the received pay checks and were also able to know they could manage all their other monthly costs before paying for one of my courses. Paying attention to scheduling opportunities not only makes it more accessible to my community but it also makes the process easier for me - I received far less emails asking me to extend or change the time of a sale from folks waiting for their paychecks and me trying to make that happen for each individual. Ultimately, most of the ways that you create access in your practice should make everything easier for all involved.

Am I worried that folks will only sign-up for my courses during a sale or extended payment plan period? No, and this is because I’ve spent a few years inviting my readers to the table of understanding and celebrating financial access. I get lovely feedback that folks feel empowered when it comes to making choices on how they’re going to sign-up for my courses and that warms my heart (seriously, thanks for the feedback, friends, it’s been super helpful). I still have folks signing up for my courses at full cost, even after I posted this announcement via my newsletter. Of course there are folks who are going to wait for the sales - but I’m really happy about that, too. I know that I’ve informed my audience to make a choice on how they might want to engage me and my work in the way that works the best for all of us.

I would love to hear about how you create transparency in your marketing (and business in general). Please comment below or feel free to get in touch. These conversations around money, access, and how we invite eachother in are necessary, inspiring, and liberating - I’m so grateful that I get to have them with all of you.

So this is my contribution to the ongoing work that I know many folks are doing to create a more compassionate paradigm for both business owners and clients on what it means to run a business. We’re all just practicing for the future we’re calling home to us.

Also, because we’re magickal folk, throughout this year I’ll be posting spells and rituals to against scarcity, along with spells to strengthen, spells to soothe, and charms to bring us together. In the meantime, remind yourself that we might be creating meaning in our work but our work is not our worth, call in those early spring dreams, and remember to rest.