How To Use Up-To-The-Minute Weather Data To Capitalize On FOMO

One of the best tactics any marketer can deploy is FOMO; fear of missing out. It’s the term coined for when you feel anxious or actual fear that you’re missing some cool or fun activity or event. 

Fear of missing out is a powerful psychological trigger; you’ve probably felt it yourself. 

Spend any time scrolling through Instagram and seeing your friends at a concert or event together that you were invited to but passed up. 

What do you feel?

If you’re like a lot of other people, you probably like you missed out, even if you had a really good reason not to go. Sometimes the fear of FOMO is so intense that people will say yes to doing something they aren’t even all that into merely because they are afraid they might potentially miss out on something down the line.

We’ve all been there. 

But what makes it so powerful?

Why FOMO works

We consider FOMO to be one of the primary psychological triggers that cause people to take action. It’s one reason why reveal marketing is so popular. When a consumer is faced with something like a scratch it or smash it to reveal the ‘prize’ behind it, they are more likely to engage. 

That’s because they don’t want to miss out on the surprise. Even a small trigger like that can get the fear of missing out flowing and translate into the consumer taking action. 

It’s one of the reasons why the fear of missing out can be so powerful to many people. It’s also why FOMO is becoming an increasingly important behavioral and psychological tool for marketers. 

And that certainly applies to email, especially when you start to use the fear of missing out in conjunction with personalized information. It’s the perfect way to create more opportunities for customer acquisition.

Here’s how to approach it.

FOMO and the weather

One of the coolest trends in email marketing today is getting super personalized in the content you send out. With geolocation tagging, that means you can target people in specific locations. 

Sounds good, right?

Now, take that a step further and add in real-time weather data to your emails that are bang on for the local forecast. 

For hospitality chains, especially, this can be an excellent way to reach out and tap into the FOMO of people on your list who don’t live near you. 

Take a look at this example email:

This is a perfect way to start tapping into FOMO via email. 

Let’s imagine Karen lives someplace where it’s cold and snowy. Maybe she’s been thinking of taking a trip but hasn’t quite decided where she wants to go. 

Now, getting an email in the middle of a snowstorm that showcases how nice and warm and sunny the weather is in Los Angeles can start triggering some serious FOMO.

By just staying home, bundled up with the fireplace on, she’s missing out on the chance to run on the beach or go for a swim. Something as simple as that can be the deciding factor for Karen to plan her escape to Southern California.

Without that push that focuses on her potential fear of missing out, it might be much more difficult to sell. 

Benefits of real-time weather updates

This email is doing a lot of interesting stuff. 

It’s got real-time weather updates. Every time Karen opens this email, even if it’s a week from now, the weather is going to be the correct forecast.

When you’re making decisions on sending out strategic campaigns that need to be both personalized and segmented, having the ability to plan around weather and geolocation is a great tool. 

You can use this in reverse too. Maybe your subscribers in Southern California want a ski vacation. So using the weather to show that there’s plenty of power on the slopes can make a compelling case for them to take action. 

FOMO and the weather can work for events as well. If you’re running a festival or an outdoor sale event, for example, you can highlight how great the weather is going to be while selling your last minute tickets too. 

There’s plenty of creative options for marketers who want to start incorporating real-time weather updates into an email campaign. Are you ready to give it a shot?