It was for a three-day course of some kind. In order to enroll, you had to “apply.”

Personally, I don’t have a lot of patience for this nonsense. With few exceptions, anyone who comes up with the money is going to get accepted.

But it does reinforce an important marketing concept: scarcity matters. As does urgency.

If I believe there are a limited number of spaces (scarcity) and the offer is only good until a certain date (urgency), I’m much more likely to move forward.

Pretending these things are real is no way to build trust with potential customers.

But establishing real constraints for real reasons is very effective.