An unusual sight is happening in the sky tonight. Look at the western sky just after the sun goes down, you will see the alignment of five planets and the moon over the next few days. On the horizon, moments after the sun vanishes, you will see Jupiter followed closely by Mercury. Following an arch from west to east, you will see Venus (the brightest of the planets) and Uranus close to Venus, although you will probably need a telescope or binoculars to find it. As you go higher in the sky, near the moon, you will find the red planet, Mars.

This may be no big deal to you, but if you are a member of a star-gazing club, these next few days are what you live for. For the rest of us, let’s not lose the value of this moment before it escapes our view over the horizon. There is a marketing lesson to be learned from the aligning of these five planets. There are marketing opportunities that come and go. Whenever a limited-time event occurs, you have the perfect alignment for marketing to work. How so? You have a window of time before the big event comes and goes. This creates not only curiosity but also a desire to participate and a fear of being left out. That combination of desire and fear drives a lot of people to make an emotional purchase.

Limited-time events do not just pertain to stargazers. This formula works with all kinds of people. You can create limited-time opportunities for your customers with your marketing. Consider what your customer base enjoys and plan an event around a common interest. For instance, I have a customer who works in construction. They have found that many of their customers enjoy fishing. According toOutdoor Life,41 million people in the U.S.A. go fishing regularly. They also know something else about their customers – they value family time. They decided to host a one-day family fishing tournament. It was a big hit because two things aligned: the interests of their customers and a limited time event that was promoted well.

This type of stars-aligned, limited-time opportunity does not just have to be event driven. It can also be tied to such things as charitable giving sponsorships. Years ago, I had another client whose family had been gripped by cancer. The president of the company wanted to raise money for blood cancer research. During a fundraising campaign, they told their family's story and encouraged their customers and vendors to donate. The campaign had a start and stop date where they would match dollar-for-dollar contributions made by their customers. Would they have taken a donation from someone who was a day late for the giving campaign? Yes, of course they would. Did anyone make a donation after the deadline? No! Why? Again, the desire to participate and the fear of not receiving their donation on time drove the campaign to success.

Limited-time opportunities work because they drive consumers to take action. There are two keys to making this work for you: understanding what touches your customers is one key. Communicating the limits of time is the other key. Making those two align with each other, along with getting the word out, is crucial to your marketing campaign’s success.