Want to glue readers to your emails?
This 1300-year-old story reveals a way to keep readers coming back.
Once upon a time, King Shahryār discovered his wife’s betrayal in a distant kingdom.
Heartbroken and enraged, he vowed to prevent future betrayal.
His grim idea:
Marry a new woman each day and have her executed the next morning.
This decree spread fear across the land and tragedy to a new family each day.
Enter Scheherazade, the daughter of the King’s vizier (advisor).
She married the king with a cunning plan.
On their wedding night, she began to tell Shahryār a story.
But, as dawn approached, she left the story unfinished, with the fate of its characters hanging in the balance.
She finished on a cliffhanger.
Intrigued, the king spared her for a day to hear the story’s conclusion.
This pattern continues night after night.
She weaved tale after tale but didn’t finish her story until the following night.
When she finished one, she began the next story before the night ended.
After 1,001 nights, Shahryār is a changed man.
He revokes his cruel vow and realizes the error of his ways.
Scheherazade’s storytelling mirrors “open loops,” a clever psychology tactic.
Open loops tap into our natural desire for closure.
It utilizes the Zeigarnik Effect, which states people remember incomplete tasks better than completed ones.
This tattoos an open-ended story in your reader’s mind.
The lesson?
Use cliffhanger stories (i.e., open loops) in your emails.
Especially in autoresponders and multi-day e-courses.
Tell an engaging story but finish the story in the next email.
This compels readers to look forward to the next installment.
Each email introduces a new loop or continues a previous one.
The result?
More opens.
More clicks.
More engagement.
And hopefully, more revenue.
Just as Scheherazade captivated Shahryār with her cliffhangers, use open loops to keep your readers glued to your emails.
– EE