If you’ve clicked on this article, I bet you’re curious about the curiosity gap. Well, according to Campaign Monitor, “The average person sends and receives approximately 121 emails per day.” Personally, I have never met someone who wished they would receive more emails in their inbox. While email marketing campaigns can be a valuable tool due to the large number of individuals who utilize emails every day, it can be difficult to encourage your audience members to actually open the said email and read it all the way through. How can you improve your email open and click rates? The curiosity gap can put brain science on your side and encourage open and click rates.
Let’s check out how you can use the curiosity gap to your advantage!
What is the Curiosity Gap?
For starters, if we are going to implement a strategy, we should probably know what it is! The curiosity gap is defined as the missing space between the information that a reader is given (what they already know) and what information is being withheld (what they want and need to know).
Using the curiosity gap can encourage readers to stay engaged in a piece of content in anticipation of an answer that was foreshadowed or alluded to by a previous statement.
Think back to the last time you watch a favorite show of yours. During the first few minutes of the show, the narrator says something like “This week on Bachelor in Paradise…”. Then the screen shows short clips, without context, from this week’s episode leaving out important details. As an audience member, you see yelling, tears, and drama galore. Your brain wants to fill in the gaps and make sense of what is actually happening here! Who is that crying? Why are they crying? What will the outcome be? Producers do this purposefully! To capture your attention and keep your mind curious about the surrounding events encourage you to watch until the end of the episode. You can use similar psychology to encourage readers to open up and read your content, both in emails and blogs!
Brain Science Behind It
The great thing about the curiosity gap is that it works in parallel with how the human brain functions naturally. According to Britaninica’s Curiosity Compass, “Epistemic curiosity [is] the drive to eliminate information gaps and learn new explicit information. When you feel that thirst to acquire new knowledge, your brain actually responds as if you are actually thirsty or hungry – that’s where the areas sensitive to unpleasant conditions light up.” As a business, why not use this to your advantage? You can essentially ‘quench your audience’s thirst for knowledge”!
Curiosity Gap – Ideal Placement
So, where should you place key phrases to utilize the curiosity gap in emails? The answer is the subject line. A 2021 Barilliance study found that “64% of consumers decide to open emails based on the quality of the subject line.” This one is the subject line like your bait while fishing for readers. If you can convince the reader’s mind that your email contains information that will close the gap of the information they want to know, they are more likely to open and read it!
However, it is important to consider the length of your title or subject line. Using a catching phrase can be helpful, but not if the phrase is so lengthy that it is cut off and cannot be viewed. This is especially important for mobile devices since the number of characters that can be viewed in the email subject line on mobile devices is even more limited than on desktops.
You can also include phrases related to curiosity at the beginning of the body of your email or article. Similarly to the reality TV episode example mentioned previously, this can encourage your readers to stick with your content until the conclusion of your piece.
Lastly, you can connect your content to current events that readers may already be curious about. For example, if you know that Selena Gomez is trending online right now, including a tie to her in your content may attract more of your audience’s attention.
Curiosity Gap – Examples Uses
What phrases appeal to our brain in conjunction with the curiosity gap? Let’s check out a few examples.
- Wolfpack Newsletter (Plus a little surprise!) – Your readers will definitely be wondering “What is the surprise?”
- Use This Strategy to Double Your Leads this Month – Almost every business owner wants more leads! Readers will stay tuned to hear what the strategy is and whether or not they are already using it.
- Don’t Make This Mistake When Shopping for a Television – This phrase will warrant an emotional response because consumers will want to avoid making mistakes and being arrogant. Your content can help them prevent this.
There are many more examples of this practice out there! Great curiosity gap phrases appeal to consumers on an emotional level. Excitement and information that is applicable to their personal life.
Metrics and Analytics to Track
Reviewing your email report statistics is a critical step you should take after every mass email. These are the most important mass email reports analytics.
- Check your Open Rate – Your open rate should be above 20% on average.
- Check your Bounce Rate – Your bounce rate should be as close to 0% as possible. Review any bounced emails and adjust accordingly.
- Check your Unsubscribe Rate – Your unsubscribe rate should be as close to 0% as possible. Review any unsubscribed emails and adjust accordingly.
- Check Your Click-Through Rate – Your click-through rate should be about 4% on average.
Also, check out these strategies to help prevent your emails from going to spam.
Conclusion
In today’s digital world, email notifications are never ceasing. Using curiosity gap center phrases can help encourage more clicks, opens, and reads of your content and set it apart from the rest of your audience’s inbox. Looking for more digital marketing help. Schedule a consultation with Wolfpack Advising today!
