There’s a 1980s episode of Doctor Who where, desperate for an episode-ending cliffhanger, the writers had The Doctor climb over a railing and literally hang from a cliff for absolutely no reason whatsoever. The following episode (or week, if you were a live viewer at the time), opened with The Doctor simply climbing back up again and continuing with the story.
Honestly, it’s the most fantastic (and simultaneously awful) example of a cliffhanger I’ve ever heard of, but it shows the power of this narrative device. How many viewers tuned in the following week because they just had to see how this event would be resolved?
Cliffhangers and open loops have been powerful techniques to drive engagement for a long time – the 80s were 40 years ago, after all – and professional marketers are well aware how to leverage them, tapping into the powerful psychological science of anticipation.
Let’s take a look at the science to see how it can help boost your marketing campaigns.
The Science of Anticipation
The science of anticipation and its connected theories cover a few separate ideas, all linked to make for a great way to direct human behaviour – in this case, your audience. Three key considerations that are involved include:
That dopamine release happens before the reward, not after it
When you anticipate something good happening, the ‘pleasure chemical’ dopamine is released into your brain, making you happy and demanding that you follow through to the outcome. Effectively, this means people enjoy looking forward to something as much as the event itself. Consider kids before Christmas or a birthday – it’s all about the anticipation!
The Zeigarnik Effect, which explores how unfinished tasks stick in the mind
Developed by Bluma Zeigarnik almost a hundred years ago. This theory can be used by marketers in many ways, not least with the understanding that a half-finished story remains with us and is far less likely to be forgotten.
Open loops demand to be closed
An open loop, of which the standard cliffhanger is one, is where there are questions raised without answers – and your brain is desperate to resolve it. Careful use of open loops will have your audience coming back for more every time – it’s why you binge-watch Netflix until 4am, even when you have work in the morning.
By combining these three effective forces, you can maximise reader engagement and drive follow-up.
Why Open Loops and Cliffhangers Work in Email Marketing
Email marketing is special. Unlike many other forms of marketing, from single-shot billboards through to ongoing social media campaigns, email marketing is regular and controlled by you. Where other forms of marketing struggle to form an open loop or end on a cliffhanger to be resolved later, email marketing can do this perfectly.
Think of it less like a wide broadcast, trying to get people to engage instantly, and more like ongoing episodes in a TV series. Each email can deliver its own value and response, while setting up the next. This improves engagement and helps develop the relationship between you and your brand, and your reader.
By using the very essence of an email newsletter, it’s easy to set up a cliffhanger or open questions that demand an answer.
Let’s take a look at a few ways this can be used.
Storytelling Emails
I’m often talking about how making your emails personable and using your unique story is a great way to improve engagement. Well, with cliffhangers, you can go a step further.
Instead of the email containing the story’s beginning, middle, and end, hold a little off for next time. When you cut it short halfway through, detailing how you’ll finish off the tale next time, you trigger some of those important effects from the science of anticipation:
Your brand and your story hover in their mind for the week
As part of the Zeigarnik effect, your unfinished tale will float in their mind until it’s resolved, making your brand quicker to come to mind should anything trigger a connection.
You make the next email drop an anticipated event
Waiting for a conclusion makes your reader happy, thanks to that dopamine release. They’ll be looking forward to the next newsletter, feeling that they’re part of something.
You ensure they’re coming back
The open rate and engagement of the next newsletter is going to be higher, as your reader is ready and waiting for it. This means your message will find its target much more easily.
It’s simply done, especially if the story you’re telling has any sort of length to it. It’s as effortless as ending your first half with ‘I’ll let you know how that all panned out next week…’ or something similar.
Teasing Product Launches
It doesn’t just have to be story-based cliffhangers – open loops also occur when you let your audience know something’s going to happen soon. Emailing your list and letting them know that there’s an announcement in the offing uses the same science. ‘After months of research and development, our latest system is ready. Find out more on October 31st…’ – now your customers are keen to come back on Halloween (or whatever date you set) to find out more.
Big companies use product teasers all the time – just think about the hype when a new gaming console is announced, or images of an exciting new car design covered by a silken tarpaulin. You might not be delivering as world-grabbing a product as a major tech advancement, but that doesn’t mean your audience won’t be excited with the anticipation of your latest update. Email marketing that uses an open loop like that can greatly boost your product interest, resulting in an uptick in both preorders and sales.
Serialising Educational Content
If your business is in teaching and sharing knowledge, then you can use the science of anticipation to create ongoing momentum and ensure your readership comes back regularly. Rather than dumping the whole lesson in a single email, break up each lesson topic into smaller, easy-to-digest parts.
This builds regular engagement, as each email solves one problem and introduces another – to be covered next time.
With this technique, you can spend more time on each stage of the journey, developing more authoritative content and building trust, while also keeping your brand an ongoing part of your reader’s experience. Rather than coming to you once, learning what they need and leaving, they become regular customers, subscribing to your mailing list and looking forward to each email.
Balancing Value and Teasing
Like all the email marketing techniques I share, open loops and cliffhangers should be used carefully. If every newsletter ends on a cliffhanger, you’ll write yourself into a corner you struggle to get out of (just ask that Doctor Who script team!) – and if your readers feel like every email is going to ask more questions than the answers it provides, they’ll start avoiding rather than engaging.
You need to strike a balance to ensure you don’t break down the trust you’ve worked hard to establish.
- Make sure every email delivers genuine value and isn’t just a trick to suck in readers - it’s a quick trip to the unsubscribe button when they work that out.
- Close your loops - By all means, open another one soon after, but leave nothing unresolved. Stringing people along will lead to bad feeling and - yes! - more unsubscribing.
Tips for Using Open Loops and Cliffhangers
- Plan your story in advance - Don’t just write one email at a time and hope you can come up with what happens next when you need to. Planning is essential.
- Use subject lines to boost the anticipation - Hint at the resolution in the subject line and help people connect the dots: ‘The idea that turned everything around (part 2)’.
- Track results - No email marketing technique can be considered valuable without the data to back it up. Collect your statistics and analyse them to make sure you know what’s working and what isn’t.
Mastering Open Loops with Nathan Littleton
Want to learn more about using cliffhangers and open loops in your email marketing? Book a consultation with me, Nathan Littleton. Together, we can develop a clear strategy for engagement that keeps your audience returning with excitement and anticipation. I look forward to hearing from you.
