Ever wondered how waiters can remember long orders in their heads…
But forget them the moment they’re delivered to the table?
It’s due to the “Zeigarnik Effect”…
A principle you can harness in your copywriting.
It works like this…
The brain has an uncanny ability to store information that’s incomplete or unresolved…
But it forgets stuff the moment the process is completed.
In copywriting, the “Zeigarnik Effect” is more commonly known as an “open loop”…
Where you build curiosity in readers about the incredible information you’re about to share…
Pose paradoxical questions…
Or drop people into the middle of a story, rather than from the beginning.
So you see…
The Zeigarnik Effect provides the essence for compelling sales copy.
It’s why Star Wars has 3 storylines running concurrently…
With each story section ending with a cliffhanger before switching to another thread…
And the Zeigarnik Effect is also the secret sauce behind the success of Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code.
So next time you write a lead…
Think about what questions you can pose…
What intriguing information you can offer to share…
And how you can drop readers into the middle of a story at the most emotionally charged moment.
Because the Zeigarnik Effect will then cause your reader to get a cognitive itch…
They can only relieve by reading the rest of your sales letter.
