Ryan Dohrn explains the brain loop: an incomplete thought that makes your brain crave closure. A subject line like "Your advice?" or "July 30?" creates that tension, so people open the email to finish the loop.
Questions this video answers
A brain loop is when an incomplete prompt or question in a subject line creates cognitive tension, causing the recipient's brain to want to complete the loop by opening the email.
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All right, friends, now it's time for your listener questions, one of my favorite parts of the show. And this question comes in from Renee up in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Hey, Renee, I got a lot of friends up in the MSP area. Ryan, when it relates to subject lines, very often you talk about brain loops. Could you explain that again? I'm just not following you, and I think it seems to be pretty important because you talk about it a lot. So Renee, happy to answer that question. And so a brain loop is when somebody's brain hears something and then their brain wants the loop to be completed. So, let me give you an example. If I said, hey, Renee, I need to talk to you about something, and you're like, sure, what is it? And I say, ah, never mind. It's okay, never mind. And you're like, no, Ryan, what did you want to talk about? No, no, I'm good. Forget it. It's not a big deal. See, what your brain is doing is it's trying to complete the loop That was started. The exact same thing, friends, applies to subject lines, and I mentioned it just a smidge earlier here in the show. So, if somebody was to say a subject line that says, your advice, question mark, it makes somebody's brain go, what do you want my advice on? Now, as a lot of you know, my favorite subject lines are dates. So, if I wanted to meet with somebody, say, on July 30th, the subject line would be July 30th, question mark. See, that drives a brain loop. So someone that's receiving your email will see that subject line, July 30th, and go, okay, did I miss something? Do I have a meeting? What's going on July 30th? Then they open the email to see what is that. They have to do it. They kind of have to complete that brain loop.
