5 Psychological Tactics to Write Better Emails

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I have tested 100’s of psychological tactics on my email subscribers. In this blog, I reveal the five tactics that really work.

You’ll learn about the email tactic that landed a marketer a job in the White House.

You’ll learn how I doubled my 5-star reviews with one email and why a weird email from Barack Obama broke all records for donations.

5 Psychological Tactics to Write Better Emails

Imagine writing an email that’s so effective it lands you a job at the White House.

Well, that’s what happened to Maya Shankar, a cognitive neuroscientist Ph.D. In 2014, the Department of Veterans Affairs asked her to help increase enrollment in the veterans benefits program.

Maya had a plan. He was well aware of a cognitive bias that affects us all – the endowment effect. This bias suggests that people value objects more highly if they own them. So, he changed the subject line on the veterans’ signup email.

It used to say:

• veterans, you are eligible for the benefit plan. Sign up today.

Scrambling a word by changing it to:

• veterans, you have won the benefit plan. Sign up today.

This small tweak made a big impact. The number of veterans enrolled in the program increased greatly 9%. And Maya got a job at the White House

Inspired by these psychological tweaks to emails, I started doing my own tests.

Alongside my Nudge podcast, I’ve run 100 email tests to my 1,000 newsletter subscribers.

Here are the five best tactics I’ve uncovered.

1. Show readers what they’re missing.

Nobel Prize-winning behavioral scientists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky discovered a principle called loss aversion.

Loss aversion means that losses are more painful than equivalent gains. In real terms, losing $10 is worse than winning $10 is good. And I wondered if this simple nudge could help grow my podcast listenership.

For my test, I changed the subject line of the email announcing an episode. The check read:

“listen to this”

The loss aversion variant read:

“Don’t miss this”

It is very subtle loss aversion. Instead of asking someone to listen, I say they shouldn’t miss. And it worked. It increased the open interest rate by 13.3% and the click-through rate 12.5%. Plus, it was a small change that cost me absolutely nothing.

2. People follow the crowd.

Generally, people like to follow the masses. When choosing a dish, we often choose the most popular. When choosing a movie to watch, we tend to choose box office success. It’s a well-known psychological bias called social proof.

I’ve always wondered if it works for email. So I set up an A/B experiment with two subject lines. Both promoted my show, but one contained social proof.

The check read: New Nudge: Why Brands Should Flaunt Their Flaws

The social proof variant read: New Nudge: Why Brands Should Flaunt Their Flaws (100,000 Downloads)

I was hoping that by pointing out the episode’s high number of downloads, I would encourage more people to listen. Fortunately, it worked.

The open rate went from 22% to 28% for the social proof version, and the click-through rate (the number of people who actually listened to the episode) doubled.

3. Praise loyal subscribers.

The principle of consistency suggests that people are likely to persist in behaviors they have taken in the past. A retired taxi driver will not trade his car for a bicycle. A hair salon will not switch to cheap shampoo. We like to stay consistent with our past behaviors.

I decided to try it in an email.

For my test, I tried to encourage my subscribers to leave a review for my podcast. I emailed 400 subscribers who had been watching the show for a year.

The check read: “Could you leave a review for Nudge?”

The consistency variant read: “Follow Nudge for 12 months, can you leave a review?”

My case was simple. If I remind people that they’ve consistently supported the show, they’ll be more likely to leave a review.

It worked.

The open rate for the consistency version of the email was 7% higher.

But more importantly, the click-through rate (the number of people who actually left a review), was almost 2x higher for the consistency version. Just telling people they were fans for a while doubled my reviews.

4. Lack of showcase.

We prioritize limited resources. Taylor Swift’s concerts sell out in seconds not only because she’s popular, but because her tickets are hard to come by.

Swifties aren’t the first to experience this. In 1975, three researchers proved how strong the deficiency is. For the study, the researchers occupied a cafe. On alternate weeks they would make a slight change to the coffee.

Some weeks they would make sure the cookie jar was full.

Other weeks they made sure the cookie jar only contained two cookies (never more or less).

In other words, sometimes cookies seemed abundantly available. Sometimes they looked like they were almost out.

This changed the behavior. Customers who saw the two cookies bought 43% more cookies of those who saw the full jar.

It sounded too good to be true, so I tried it myself.

I sent an email to 260 subscribers offering free access to my Science of Marketing course for just one day.

In the control, the subject line read: “Free access to the Science of Marketing course”

For the rarity variant it read: “Only Today: Get free access to the Science of Marketing course | Only one registration per person.”

130 people received the first email, 130 received the second. And the result was almost as good as finding cookies. The rarity version had a 15.1% higher open rate.

5. Stimulate curiosity.

All of the email tips I’ve shared have only been tested on my relatively small audience. So I thought I’d end with a tip that’s been tried and tested by the masses.

In 2012, Barack Obama and his campaign team sent hundreds of emails to raise money for his campaign.

Of the $690 million it raised, most came from direct email appeals. But there was one email, according to ABC news, that was far more effective than the rest. And it was strange.

The email that raised the most cash had a strange subject line. He simply said “Hello.”

The actual email asked the reader to donate, sharing all the expected reasons, but the subject matter was different.

It sparked curiosity, it made people wonder, Obama says Hello only to me?

Readers were curious and couldn’t help but open the email. According to ABC it was “the most effective pitch of all.”

Because more people opened it, it raised more money than any other email. The bias Obama used here is the curiosity gap. We are more likely to act on something when our curiosity is piqued.

Loss aversion, social proof, consistency, scarcity, and curiosity—all of these drives have helped me improve my emails. And I believe they will work for you.

Not guaranteed of course. Many may fail. But running some simple a/b tests on your emails is free, so why not give it a try?

This blog is part of Phill Agnew’s Marketing cheat sheet series where he reveals scientifically proven tips to help you improve your marketing. To learn more, listen to the podcast by Nudge, a proud member of the Hubspot Podcast Network.