I agree with you 100% on BAD get more attention than GOOD and I also know the affects of using to much negative titles in my email titles and messages.

I tend to go 50/50 when constructing my messages and I find that works best for me.

Thanks for this post. Great Info.

I really enjoyed this video. Thanks for keeping me entertained:) You are a great teacher.

Sean,

I like your added content on this subject. You’re awesome!

Thanks,
Stacie Walker
Woman in Leadership Founder

best

I send out a daily email with free ebooks…

On April Fools Day, I wrote “No More Free eBooks (Learn How To Get Them Back”… my open rates were more than double that day!

They learned it was just a prank, but they were much more willing to open the email knowing they may lose their free ebooks (even if they don’t open every day).

Thank you!
Christina

I started to comment earlier, however I was walking while pecking, got jostled, and the incomplete comments were lost. I’m not sure if it submitted, so I am rewriting.

Thank you for sharing the fun video. You are talented at making the mechanics of marketing easy to understand and use. Before seeing the video, I just listened to your podcast about the power of habits with Daniel Pink. Loved it too.

In the video you said that you quit reading the WSJ because it was giving you a negative attitude, because the content created anxiety. However, I’m not sure that it relates to the headlines, in that not all the headlines of WSJ use a “negative” word. Alot of the content is made up of regularly published columns. Wouldn’t it be more accurate to say that you stopped reading the WSJ, because the “reward” created by the habit of reading the news, had a negative result, rather than a positive or rewarding result.

With that thought, if the reward for clicking through either a “negative” or “Positive”, headline creates a negative experience, or is not satisfactory, wouldn’t the reader start ignoring the headline, whether or not you use a negative or positive headline?

If so, if the “negative” word in the headline causes people to have a positive reward, when they open the email, they become conditioned to reading the email. In that case, can using a headline that creates urgency, or “fear of loss”, be overused? Wouldn’t the satisfaction or reward the reader received for clicking on the payoff, be a better indicator for frequency of use?

If the content being provided to the reader doesn’t have a satisfactory or “positive” payoff when the reader clicks through the headline, they will “tune” out or ignore the headline, thus the email, no matter what types of words are used.

Wouldn’t the payoff, be a better indicator for “frequency”?

Thanks!
Teresa