🪢How to lasso your audience w/ loops

Welcome to 2025, folks. Happy New Year🎇. What shall we talk about as we start out with a clean slate on Day One? How about one of the best copywriting tools available - Open Loops. Had one used on me over the weekend. 

I’ll break it all down, then we can slather ourselves with the following sections…

• The Knowledge Base (includes Moz ‘bosses’)

• Self Help (treat projects like hikes)

• Facts & Stats (low trust on TikTok)

• Get Hacking 

Now, let’s get to that Feature Story on using open loops in your writing and other content.

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Keeping Readers Hooked with Open Loops

I had the laziest weekend I’ve had in a while. Did a lot of reading and finished up this book called Walden on Wheels. 

The writer had unreal patience with the open loop he used. I even re-read several pages because I thought I’d missed his closing of that particular loop.

Long story, short. Dude figured out he was screwed after piling up college loans, then being unable to get a decent job, so naturally…

He buys a van to live in! Hard to get a GF like that but you can save some serious cash and climb out of debt, apparently.

Obviously, this was a play on Thoreau’s simple-living advice in his book Walden.

Highly recommend Walden on Wheels. Great advice on saving money and living outside what society tells you that you should (and you don’t have to live in a van).

Simple Loop

Open loops should not break your brain when you’re coming up with them. If they do, then they’ll definitely break your readers’ brains. 

Keep them simple. Don’t confuse folks.

This open loop involved just three words. 

Three words that the author left out at about page 100 at the end of a chapter. 

He was sitting in his car when things had become pretty desperate for him. That’s when he heard a voice. Dude didn’t do drugs or anything, he said. But he heard a legit, loud voice, not some quiet inner whisper.

He even hopped out of the car to look around to see who had said his name and those three crucial words. 

Nobody was there. 

Next thing you know, he’s off to Alaska…

The Loop Caught Me and Kept Me

I re-read that last page of the chapter like four times to see what I missed. The writer had me hook, line, and sinker.

I would not find those three words until about 200 pages later! That took serious patience from the author to not put them on the page where he first mentioned them. Or at least on the first page of the next chapter.

Nope, I didn’t get the payoff of his open loop until the very last page of the book.

Very last sentence.

The final three words, in fact.

Would I Have Kept Reading Without the Open Loop?

Yeah. The book was great without needing hall-of-fame teases or open loops. Plus, I’m not one to give up on a book after reading twenty or so pages.

Still, open loops play on human psychology, so it’s possible my subconscious kept me reading. How would I know?

Certainly possible the tease was why I read Walden on Wheels in two days. Usually takes me two weeks to read any book.

What were the three words?

I’m not gonna close that loop for you. I’d be robbing you of a good book. You’ll have to read it to get the payoff. 

The immediate payoff you do get is seeing the power of the open loop when creating your content. 

Today, there’s too much dumbing down of content (“Why it Matters” from Axios is spreading like a virus and just as gross). Let the audience figure out why it matters! If they can’t, that’s on them.

There’s also too much lust for instant gratification and writers / content creators feel pressure to give readers all the meat up front. 

I get it. I don’t want to be strung along a webpage that’s trying to cram a keyword in 20 times before the article tells me anything useful. 

But unless you’re willing to make your audience wait for a few payoffs you intentionally leave unpaid until later, it’s gonna get harder and harder to keep people engaged with your articles, books, podcasts, videos, etc.

Now, for some dos and don’ts of open loops:

Don’ts:

• Don’t make the content feel manipulative

• Don’t make false promises that don't match the payoff

• Don’t allow open loops to overshadow the main message 

Dos:

• You’re the writer. You can choose when to pay off an open loop — or not at all

• Master storytellers are the best teasers, so mimic their techniques

• Interrupt at critical moments to keep readers engaged (delay their gratification)

Alright… knowledge is power and it’s down below…

Self-Help

Ok, I’ve become a Greg McKeown fan-man. One of the tips I shared with you a few weeks ago, actually just clicked for me on a higher level.

“Decide what done looks like before starting.”

That tip has helped me with some aggravating articles I write. However, it hit me this morning that it will help me with large projects if I look at the tip the same way I do hiking a mountain (my favorite hobby).

A mountain trail has a starting point and ending point. There’s a sense of achievement because you know exactly where you started and where the end goal was. 

Sure, I get turned around on a trail pretty often, but never get truly lost on a well-marked trail. Well-marked trails are the key for me being able to complete a ton of hikes over the years. There’s no question when the hike is complete.

I know what done looks like before I lace up my hiking boots.

Facts & Stats

Bonus: How many weekly autonomous ride-hailing trips is Waymo providing in 4 major cities? Answer at end of email.

Get Hacking

A specific strategy to implement today

Practice using open loops to keep your audience reading, watching, or listening longer.

It’s not rocket science. Plenty of open / closing loop techniques are a Google search away. The hard part is remembering to use them.

Set reminders or use checklists so you don’t skip using this effective tool.

To level up your open loops, make time for reading and noting when you catch another writer using this tool on you.

Thanks for reading Inbox Hacking. Please share it with your peeps - it’s sugar-free but stings a bit.

Shane McLendon - Copy Kingpin

Bonus answer from Facts & Stats section: The Journal reports Waymo is providing over 150,000 rides each week in San Fran, Phoenix, LA, and Austin.