If you’re reading this, I assume my trick worked. I grabbed your attention by asking a question you couldn’t answer without reading more than just the headline!

Lots of musicians are trying to engage their fans by asking questions—and that’s a good thing—but oftentimes they’re asking the WRONG questions: “What cities should I hit on my next tour?” or “What’s your favorite song?”

Simple: 1) Chico, Modesto, Merced, and Fresno, and 2) “Dare to Be Stupid!” No need to open that email now.

According to a recent article on Music Think Tank by marketing guru Bob Baker, you can “hypnotize” people into reading your email newsletters by doing one simple thing with the email subject lines (and look—it works for blog titles as well): ask a question that can’t be answered without clicking to read more. 

So, instead of “Would you like to hear my newest love song?”— try something like: “Which one of these three beautiful women inspired my latest love song?”

A question like that creates a “mental state of dissonance” which we want to quickly resolve.

But Bob also shares a word of warning: “”If you’re going to use tactics like this to inspire action, you should put a priority on delivering an interesting message inside the email. If you mislead people or simply don’t offer a story that’s funny or compelling in some way … they may not trust you the next time you use a strategy like this.”

Check out Bob’s article “A Hypnotic Way to Get Fans to Open Your Emails” for more details on how to engage fans with interesting questions in your email newsletter’s subject line.

How do YOU get your fans to open your emails? Let us know in the comments section below.

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[Image of "question mark maze" from Shutterstock.]