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Imagine this…

You’ve been prepping for your launch for the last eight weeks.
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Today, you’re getting ready to send the first sales email in your launch sequence.

And you are stressing.

You’ve spent the past three hours tweaking the subject line, rewriting the intro, and lowkey obsessing over the CTA.
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Even though everything looks good on paper the Google Doc, a tiny voice in your head still whispers, “What if no one opens it?” Ugh.​
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​Because you know that no matter how good your email or offer is, it won’t matter if no one opens it.
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So you decide to A/B test two subject lines:

A) “[Doors Open] Grow your biz faster”
B) “[Doors Open] You’re losing $247 a day”
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Three hours later, you check your ESP and see the initial results are in… and it’s not even close.
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The first subject line resulted in an open rate of only 27%. *womp womp*​
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But the second subject line? The open rate was a whopping 56%.
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​Why did the second subject line more than double the open rate?​
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In today’s edition of Why We Buy 🧠 we’ll explore Approach and Avoidance Motivation—why we are more motivated to avoid pain than to chase pleasure.
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​Let’s get into it.
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🧠 The Psychology of Approach and Avoidance Motivation

At the root of nearly every decision we make is one of two forces. We take action either to:

• Gain something that gives us pleasure (money, status, love, etc.)
• Avoid something that causes pain (fear, shame, rejection, etc.)

This line of thinking dates back to ancient Greece, but researchers today call this Approach and Avoidance Motivation.

Research shows that when making decisions, avoiding potential losses is often a much stronger motivator than chasing gains.
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Why? Because the psychological pain of losing is about 2X stronger than the pleasure of gaining something.
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Smart marketers use this to their advantage and grab attention by first highlighting what buyers might lose if they don’t act, writing headlines like “You’re wasting your ad budget.”
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Because marketing like that triggers our built-in instinct to protect ourselves first—and win second.
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🤑 How To Apply This

Alright, so how can you apply this right now to sell more?​
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Headlines​
​Use razor-sharp pain points to resonate with buyers

The more vivid the pain, the more buyers want to avoid it.
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That’s why the PAINKILLER sales page opens with an ultra-specific fear: “Bad messaging KILLS good products.”

This instantly sparks the worry most marketers and online entrepreneurs feel: Their product—no matter how good—is being ignored. Not because it’s bad, but because of crappy messaging (that they don’t know how to fix).

Then—right when that fear hits—we show the way out: “Uncover your buyers’ ouchiest problems and fix your messaging so more people buy… in just 3.5 days.”

The result? Buyers feel both the pain of staying stuck and see a clear path forward. So they join the 500+ smart people who’ve decided to fix their messaging (before their product becomes another hidden gem that never sells).

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Ads​
​Stop the scroll with a pain-driven pattern interrupt

Allstate uses their mascot, Mayhem, to immediately grab your attention.
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How? By triggering your fear of painful loss with real-life examples, like causing a car accident because the rusty hitch towing your boat broke.

As you’re thinking, “Whoa—what if that DOES happen to me?” they instantly follow up with reassurance:
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“Get Allstate. Save money on auto insurance and stay better protected from mayhem… like me.”

It’s that pain-first pattern interrupt, followed by a promise of protection, that makes their ads memorable and clickable.
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Email marketing​
​Activate the brain’s “danger detector” to boost open rates

About 376 billion emails are sent daily. One way to stand out and earn the open?
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Trigger your reader’s instinct to avoid a negative outcome, like Sahil Bloom did. 👇

This sparks the instant fear of missing out on critical info or making a costly mistake.
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So you click “open” in a flash to find the answer.
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Tread carefully, though. If you open a mental loop like this, always—and we repeat, always—close it. Otherwise, you’ll kill trust instantly.

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💥 The Short of It

We’re motivated by two forces: pain and pleasure.
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Avoiding pain is usually more motivating because we’re hardwired to prioritize survival.
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But smart marketers don’t fear-monger.
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They spark just enough discomfort to grab attention, then offer a clear path to a better life.
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That’s why using this combo in your copy can drive more clicks and conversions.

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​Until next time, happy selling!

With ❤️ from Katelyn and Jordyn​

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