📖 AI Marketing Playbook: The Tension Test

Goal: Identify which tension type pulls hardest for your offer, then build copy around it.
Time: 10 minutes.
Difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐ Medium (requires matching psychology to product).
Outcome: A tension-first framework you can deploy across any campaign.

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Every piece of copy that holds attention creates a gap. But not all gaps are equal.

Curiosity gaps make readers feel like they're missing information. Identity gaps make them question who they are. Status gaps make them feel behind. The wrong tension for your offer falls flat.

The right one? Magnetic. Today's experiment finds your match.

Step 1: Generate all three tension types

Open one of the Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity and copy the following prompt:

I'm going to give you a product/offer. Write 3 different opening paragraphs for it, each using a different psychological tension:

Product/offer: [Describe your product in one sentence]

Each paragraph should be 2-3 sentences. Label which tension type each uses.

What you’ll get: Three distinct psychological approaches to the same offer.

Step 2: Diagnose the pull

Now run this:

For each of the 3 paragraphs above, answer:

Then tell me: which tension type is the natural fit for this product, and why?

What you'll learn: Not just which works, but why it works for your specific case.

Step 3: Amplify the winner

Now push harder:

Take the tension type you identified as the best fit. Write 3 variations of that opening, each one increasing the tension intensity:

Show me where the line is between "compelling" and "manipulative."

The insight: Tension has a dial. You need to know where yours should sit.

Step 4: Stress-test the others

Final prompt:

Now take the two tension types that WEREN'T the natural fit. For each one, describe a scenario or audience segment where that tension type WOULD work better than the winner.

This tells me when to switch approaches.

The payoff: You're not just finding one answer, you're building a tension toolkit.

Tension works because the brain hates open loops. Curiosity gaps exploit information asymmetry; we're wired to close them. Identity tension triggers cognitive dissonance; we can't tolerate contradiction between beliefs and behavior. Status tension activates social comparison; we instinctively check our position against others.

The key is matching the tension to the decision type. Curiosity sells information products. Identity sells transformation. Status sells belonging.

Mismatch the tension, and the copy feels "off" even if it's well-written.

Tension isn't about creating anxiety; it's about creating momentum.

The right gap pulls readers forward. The wrong gap pushes them away.

Your job is to open a loop they want to close.

Test these:

Tension Audit: Analyze this landing page copy and identify which tension type it's using: curiosity, identity, or status. Is it the right match for this offer, or would a different tension pull harder? [Paste your landing page copy]

Subject Line Triple-Take: Rewrite this email subject line three ways: once using curiosity tension, once using identity tension, once using status tension. Then rank them by which would get the highest open rate for this audience.

Subject line: [Your subject line] Audience: [Describe your audience]

Tension Match Finder: My product helps people [describe the transformation]. Based on this, which tension type should I lead with in my marketing: curiosity, identity, or status? Explain why, and give me a backup tension type if the first one doesn't resonate.

Tension Blend: Write a headline for this offer that combines two tension types (curiosity + identity, curiosity + status, or identity + status) without feeling manipulative. Explain how you balanced them.

Offer: [Describe your offer in one sentence]

Here's the meta-twist: What tension is this Playbook using on you?

Reread the intro. Identify the gap. Ask yourself why you kept reading. Then apply that same awareness to your own work.

The best marketers feel the tension they create, not just deploy it.

Attention isn't grabbed, it's pulled. And the pull comes from tension. This week, you learned that different gaps work for different offers, and that intensity matters as much as type.

Now you can engineer the specific momentum your copy needs instead of hoping good words are enough.

Questions? Just write a comment below. I read all the comments and respond to them.