Information gap – an effective way to interest web visitors

What is the information gap?

An information gap can be defined as an element of information desired by the reader, which for some reason is missing in a given message.

Information gap – an error or an opportunity?

It might seem that the emergence of an information gap is a communication error – after all, we want to provide information that is complete, clear and helpful. And yet, it is the information gap that is most often used as a kind of bait, the first step to interest the reader. It is a phenomenon deliberately used in marketing communication, but also in books, films and even in everyday conversations.

It is thanks to the information gap that we eagerly await the next episode of a series, because something unexplained happened in the final minutes of the last episode. Films and books often end with an information gap, leaving a loophole for the creation of subsequent parts.

The information gap stops the reader, arouses in them the desire to learn more details, solve the mystery, find the answer to the question that is troubling them. It should therefore come as no surprise that, in addition to writers, screenwriters and directors, marketing specialists are also so keen to use the information gap in their activities.

The process of creating a message with an information gap

This is the situation that should be sought when creating a message that is not only intended to reach the readers, but also to interest them in the right way.

First of all, you should consider what the readers know about you, your brand or services. It often happens that different groups of readers have varying degrees of knowledge about you – people who constantly follow a company’s profile on social media certainly have more knowledge about the brand than people who have found its website for the first time. It is therefore very important to match not only the language or method of conveying the message to a given target group, but also the amount of information it contains.

In order to determine how to effectively interest members of individual target groups, it is worth answering a simple question: what does a given customer know about me and my company? After finding the answer to the first question, you should ask yourself another, equally crucial one: what does the customer want to know? What do I want to interest them with?

The discrepancy created as a result of the answers to the questions asked constitutes the ready-made information gap we need. Now all we need to do is formulate the content of the message appropriately, interest the customer and thus persuade them to take specific actions.

Where to use the information gap?

The information gap works perfectly in several areas of communication, but it is worth remembering not to use it forcefully, in every possible place or message. It works best in:

• Article titles – both articles, social media posts or emails. The title is a way to make a quick and effective first impression, we only have a few seconds to interest the recipient. Therefore, one of the most frequently used methods here is incomplete information, intriguing and encouraging to read the text.
• Leads – a short, several-sentence introduction to the article is a great place to introduce the reader to the topic and interest them, for example by asking a question, the answer to which will be found in the further part of the article.
• Advertising campaigns – also offline. When talking about the information gap and modern ways of attracting the customer’s attention, we mainly think about internet marketing. However, the information gap is a creation that also works well in offline campaigns, on posters or billboards. Often, intriguing and mysterious advertisements appear on the streets, which only reveal the minimum of information, so that readers impatiently wait for the appearance of their next parts.

While a properly constructed information gap works perfectly in the above areas, it is rather not worth using it in product descriptions, instructions or regulations. In these types of texts, the recipient is looking for reliable and clear information, and their absence may even have the opposite effect to the intended one.