How Safiya Nygaard built an empire

And the brain science behind why it works

Author

Paige Peterson
May 17, 2024

In partnership with

What happens when you buy every shade of lipstick from Sephora and melt them all together? 

For Safiya Nygaard — a twice sold out collab with ColourPop.

Starting from 0, Safiya’s growth exploded as she left Buzzfeed and jumped into building her own channel. 

But what sets this creator apart from the thousands of others in the beauty and lifestyle space — earning her over 10M subs in just a few years?

Paige, here! Back with another creator deep dive.

This week, we’re diving into a little bit of psychology 🧠

If you’ve been in the marketing game for a while, you are likely already well-versed in the most effective emotional triggers: fear, desire and curiousity. 

Odds are, you’ve talked about how to tap into FOMO to get your audience clicking deeper into your content. 

But when was the last time you really focused on triggering curiosity? 

This is where Safiya gets it right. Every. Single. Time. 

Just take a look at her titles:

  • I melted every Yankee candle together into a candle

  • I bought the same dress for $4, $30, $60, and $200

  • I ate at every celebrity chef’s restaurant on the Vegas strip

  • I spent 24 hours in an underwater hotel

And the list goes on. Over 200 videos and every single title evokes a single emotion: curiosity. 

You’ll notice she doesn’t hint at the results in her titles or thumbnails. You have to click and go along for the ride for the answers you’re looking for. 

Curiosity isn’t purely a Safiya Nygaard trick — there’s a ton of science that explains exactly why this tactic works.

A 2010 study revealed that consumers were more likely to opt for a mystery incentive than one that was predefined. This research was confirmed by a study in 2013 that offered shoppers a free mystery gift or an explicitly described free gift. 

Another recent study tested ads that tapped into curiosity, encouragement, distress, and discontent. Those that invoked curiosity had the highest engagement and were the only ones that positively impacted purchase habits. 

Tldr: When participants were presented with two ads (one curiosity-invoking offer and one that stated the value outright), both leading to the same content, those who entered through curiosity were significantly more satisfied. 

They engaged longer, were more likely to purchase, and returned to the content multiple times.

The other content tested didn’t have this impact.

So while fear and desire are great ways to connect with your audience… you’re missing a major opportunity to maximize interest if you’re sleeping on curiosity. 

So how can you tap into the well of mystery that humans can’t seem to resist? Let’s look at a few more examples: 

Hormozi takes a different approach than Safiya. He doesn’t tap into curiosity every time. But this recent release promises advice that is brutally honest. 

What kind of business advice? Is it a framework he’s developed? Experiences he’s had? 

Guess you’ll have to watch to find out. 

With several successful businesses under his belt and a killer strategy (if you missed last week’s newsletter on Ali, you should check it out), Ali taps into curiosity with a failure. 

How did he fail? What business could Ali let drop? Again — no hint at the details in the title or thumbnail. 

You’ve got to watch to learn.

We all know Teslas aren’t cheap. How’d Graham Stephan snag one for $78 a month? Is it a trick? Did he win it in a backflipping contest? Using the title and thumbnail as a hook, viewers have no idea — but curiosity is piqued. 

(A bad title for this video would have been: Using Tax Writeoffs and Financial Creative Thinking, I Bought a Tesla for $78 a Month — Kind Of)

Side note: Tapping into curiosity only works if you deliver on your promise. Safiya reveals what happens when you melt things together. Mystery discounts only work when the discount is satisfying (get out of here, 2% off). Hormozi’s video will only work if he is actually brutally honest and delivers valuable advice. 

So we’ve looked at some good examples from creators who seemed to have already figured it out. Next — let’s check out some bad ones. 

This video has some great insights… but they’re buried behind a generic title that’s lacking any sense of emotion. 

The content is there, but the curiosity is missing. I would rewrite this title like this: “He Spent $150M+ On LinkedIn Ads So You Don’t Have To.”

Thumbnail issues aside — what does this title offer us? Pretty much nada. Branding, generic tagline, and ‘business success.’

Let’s spice Cisco’s interview up with a little curiosity: 

“They Power 1600+ India Cities With These 3 Things”

Best part — this hook was found in the first 5 seconds of the video.

This video clearly explains what the video will cover — a new service launch. But, the title needs work. 

When announcing an exciting topic or new offer, you can attract more viewers by tapping into curiosity while also staying crystal clear about the content. We could change this title to:

“How GE’s New Storm Readiness is Saving Lives” 

Humans are curious creatures. When you can tap into that curiosity with a good hook and a bit of mystery, you build an engaged audience that’s interested in what you do. 

How can you take your existing video titles and transform them into a claim or question that heightens curiosity? (p.s. This works for social hooks and articles, too)

The takeaway: Invoking curiosity with your content statistically increases the likelihood of longer view times, higher engagement and overall increased satisfaction. When you leverage human psychology in your hooks and titles, you can win — even if the content at the end remains relatively the same.

That’s it, ya’ll! Happy creating!

Paige Peterson
Newsletter Aficionado, Sweet Fish

When I’m not writing about your fav creators or crafting stories, you can catch me with my kids or trying to revive the plant I forgot to water… again🪴Back on my mission to climb a new tree every week 💪

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