Can handwritten letters bag you a dream home? | Nudge Newsletter 🧠


Handwritten triumphs.

It's safe to say I'm obsessed with Rory Sutherland's Nudgestock talk.

He shares this surprising house-buying tactic.

This family of 5 wanted to buy a house in Chesterfield.

So, they wrote a handwritten letter to the 25 houses on their street.

This strange, ineffective tactic probably won't work, right?

No.

8 people responded.

5 people offered viewings

4 people gave them offers.

1 sold them their house.

And yet, 0 previously had their homes on the market.

This handwritten letter was an extraordinarily effective act of persuasion.

"It works", according to Rory "precisely because of the effort invested in the communication. The effectiveness of the communication was driven by the fact it was handwritten."

People value communication more if the communication requires more effort to create.

There's evidence to back this up.

Three researchers working with a South Korean beauty store found that handwritten thank-you notes for customers increased future spending by nearly 2x.

And yet, so few companies and individuals use this.

We assume the best approach is the most efficient approach.

We base our tactics on impressions and eyeballs but rarely consider the smaller tactics that have asymmetric benefits.

All too often, effortful narrow communication beats effortless broad communication.

Cheers,

Phill

P.S. Sorry I didn't put this in a handwritten letter.

Nudge Newsletter

I spend 18 hours each week turning marketing psychology into readable newsletters.

Read more from Nudge Newsletter

The Psychology Of Smell Read online I've got a shameful secret. My mouth salivates when I walk past Subway. I know the food is dire, the lettuce is plastic, and the bread is like a sponge. Yet I can't help but feel an urge to go in. After reading ConsumerologyΒΉ, I think I've learnt why. The Psychology of Smell You'll smell a Subway before you see it. The yeasty, sweet, toasty smell is pumped out onto the street. And I think it's on purpose. Just looking at this image reminds me of the smell....

Losses Feel Worse Than Gains Read online Kahneman proved that "𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘡𝘸π˜ͺ𝘀𝘦 𝘒𝘴 𝘱𝘒π˜ͺ𝘯𝘧𝘢𝘭 𝘒𝘴 𝘦𝘲𝘢π˜ͺ𝘷𝘒𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘡 𝘨𝘒π˜ͺ𝘯𝘴". So, Nationwide don't say:❌ "We've kept our Holloway store open. So you can keep banking in-person."They say:βœ… "Santander is leaving Holloway. Maybe it's time you left Santander." It's the best ad I've seen in weeks because it concretely applies behavioural science. Highlighting what a customer will lose is often more persuasiveΒΉ than highlighting what they'll gain. Richard...

"I'm A Student Here Too" Read online In 1994ΒΉ, researchers asked 100s of college students for charitable donations. All were told to interrupt the students and solicit a donation. But there was a twist. Half were told to make a straightforward request, with no extra commentary. Half were told to emphasise a shared identity, saying "I'm a student here too". The results were astonishing. Only 9.8% of students in the control group made a donation. While 47.1% donated in the variant group, a 3x...