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

Published almost 2 years ago • 1 min read

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

Phill Agnew

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

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