Post by Phill Agnew

There's a 𝐦𝐚𝐣𝐨𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 with this infamous Ben's Gutters leaflet. I got mine yesterday. At first glance, it's effective. Looks genuinely handwritten and sweet. Personal mobile number. Smiley face. There's evidence that handwritten notes boost response rates¹ and can 2x sales². I'm sure that's why Ben's Gutters created it. But there's a problem. At the bottom it reads: "𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘜𝘒'𝘴 𝘣𝘪𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘨𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘺" Would the biggest in the industry 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 have time to handwrite these letters? Apparently not... it seems everyone in the country has received the exact same note: https://lnkd.in/eQVi2iwN It's not handwritten; 𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝. People in Newcastle, Norwich and Newbury get identical versions. Which defeats the point. Because the leaflet claims "𝘸𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘨𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘢". But this is a nationwide campaign, so I'm 99% certain it's BS. I'm sure this leaflet is incredibly effective for Ben, but by focusing on scale over efficacy, I think their deceit will piss off a decent chunk of recipients. --- 📧 I send a newsletter with marketing psychology tips like this to 10,832 readers each Friday. It's free, and you might get a handwritten thank you note. https://lnkd.in/eWhbUsqK --- ¹Garner, R. (2005). Post-it note persuasion: A sticky influence. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 15(3), 230–237. ²Kim, S., Choi, J., & Kim, S. H. (2022). Do handwritten notes benefit online retailers? A field experiment. Journal of Marketing, 57(4).