Knowing how people behave can give you an edge (and how to reel in more Christmas cards this year)

For any communications that you produce – from a letter to a website – there is a concrete go-to list of marketing guidelines you should use.

Think about who the piece is for. Is it relevant to the reader now? What’s the main message (or selling point) you want to get across? What makes your investment fund or carpet shop better (or different) than the competition? And so on. All solid principles, all part of a well-established checklist in marketing 101.

These basic elements are often ignored. Important company messages are lost in the scrum because of furious deadlines or because a ‘key stakeholder’ wants to inject some gobbledygook. Or because the chairman likes to sponsor lacrosse.

But that’s good for those in business who care about what works and what doesn’t. Straight away you have an advantage over firms who put out wishy-washy messages.

Yet there is more you can do – more ways to nudge people towards choosing you.

Science lurks behind all of this, but you only need to know what works – not why

Many behavioural insights have emerged over the past 40 years or so, which highlight how we actually behave. We often act irrationally, make decisions without thinking and behave in predictable ways.

Because that’s how we are wired as social animals.

Some of these insights are fairly technical, because big-brained scientists and psychologists produce them. But you don’t need to fathom the research that underpins their findings – just know the traits we all carry that encourage people to choose your product or service.

Whether that’s your carpets, your investments, your law firm or your pasta menu.

Cheers, I owe you one

For example, the effects of reciprocation – where we feel obliged to return a favour – have long been recognised.

Companies often offer a free gift (eg: a pen, a bag) to readers just for asking for more information about a product. This act is not a glitch that leaves their accountants foaming – it’s because people are more inclined to look kindly on someone (or an organisation) that has given them something first. People believe in fair play.

This tendency has been documented in many research papers. It was famously evidenced in an experiment by sociologists Phillip Kunz and Michael Woolcott in 1976.

      The researchers sent out a varied sample of Christmas cards to 578 people they didn’t know. Staggeringly, 20% of people who received the cards – from complete strangers – replied in kind. Without even asking the senders whether they knew them or not.

      The perceived status of the senders was also very instructive. If a card was purportedly sent by a doctor or lawyer, this greatly increased the chance of a reply. Even in the act of reciprocation, credibility matters.

So if you work for a firm with some recognised expertise and want to increase consideration, why not offer something that may be valuable to your readers? This could be a timely report on emerging markets from an investment firm or a tasty home-cooked recipe from a restaurant chain.