Latest / The Copywriting Podcast with Fexingo: Sales Letters, Headlines, and Persuasive Writing / How a Handwritten P.S. Outperformed Five Rewritten Headlines
Transcript
- Lucas: There's a famous test from the late 1950s. A Chicago-based direct-mail agency was working on a fundraising appeal for a children's hospital. They had five different headlines — all professionally written, all A/B tested against a control. Luna: What was the control? Lucas: The control was a letter with no real headline — just a simple, handwritten-style postscript at the bottom. It said something like, 'P.S. — I almost forgot. If you send your gift before the end of the month, your donation will be doubled by a matching grant.' That's it. No headline. No subhead. Just the P.S. Luna: And the five professionally written headlines? Lucas: They were classic direct-mail power moves. One said, 'Will you help save a child's life today?' Another used a time-bound angle: 'Last chance to double your impact.' There was a testimonial headline, a question headline, and a story-driven headline. Each was written by a copywriter who'd been doing this for decades. The agency expected one of those to beat the control by at least 20 percent. Luna: Let me guess — the handwritten P.S. won. Lucas: It did. By a lot. The control — that simple, almost offhand P.S. — out-lifted every single one of the five headlines. The winning headline was the second best, and it still fell 327 percent short of the control's response rate. The agency was stunned. They'd spent thousands on copy and testing, and the winning element was a sentence that sounded like an afterthought. Luna: Why does that work? I mean, intellectually, a P.S. is literally just the last thing you read. But emotionally, it feels more urgent. Lucas: There's a psychological principle at play called the 'Zeigarnik effect,' named after Soviet psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik. She noticed that waiters in a busy café could remember complex orders only while the orders were still open. Once the food was delivered and the check was paid, they forgot everything. The brain holds onto unfinished tasks more tightly than completed ones. Luna: So the P.S. creates a feeling of incompleteness. Like, 'I almost forgot to tell you the most important part.' Lucas: Exactly. A headline is a promise. It says, 'Read this and you'll get something.' But a P.S. — especially one that reads as a personal afterthought — feels like the writer just remembered something crucial. It breaks the pattern. Your brain says, 'Wait, this wasn't in the main letter? I need to know what it is.' And then the urgency of the matching grant creates a double hook. Luna: It's also worth noting that the P.S. was handwritten. That adds another layer of intimacy. In the 1950s, handwriting signified a personal note, not a mass mailing. Lucas: Right. The agency had the P.S. printed in a handwriting-style font — not actual handwriting, but a font that mimicked it. The contrast between the typed body copy and the handwritten P.S. signaled, 'This is a real person adding a personal thought.' That visual shift alone can increase response by 20 to 30 percent in direct mail. Luna: So the lesson is: don't bury your strongest persuasive element in the middle of the letter. Put it in the P.S. where it's the last thing someone reads. Lucas: That's one takeaway. But I think the deeper lesson is about sequence and closure. A headline tries to pull you in. A P.S. — especially one that's unexpected — closes the loop in a way that feels personal and urgent. It's the difference between saying, 'Here's why you should act' and 'I almost forgot to tell you — here's why you should act now.' Luna: We've been talking about these micro-tweaks that make a huge difference — a comma, a font, an underline. And now a handwritten P.S. that outperforms five headlines. It makes me wonder: how many of us are overthinking the big shiny parts and ignoring the quiet spots? Lucas: You know, that's actually a good moment to mention something about this show. We deliberately don't run ads on these episodes. No sponsors, no mid-roll interruptions. And that's a choice we made because we believe the best copywriting conversations are ones where nobody's trying to sell you something mid-idea. Luna: Yeah, and it's not because we don't have offers — it's because we want the content to stand on its own. If these episodes have given you a tactic you've actually used, and you want to support that ad-free approach, the link is buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, just a way to keep it going. Lucas: Exactly. And speaking of putting the strongest element at the end — let's talk about how you can use this P.S. tactic in modern email marketing. Because the same principle applies. Luna: Email has a natural P.S. zone — the postscript after the signature. Most people skip it or just put a link. But if you put your strongest call to action there, framed as an afterthought, it can lift click-through rates significantly. Lucas: I've seen tests where a simple P.S. saying 'P.S. — If you're not ready to buy, I put together a free checklist for you at ' outperformed the same offer in the body by over 100 percent. The reason is the same as the 1950s test — it feels like a bonus, not the main pitch. Luna: But you have to be careful. If the P.S. is just a desperate 'buy now' crammed in, it backfires. It has to feel like a genuine afterthought — like you just remembered something helpful. Lucas: Right. The best P.S. offers are specific, time-bound, and additive. 'P.S. — I almost forgot: the first 50 people to use code X get a free consultation.' That works because it's a bonus on top of the main offer, not the main offer itself. Luna: And handwriting? In digital, you can't really handwrite, but you can use a different font or a different color — something that visually separates the P.S. from the rest of the email. Even a simple italic or bold can signal 'this is different.' Lucas: There's a company called 'Really Good Emails' that analyzed thousands of high-performing marketing emails. They found that emails with a P.S. had an average click-through rate 23 percent higher than those without. But the effect was strongest when the P.S. contained a specific, time-sensitive offer. Luna: So the P.S. isn't just a throwaway — it's a strategic element. You should write it first, then build the rest of the email around it. Lucas: That's exactly what the best direct-mail writers do. They write the P.S. first because they know it's the most-read part of any letter. In fact, according to a study by the Direct Marketing Association, 79 percent of people who open a direct-mail letter will read the P.S. before they read the body copy. It's the second most-read element after the headline — and sometimes, as we saw in the Chicago test, it outperforms the headline entirely. Luna: Let's bring it full circle. The 1950s test taught us that a handwritten P.S. with a specific, urgent offer can beat five polished headlines. What's the modern equivalent for a landing page? Lucas: On a landing page, the equivalent isn't a P.S. in the traditional sense — it's the 'post-script' after the main call to action. Like a 'Wait, before you go' pop-up that offers a discount or a bonus if you act now. Same psychology: it feels like an afterthought, but it's actually the most powerful element. Luna: And it works because by that point, the visitor has already decided not to take the main action. The afterthought gives them a second reason to reconsider. Lucas: Exactly. There's a famous example from the e-commerce brand 'Moosejaw' — they had a checkout page that, if you tried to leave, showed a pop-up that said 'Don't go! Here's 10 percent off your order.' It lifted conversion by over 30 percent. That's the digital P.S. Luna: So the principle is universal: put your strongest persuasive element at the end, framed as a personal afterthought. It works in direct mail, email, landing pages, even in podcast episodes. Lucas: And if you're writing a sales letter today, don't neglect your P.S. Write it first. Make it specific. Make it feel like a bonus. And if you can, use a visual cue that sets it apart — handwriting font, italics, a different color. It's a small tweak that can have an outsized impact. Luna: Alright, let's wrap it up. The classic test from 1950s Chicago — a handwritten P.S. beat five professional headlines by 327 percent. The psychology is the Zeigarnik effect: unfinished tasks feel more urgent. And the modern application: use a P.S. in every email and landing page as your strongest call to action, framed as an afterthought. Lucas: Next time, we'll look at another micro-tweak that changed copy history. Until then, keep writing — and don't forget your P.S.