Latest / The Copywriting Podcast with Fexingo: Sales Letters, Headlines, and Persuasive Writing / How a Handwritten P.S. Beat the Entire Body of a Sales Letter
Transcript
- Lucas: So there's this direct mail experiment from 1968 that I keep coming back to. John Caples — the guy who basically wrote the book on testing headlines — ran a test where he sent out two versions of a sales letter. Luna: Okay, what was the variable? The headline? Lucas: Not even. The headline was identical. The body copy was identical. The offer was identical. The only difference was that one version had a handwritten postscript at the bottom in blue ink. And the version with the P.S. outsold the one without by 57 percent. Luna: Fifty-seven percent from a few handwritten lines? That's insane. What did the P.S. even say? Lucas: That's the thing — it wasn't some brilliant new argument. It basically restated the call to action. Something like 'P.S. Don't forget, this offer expires Friday. Mail the card today.' Pretty boilerplate. But the format alone did the heavy lifting. Luna: So the fact that it looked less polished, more personal — that mattered more than the actual words? Lucas: Exactly. Handwriting signals that a human being wrote this. It cuts through the polished sales veneer. And the position — at the very bottom — means it's the last thing you read before you make a decision. Psychologically, that's prime real estate. It's called the recency effect. Luna: Right — you remember the last thing you saw or read more vividly than what came before. So the P.S. gets that final anchor slot. Lucas: And Caples knew this. He actually wrote about it in his book 'Tested Advertising Methods'. He said the P.S. is the second-most-read part of any direct mail letter after the headline. People flip to the end first, then go back and read the body. So if you've buried your strongest argument in the middle, you're losing. Luna: That explains why so many email newsletters now have a P.S. at the bottom. Even in my inbox, I catch myself scrolling down to see if there's a postscript before I read the whole thing. Lucas: It's everywhere once you notice it. Amazon product pages — the 'Customers who bought this also bought' section is essentially a visual P.S. It's the last thing you see before you click 'Add to Cart'. And it's incredibly effective. Luna: What about the handwriting aspect? I feel like that's harder to replicate in digital. You can't exactly handwrite an email. Lucas: But you can mimic the effect. Some marketers use a different font or a signature image. Even the tone matters — a P.S. that reads like a genuine afterthought versus a rehearsed line. The key is that it feels informal, like a last-minute reminder from a real person. Luna: I want to sit with that 57 percent figure for a second. That's not a marginal lift. That's the kind of number that makes you rethink your entire layout. Lucas: It does. And the cost of adding a P.S. was zero. It's a pure copywriting insight. And that's what I love about these old direct mail tests — they isolate variables with surgical precision. Caples tested everything: headline length, font size, even the color of the stamp. Luna: Wait — stamp color? Like, the actual postage stamp? Lucas: Yeah. He found that a commemorative stamp — something unusual, like a space shuttle or a flower — got a higher open rate than a standard flag stamp. Because it signals that the sender put thought into it. It's a tiny detail, but it signals care. Luna: That's fascinating. So the P.S. is really a subset of a bigger principle: small, low-cost signals of human effort can dramatically boost response. Lucas: That's exactly the principle. And it's why I think this episode ties so well into something we've talked about before — minimalism in copywriting. The most persuasive element is often the one that feels least like a sales pitch. Luna: It reminds me of this Swiss designer Dieter Rams. He said, 'Less, but better.' The P.S. is less copy, but it's placed better. Lucas: Exactly. Rams was talking about product design, but the same logic applies. Every element in your letter — or your email, or your landing page — should earn its place. If you can remove something without hurting response, you should. But the P.S. is one of those things that earns its place every time. Luna: Okay, so if I'm writing a sales letter today, what's the practical takeaway? Should I always include a P.S.? Lucas: Almost always. But make sure it's a real P.S. — not a second call to action glued on because someone told you to. It should feel like a natural afterthought. Something that reinforces the urgency or the main benefit. And ideally, it should be hand-lettered — or at least in a different font or color — to stand out. Luna: There's a great example from a nonprofit fundraiser I worked with. The body of their letter was very formal — lots of data about how many meals they served. But the P.S., in blue ink, just said: 'P.S. I'll be thinking of you when I pack the food boxes next Tuesday.' That one line outperformed the control by 22 percent. Lucas: That's perfect. It's not a hard sell. It's personal. It's specific. And it's at the bottom, so it's the last thing the reader sees before they decide whether to donate. Luna: You know, this conversation is actually making me think about our own show. We spend so much time thinking about the best way to communicate with our audience — what to lead with, what to save for the end. Lucas: And one thing we've deliberately chosen is to keep this podcast free of ads. No sponsor breaks, no pre-roll, no mid-roll. We just talk about what we find interesting and useful. Luna: Right. And if these episodes have sparked something you've actually used — a headline tweak, a layout idea, a different way to think about persuasion — and you want to support that kind of ad-free content, there's a simple way to do it. Lucas: We keep a tip jar open at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's not a subscription, not a patreon — just a one-time virtual coffee if the show has given you something worth passing along. Luna: And it genuinely helps us keep doing what we're doing without chasing sponsors. No pressure at all — just putting it out there. Lucas: Alright, back to the P.S. So the other lesson from Caples is that the P.S. shouldn't introduce a new argument. It should reinforce the main one. If your letter is about a limited-time discount, the P.S. should echo that deadline. If it's about a social proof angle, the P.S. should restate the most compelling testimonial. Luna: So it's like a headline in reverse. The headline grabs attention, the body builds the case, and the P.S. delivers the final nudge. Lucas: Exactly. And there's a related concept called 'the Golden Thread' — you want one core message woven through every element. Headline, opening, body, call to action, P.S. — all the same thread. If the P.S. strays, you lose coherence. Luna: I'm trying to remember the last time I saw a truly bad P.S. in a piece of marketing. I think the worst are the ones that are obviously templated — like 'P.S. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out.' That's not a P.S., that's a formality. Lucas: Right. A P.S. should feel like a real human remembered something important and scrawled it in the margin. If it sounds like a robot, you've lost the magic. Luna: So let's talk about digital equivalents. In email, the preview text — that little snippet you see in the inbox — is kind of like a P.S. It's the last thing you read before deciding to open. Lucas: Absolutely. And smart marketers optimize that preview text like crazy. They don't leave it as the first few lines of the email body. They write a separate, punchy line that works like a P.S. — 'Don't miss out — this deal ends tonight.' Luna: Same with the postscript in a video. You know those end cards on YouTube? That's a visual P.S. — 'Subscribe now!' or 'Watch this next!' Lucas: Yeah, the principle scales across every medium. The last thing you say or show is disproportionately powerful. Writers call it the 'clincher.' Salespeople call it the 'closing statement.' Copywriters call it the P.S. Luna: So if I'm writing a landing page, should I put a P.S. at the bottom? Even though it's a single page? Lucas: Test it. I've seen pages where a small hand-lettered note near the button — something like 'P.S. This price is guaranteed for 24 hours only' — lifted conversion by 15 percent. It's a tiny addition that costs nothing to try. Luna: I'm going to start looking for P.S. in everything I read now. This is going to ruin marketing for me — in a good way. Lucas: That's the goal. Once you see the pattern, you can't unsee it. And you can use it yourself. So here's my challenge to listeners: next time you write a sales email, a fundraising appeal, or even just a persuasive note to a colleague, add a handwritten-style P.S. at the bottom. See what happens. Luna: And if it works, let us know. We'd love to hear your version of the Caples experiment. Lucas: That's actually a great listener question to explore in a future episode. Alright, I think we've earned a coffee break. Luna: Agreed. Talk to you next time.