Ever notice how one email subject line makes you click without thinking, while another one just sits there? That’s not an accident, and it’s not really about logic. Marketing consultant and author Nancy Harhut calls it “innate intelligence,” the hardwired, gut-level reactions that decide almost everything before our rational brain even shows up to the meeting.
I recently listened to a great podcast breakdown of Harhut’s work and ended up buying her book, Using Behavioral Science in Marketing. I love this stuff so much I want to share the highlights, because once you see these patterns, you can’t stop noticing them in your own inbox.
It’s not about how we think, it’s about how we feel
I’ll admit it, I’ve been on the receiving end of this one myself.
Earlier this year I was staring down a future I hadn’t lived yet… a slow season, a client retiring, income drying up… and instead of sitting with that fear, I wanted it gone. Fast. So when an ad for the Play Makers AI course showed up promising a quick fix, I bought in on the spot. I never even got the course offerings in writing before I handed over an embarrassing large chunk of money. That’s not rational buying. That’s fear buying. I wasn’t evaluating a product, I was trying to make an anticipated future feel less scary right now.
Harhut would say I fell for exactly what she teaches: people don’t buy features, they buy relief from a feeling. A financial software company once described its own product as “the antacid for a diet of tough decisions” instead of listing what it actually does. That line sells a feeling, not a feature, and so did that course ad. It worked on me.
Two other patterns fall under this same idea:
- Loss aversion. We feel the sting of losing something roughly twice as strongly as we feel the pleasure of gaining it. That’s why “order today or pay more tomorrow” works better than “save money if you order today.”
- The endowment effect. Once we feel like something is ours, even something as small as unused account credit or a spot in a drawing, we don’t want to let it go. “Your credit expires tomorrow” pulls harder than “here’s a discount.”
Our choices are less rational and more reactional
We react first and rationalize second. A few tactics that lean into this:
- Autonomy bias. Give people a choice, even a small one like “what’s your preference,” and they’re more likely to act, simply because choosing feels like being in control.
- Labeling. The words you use to describe someone can shape how they behave. Calling someone “the kind of person who helps” nudges them toward acting like one.
We rely on auditory cues
This one surprised me. Phrases that rhyme, alliterate, or just sound good tend to feel more true and more persuasive, even when they carry the exact same information as a plainer version. A “reason why,” even a flimsy one, also makes people more likely to comply with a request. Simply adding “because” works.
Why this matters for your marketing
None of this is about manipulation. It’s about writing copy that matches how people’s brains actually work instead of how we wish they worked. If your email open rates or ad clicks feel stuck, the fix might not be a bigger discount. It might be a rewrite that leans on feeling over features, offers a small choice, or simply explains the reason why.
If you want to go deeper, Nancy Harhut’s book Using Behavioral Science in Marketing is worth the read, and you can find more of her work at HBT Marketing.
Want help auditing your own emails or landing pages through this lens? Let’s talk.