Marketing Strategies to Learn From

I read many posts on Bigger Pockets about yellow letters and marketing strategies to get people's attention.  Some talk about using handwriting versus typing, whether to use postcards versus actual letters, what color or size of envelope to use, what font, what color text, etc.

The options are analyzed nearly to death -- what is going to get the best response rate.

My thought is, why not take a lesson from organizations who have used one of the oldest ploys in the book?  Charities send out tons of mail and are hoping for donations!  They are hoping for people to literally give them money, while wholesalers and real estate investors are looking to solve people's problems.  So you'd think that the investors would have the easier time.  (But this is not so.)

You have probably seen charities include money (pennies, dimes, and nickels) taped to a card, mailing labels, notepads, bookmarks, seeds, stickers, or calendars in their mailers.  Why do this?  Why give away free product?  Charities have done research that if you give someone something, that person feels more of an obligation to give that organization something back, even though what the charity gives you costs pennies to produce (and they are asking for dollars).

An article I read online spoke about Hare Krishnas who would hang out in airports and give away cheap flowers hoping for donations of money.  And they did very well!

There are street artists who "give away" their music with an open guitar case or bucket and get donations.

So, would this tactic work for real estate investors?  Could "giving away" something of nominal value make someone want to pick up the phone or email you more so than if this strategy was not employed?

I'm curious if anyone has ever tried this.  I may try this myself someday just to see if it really works!