Nextdoor’s Shady Marketing Tactics Ensure I’ll Never Use the App

This brand sent me a letter, pretending to be my neighbor.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

A few years ago, I received a genuine snail mail letter from a woman I’d never heard of before — Katelyn, an alleged neighbor of mine.

In her typed letter, she invited me to join the Nextdoor app. Nextdoor is an app for neighbors, kind of like a Facebook group but dedicated to a local area.

Image taken by author and edited in Canva to remove identifying details.

Despite the friendly tone, I was immediately suspicious because the letter used classic marketing strategies.

Note how the letter played on FOMO, including the language, “Join today so you don’t miss out” and “This code expires in 7 days!”

(When I experimented with joining past the deadline, I was allowed to sign up regardless, rendering the deadline moot.)

I was confused, though, because it was the kind of communication I’d expect to see in an email marketing campaign I’d forgotten to unsubscribe from, not a letter from a real person.

Could Katelyn be an invention of Nextdoor? I googled Katelyn’s name and found a number. I sent her a…