In a world where digital communication reigns supreme, the classic charm of a handwritten note can stand out like a beacon. Imagine – a marketing strategy that leverages the power of personal touch, the emotional resonance of a handwritten letter, and the precision of modern technology.
Welcome to the world of handwritten direct mail, a marketing strategy redefining customer engagement and reinvigorating brand perceptions.
Handwritten mailers are a unique blend of traditional and modern marketing techniques. They use human or robotic handwriting to create personalized mail pieces, adding a distinctive and personal touch in contrast to the stereotypical, mass-produced print mailers everyone receives.
The goal is to increase open rates and establish stronger customer relationships.
Our industry-standard platform allows businesses to customize envelopes with handwritten fonts and craft personalized letters, aiming to replicate human handwriting accurately. By incorporating this level of personalization, all kinds of companies – automotive dealerships, solar panel installers, and real estate agents – can make their messages stand out and reach their target audience more effectively, thereby transforming their direct mail marketing campaigns.
As with any marketing strategy, handwritten direct mail has distinct advantages and disadvantages. The key is to balance these factors to optimize your overall strategy.
Among the benefits, one can expect increased open and response rates, enhanced brand perception and emotional impact, personalization, and a measurable ROI. On the other hand, the challenges include scalability issues, higher costs, and technological dependence.
Let’s get a bit more into specifics.
Handwritten direct mail could potentially increase open and response rates significantly compared to conventional mailers. Some studies have shown that handwritten notes boast an available rate of up to 99%, with a response rate of up to 10%. This far outstrips the response rate of traditional mail, which generally hovers around 4.4%.
On top of this, our 2022 Consumer Outreach Survey shows that consumers are seven times more likely to receive an email and five times more likely to receive a text than a handwritten note. This is a massive benefit of handwritten notes – they’ll stand out in customers’ minds to a higher degree and are much more likely to engage with them.
On the flip side, while handwritten notes are almost certainly going to engage your clientele better, the time-consuming and personalized aspect of handwriting each one individually could make mass production challenging.
Thankfully, with the advent of technology, solutions have emerged to tackle this issue. Businesses can effectively scale their handwritten mail campaigns by employing a company like Handwrytten. It’s as easy as uploading an Excel spreadsheet (or .csv file) through our Bulk Send system.
Handwritten mail has a unique ability to:
Establishing robust customer relationships is a crucial factor in marketing. Handwritten mail significantly strengthens your relationships via personalized messaging, creating a connection with you that is far deeper than just being a service or product provider.
In general, the cost of handwritten direct mail can be higher than traditional printed mailers, primarily due to the time and effort required to handwrite each letter. Of course, other costs, like getting proper materials like ink and stationery to create the notes, should be factored in, but the time you lose from handwriting notes can quickly scale.
However, considering the potential return on investment (ROI), these costs should be evaluated. With increased response rates and customer trust, investing in a handwritten note campaign can result in a favorable ROI, effectively justifying the expenditure. This is a good segue into our next point.
Handwritten direct mail campaigns provide a measurable ROI, allowing marketers to track and optimize their efforts. Our internal analysis of how our handwritten mailers perform showed us that handwritten notes can drive 27 times more foot traffic than printed mailers. This is quite a staggering number.
Even after adjusting for the cost of creating and sending handwritten notes, they still provided a seven times more significant return on investment than traditional print marketing. Imagine investing $1 and getting a return of $7 – that’s what is possible with Handwrytten.
Some of that return likely comes from the ability to personalize notes more. By delivering customized messages that resonate with recipients, handwritten direct mail can increase recipient engagement and higher open and read rates than standard mailers and digital marketing.
Handwritten direct mail campaigns with Handwrytten can include various personalized elements such as:
These elements facilitate a more personalized and tailored messaging approach, resulting in a unique customer experience.
Achieving success with handwritten direct mail campaigns requires a strategic approach that encompasses the following:
Each aspect plays a critical role in your campaign’s effectiveness, and perfecting them can significantly boost your campaign’s results.
Identifying the proper target audience is vital in any successful marketing endeavor. This becomes even more important in handwritten direct mail due to its personal and customized nature. To determine the appropriate audience, you can utilize strategies such as defining campaign goals, analyzing your best customers, and choosing a mailing list type.
To make your life easier, at least in terms of geotargeting, you can use our Outbound Prospecting tool to select specific areas and segment by:
As mentioned before, personalization is a significant benefit of handwritten direct mail. It strengthens the connection with recipients and improves response rates. Creating a unique piece of mail for every single recipient can show your clients that you care, maintaining and strengthening your relationship.
You have quite a few options for doing so. If you work within Handwrytten, our AI copywriting assistant can simplify your life. All you need to do is click the AI Assist button at the bottom of the message composition screen, and you’ll have a completely unique message.
But don’t stop there – make sure to actually tailor the message to your recipient. Are they a long-term customer? Or are they a new customer that you want to retain? Or are they simply a prospect? Different types of customers require different kinds of communication – keep that in mind.
The design and content of your handwritten direct mail items significantly impact their efficacy. Sound design principles and alignment with your brand identity ensure that your direct mail piece is visually appealing and effectively conveys your intended message.
Proofing is a vital step in the design phase of handwritten direct mail. This allows you to ensure all design elements, including logos, images, and text, are correctly placed and visually appealing. After all, you aim for your mail pieces to leave a positive impression on recipients; an attractive design is essential.
Tracking and measurement are fundamental aspects of any marketing campaign, and handwritten direct mail is no exception. By monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of your campaigns, you can:
Various methods are available to assess the effectiveness of a handwritten direct mail campaign. Our integration with Salesforce makes tracking your numbers super simple. Additionally, you can use alternative software options, such as call tracking software, direct mail analytics software, or comprehensive direct mail marketing software platforms, to track and analyze the performance of your campaigns.
Considering all these factors, you might seek a more straightforward way to scale your handwritten mail campaigns. The answer is Handwrytten.
Handwrytten software uses robots with real pens to transcribe messages accurately, making it easier to create, send, and track personalized mailers for various industries. Our software allows for customization, enabling users to input their message, select a handwriting style, and choose a card design. After that, Handwrytten prints and mails the cards via USPS.
In addition to this, Handwrytten also provides various business integrations, including the ability to integrate with Shopify to send notes to new customers automatically and enable triggered notes for direct mail campaigns.
Navigating the marketing world can be challenging, but with strategies like handwritten direct mail, businesses can forge deeper connections with their customers and stand out. Despite the challenges of scalability, cost, and technological dependence, the benefits of increased open and response rates, enhanced brand perception, personalization, and a measurable ROI make it a promising marketing strategy.
Businesses can maximize their marketing effectiveness by perfecting the strategy behind handwritten direct mail campaigns. And with solutions like Handwrytten, automating your handwritten direct mail has never been easier.
Handwritten direct mail uses robotic or human handwriting to create personalized mail, allowing for improved open and response rates compared to traditional marketing methods.
Using handwritten direct mail can be challenging, as scalability is an issue and costs are higher than traditional mailers. Technology can help mitigate these problems by automating the process and engaging specialized services.
Define your campaign goals, analyze your best customers, and use demographic data to select an appropriate mailing list type. Understanding customer behavior will also help target the right audience for your direct mail campaign.
Track the effectiveness of your handwritten direct mail campaign by incorporating unique links, codes, or calls-to-action and using software options such as call tracking, direct mail analytics, and comprehensive direct mail marketing software platforms.
Handwrytten is an automated solution that enables businesses to quickly generate, send, and track personalized mailers using robotic pens. It also offers various integrations for optimizing the marketing process.
Scale your handwritten outreach, creating positive impressions and long lasting bond.
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