Handwritten Notes Will Book More Meetings Than Cold Calls

Why Handwritten Notes Will Book You More Meetings Than Cold Calling

Cold calling — that venerable yet painful marketing institution. No one likes to do it, and yet everyone does because there’s no better way to make a quick connection with someone you’ve never met before. Or so we’re told. We spend hours calling — and bothering — as many people as we can, suffering curtness, endlessly routed calls, and hang-ups, in the hopes that some percentage of them will want to speak with us.

After all that, what share will likely convert? If you’re lucky, 2% of your cold calls will result in a successful outcome. Does that really sound like the best option?

If you spend a lot of time and money on cold calling, you should know that there’s a better way to reach your cold market. Handwritten notes offer a better return on investment no matter what metric you’re using to measure results. You’ll spend less money to make more, and if you use Simply Noted to automate the handwriting and mailing process, you’ll spend significantly less time.

We’ll talk more about how Simply Noted can help your handwritten direct mail marketing efforts later. For now, let’s learn more about how handwritten notes will book you more meetings than cold calling.

HOW HANDWRITTEN NOTES STACK UP TO COLD CALLS

We mentioned the anemic response you can expect with your cold call efforts. With handwritten notes, performance statistics improve by an order of magnitude.

It’s not unheard of for well-designed handwritten outreach campaigns to achieve response rates between 50% and 60%. Moving from 2% to 50% represents a 25x better response, translating to dramatically more meetings booked with less effort.

There are several reasons why handwritten notes do so much better than cold calls:

Because handwritten notes take time, effort, and focus to create, their perceived value is much higher than a phone call.
Handwritten notes create instant rapport because they’re a personal communication medium.
They allow prospects to engage on their schedule. Phone calls must be answered when they come in. Handwritten notes can be read whenever the recipient has time.
Handwritten notes are less threatening than a phone call because they don’t require direct contact. This is the ideal way to start a soft-sell approach.
Handwritten notes enjoy a jaw-dropping 99% open rate. Consider how many times your cold calls go unanswered and contrast that a medium where only 1% of recipients reject the message outright.

A father and daughter writing in a card.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR HANDWRITTEN OUTREACH MORE EFFECTIVE

With a little effort, you can make your handwritten campaigns even more powerful.

Leverage Personalization

When it comes to direct mail, people are accustomed to getting generic, one-size-fits-all mailers written to try and apply to everyone. Considering the economics of standard print mailers, this makes sense; It’s not financially feasible to print a custom postcard for every recipient. The problem is that generic mailers don’t connect with the reader.

Imagine you sent a postcard to a thousand people with the following message printed on it: “We hear there’s something special about your day today. We hope you enjoy whatever it is.”

A few of your recipients might be celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, or some other life event. Those people MIGHT identify with your message, although your lack of specificity is a point against you. Everyone else that gets your note — those without special celebrations that day — will throw it in the trash as meaningless garbage.

Personalization helps your handwritten notes feel as if they were specifically intended for each recipient, dramatically increasing engagement.

Work on Your Handwriting

Let’s face it. Some people have nicer handwriting than others. If yours leaves something to be desired, you should work on improving your penmanship. Handwritten notes that are unattractive or hard to read won’t perform as well as more inviting examples.

Poor handwriting is often improved by slowing down so that you can focus more closely on your lettering, line spacing, and legibility. For some, however, no amount of care can improve the look of their handwriting. If that’s you, consider assigning your handwritten communications to an employee with better penmanship. Better yet, use Simply Noted and let our advanced handwriting machines do the work for you.

Include a Small Gift

Human beings like to get stuff for free. Give us a gift, and you’ll rise in our estimation. You can exploit this tendency by including a small gift with your handwritten notes. People will appreciate the consideration, increasing the chances that they’ll read your note and book an appointment.

It’s important not to go too big. Contrary to what you might think, more expensive gifts don’t necessarily work in your favor because they feel more like a bribe than a gift. Instead, keep your gifts small and inoffensive. A $5 Starbucks card is enough to net your prospect a free morning coffee, which will put a smile on their face and your name on their heart.

A woman using a computer to order from Simply Noted.

Take Advantage of Simply Noted

Handwritten notes have one major weakness — they take a VERY long time to create. Each has to be completed by hand, addressed, stamped, and mailed. Even a small campaign can be time-prohibitive.

Simply Noted removes this stumbling block by giving the task of handwriting your cards to a fleet of advanced robots. Each is equipped with a real ballpoint pen, granting authenticity that a printer could never match. Your text is converted to handwriting using proprietary smart handwriting fonts that use advanced AI to introduce subtle variations to letter sizes, shapes, and other qualities to replicate the fluid nature of real handwriting. You could design a powerful handwritten outreach campaign with thousands of notes in under ten minutes.

We should mention that Simply Noted can also help you with all three of the other tips on this list.

Boost your notes’ personalization by using our offer custom message fields. For example, you could link [firstname] to the first name field in a spreadsheet, and our handwriting machines will add the appropriate first name to each note they write.
Our handwriting machines offer perfect penmanship, so you no longer need to rely on your or your employees’ handwriting abilities.
You can purchase gift cards right alongside your handwritten cards. We’ll add one to each envelope before we mail them.

This season, ditch the cold calls and use Simply Noted to drive higher lead volumes in the new year.