How to Get the Most out of Handwritten Thank You Notes

Get the Most out of Handwritten Thank You Notes

Handwritten thank you notes are a lost art. But they shouldn’t be. A handwritten thank you note is one of the most personal and meaningful ways to show your appreciation. In a world where everything is done electronically, handwritten thank you notes can really stand out.

And that’s why businesses should use handwritten thank you notes as a marketing tactic. A well-crafted handwritten note can make a big impression on customers and clients. It shows that you took the time to write something personal, and it demonstrates that you appreciate their business.

Plus, there are several ways that handwritten direct mail can benefit businesses. For example, it can help increase brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, or generate leads. You can even win back lost customers. So if you want to get the most out of your next direct mail campaign, remember to use handwritten thank you notes.

A thank you note featuring illustrated cacti.

Handwritten Thank You Notes Benefit Businesses

One of the most effective ways that businesses can get the most out of their marketing campaigns is through handwritten thank you notes. They demonstrate that you truly appreciate your customers, and they can receive more attention than an email.

Emails are forgettable. Each looks the same as every other and none of them feel warm or personal. If we were talking about phone calls, the email equivalent would be one of those robocalls common among telemarketers today. They're entirely impersonal, even when they're sent by a real person.

Handwritten notes tap into a deeply-layered emotional landscape passed down through the centuries. People have always relied on them to reach out to their family and friends when they couldn't be there themselves. Handwriting represents a small, personal piece of yourself that you can send through the mail and speak directly to your recipient without ever saying a word. Handwritten direct mail marketing works — its 99% open rate speaks for itself!

Handwritten Thank You Notes Help With Networking

Another way to use handwritten thank notes is for professional networking. If you just made a new connection, write them a note letting them know how happy you are to meet them. You can also send handwritten cards after you attend an industry event, trade show, or conference that they host or participate in. And if they have a blog or other online community, send them a note letting them know that you appreciate their work.

Handwritten Notes for Brand Awareness

Handing out your business cards and flyers helps people to recognize your name and logo, but handwritten thank you notes can make them feel like they know you personally. This humanizes your company and puts a friendly face to the business name. When people think of you, they'll think of your business and vice versa.

Remember, handwritten notes don’t need to be long and wordy because you only want them to understand that your business appreciates them. You can put anything in the note that will get your point across such as a printed-out photographic image of one of your products or their favorite artwork.

Handwritten Notes for Referral Generation

Handwritten notes are an effective tool for drumming up referrals as well. This leverages the good feelings associated with gratitude. Thank your customers for their orders, let them know how important their business is to you, and then ask if they know anyone else that could benefit from your services.

For example, you could say something like, “Wow! Thank you for your business. We're grateful every time someone selects our company to provide them with our products or services. Would you know of any colleagues that would enjoy working with us too?"

An attractive flower patterned thank you note.

Ways to Boost Your Results With Handwritten Thank You Notes

The benefits of handwritten thank you notes should be obvious. Now let's look at methods for getting the most from every handwritten thank you note you send.

Automate the Entire Process

The most critical element of any handwritten thank you note campaign is efficiency. If you have to burn dozens of critical employee hours handwriting hundreds of thank you notes, the return you'll realize won't be nearly as significant.

Likewise, if you have to manually keep track of the thank you notes you need to send, it's likely you'll forget important contacts, reducing your campaign's overall effectiveness. The trick is to automate the process so that your handwritten thank you notes are written and mailed automatically whenever they're needed.

To accomplish automation on this level, you need Simply Noted.

Simply noted offers several robust software integrations. For example, if you use Salesforce, you can sync your CRM seamlessly. This way, whenever someone moves into a new lead stage in Salesforce, Simply Noted can automatically send out a handwritten thank you note to that prospect.

With Simply Noted, you can automate handwritten thank you notes and other mailers as easily as you would email. You can use the same automation packages and set up elaborate workflows to trigger handwritten notes in response to a variety of factors.

And what will your customers and prospects receive? They'll find the finest automated handwritten cards available. We recently unveiled our newest handwriting machines, and they improve on the technology in every conceivable way. Most critically, the real ballpoint pens they put to paper are driven by our proprietary "Infinity" fonts. These smart handwriting fonts can create thousands of variations on letter sizes, shapes, and other critical handwriting markers. Just like real handwriting, our fonts create subtle differences that sell the handwriting illusion.

The upshot is an automated handwriting experience that's unmatched in the industry. And that's important because if your customers don't believe your handwritten notes were written by hand, they lose much of their emotional and business-building potential.

A stylish man surrounded by camera phones with his image on them.

Personalize, Personalize, Personalize

A handwritten thank you note's appeal is at least partially based on its personal nature. Unlike a generic marketing mailer that feels as if it was sent by a faceless corporation, a handwritten note is sent from one person to another. It creates a connection between two people.

You can boost this effect by increasing the amount of personalization you include in your notes. The first step is the most obvious — address your thank you letters to each recipient's first name. If you skip this step your thank you note will go right in the trash.

Beyond that, you can include your recipient's address on the card and include verbiage that's specific to them, like a shared experience, something specific about their business, etc. The more personalized your thank you notes feel, the more likely it is that your recipients will accept them in the spirit they were intended.

Simply Noted offers custom fields that allow users to swap out variables for information encoded in your CRM or in a simple spreadsheet. With each successive card or letter our machines right, these variables get filled in with recipient-specific information to create a potent, handwritten experience that's organically tied to each individual.

Don't Wait Too Long

Your handwritten thank you notes should be sent out as soon as possible after the favor they repay. The longer you wait, the less time your recipient has to feel grateful for your note. In an ideal world, a business owner or other customer would have his or her thank you note in hand within a few days.

In practice, it can take days before a handwritten note is sent out. This means that they're most effective when someone closes a business deal or achieves some other milestone together with your company.

Simply Noted can help here, too. If you use an integration like Salesforce, you can set up triggers and workflow processes to automatically send thank you cards whenever a related task is completed in your CRM.

Be Consist

Consistency is another critical element for any handwritten thank you note campaign. You have to send them out each and every time they're warranted — every customer, every time. Otherwise, you'll get inconsistent results. And if one customer learns that a colleague received a thank you, and they didn't, you run the risk of bad blood.

Don't be afraid to over-serve your customers and prospects. A little bit of effort goes a long way toward establishing and maintaining goodwill.

You'll never get the best results from handwritten notes if you can't keep up with how many cards you owe people at any given time. That's why we recommend outsourcing fulfillment to a third party like Simply Noted. We can help you set up automation to deliver handwritten notes on time, every time.

How to Write an Effective handwritten Thank You Note

Thank you notes don't need to be long and their structure doesn't have to be unique. Below you'll find a template for writing your own thank you notes. The structure can remain the same as long as the content of your note is personalized for the recipient.

Try This Structure When Writing Your Next Thank You Note

Use this format to create a succinct thank you note that maximizes its impact.

Start with a salutation: Your salutation opens the card. Something like, "Dear (name)". The salutation sets the tone for your card and determines whether the message is casual or professional. For more formal thank yous, forgo your recipient's first name and append a title.

Give a brief thank you: Use your opening sentence to state plainly your gratitude. Be certain to mention specifics regarding the focus of your thanks. Something like, "We're so grateful you chose to work with us" or "I'm forever grateful for the referral you gave me recently."

Delve a bit deeper: With your second sentence personalize the sentiment. Explain why the thing you're thanking them for is valuable. Give them insight into what it means to you. You might say, "We're excited that we've earned your trust and endeavor to make the relationship valuable for everyone."

Project into the future: Now give your reader your vision for how the relationship or situation could develop from here. Regarding a referral you might say something like, "I know you've put your reputation on the line, so I promise to show your colleague the same level of service you've come to expect from me."

Return to thanks: Close with a repeat of your earlier thank you. Alternatively, you could offer a pithy closing thought. Something like, "Again, thanks for trusting us with your business" or "You've done me a favor and I hope to return it someday".

End with closing: Finish your thank you note with a standard closing like "Sincerely," or "Best, (name)." Be sure to choose a close appropriate to the casual or professional nature of your letter.

Once you have your thank you note drafted, you should test it. Send a few notes to people outside of your social circle and see if they respond favorably. Use what you learn from this research to create more personalized thank you notes.

Offering handwritten notes as a marketing tactic is another great way to engage your audience and, ultimately, build brand loyalty. Handwritten notes are unexpected now that most of ours correspondence takes place online or through apps like Slack. If you're willing to take the time to write thoughtful messages, people will respond in kind.

Handwritten Notes Increase ROI

It’s clear that handwritten thank notes can benefit businesses in many ways. Whether you want it as brand awareness, lead generation, or just because it’s a thoughtful gesture, getting the most out of handwritten notes is easy.

Remember to keep all of your messages short and to the point, while still letting people know how you value them as a customer. You can also use handwritten thank you notes for professional networking, but only send it if you’re genuinely interested in building a relationship with them. Otherwise, you might be misconstrued.

Even if your business is already on the right track, handwritten notes are a great way to show customers that you really appreciate them. Just think of it this way, by sending out heartfelt thank you notes, people will remember how much they enjoy doing business with your company every time they see your name and logo.

Handwritten thank you notes are more important than ever in the digital age, and they're an easy way to boost your bottom line.