How does handwritten direct mail supercharge marketing campaigns?

Handwritten direct mail is generally sent via the postal service (USPS in the United States). For all folks may gripe, the system really is a marvel and reliably gets your mail from sender to recipient mailbox. Contrast that with email, where your recipients may have multiple email addresses or aggressive spam filters that prevent your message from getting through.

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To further maximize the likelihood your handwritten mail reaches your contacts, ensure you have up-to-date and accurate addresses. If you’re sending to existing customers, you likely have this information from shipping addresses, for example. For prospecting & targeting new customers, assess data providers for their accuracy (what % of addresses return undeliverable mail?). Look to further trim your lists based on filters relevant to your business (e.g., a sell-side real estate agent may look at homeownership status). Your data provider may offer these additional data fields, and a partner like PenPals can help you figure out what to filter for with our white-glove service.

Handwritten mail not only gets through to your contacts, it also stands out at the mailbox. Since most of us aren’t lucky enough to get many handwritten letters, your outreach promotes immediate curiosity. That drives nearly perfect (90%+) open rates - far outpacing what you’d get from traditional mailers or email.

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You can optimize your campaigns by ensuring the entire package is cohesive. Opt for a nice (dare we say, luxurious) envelope and first-class postage stamp - both of which signal premium outreach. And of course, address the envelopes by hand (no printed labels!)

Handwriting your mail conveys to recipients that you’ve put in time & effort to send a personal letter - this stands in sharp contrast to an email you’ve sent to your entire customer base or a generic mailer sent to every house on the block. As humans, we subconsciously respond to those effortful signals - one reason why handwritten mail enjoys up to a 10x better response rate than email or traditional mailers.

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You can supercharge those efforts by personalizing your message & including a clear call-to-action. Simple gestures like addressing recipients by name and referencing a specific product they’ve bought can go a long way. Layering on top a tangible action you want a consumer to take - like scanning a QR code or using a special promo code - maximizes the likelihood your campaign delivers the outcome you want.

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PenPals specializes in end-to-end strategy, development & production of handwritten campaigns. Our integrated campaigns include landing pages, tracking, & AI-generated insights - helping you easily launch, analyze, and iterate on handwritten efforts.

There are certainly tradeoffs to handwriting your mail. The two most significant are cost and ease of scaling.

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Cost can show up in a few ways. If you’re handwriting your own mail, the most meaningful cost is your time. There’s also the cost of materials - stationery, envelopes, stamps and so on. If you instead choose to lean on a partner, you’ll find that handwritten mail costs more per piece than mass-printed mailers due to greater cost of production. It's worth weighing the extra investment - though we've found that the improved performance from handwritten campaigns dramatically outstrips those extra dollars.

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Scaling your handwritten efforts can also be a challenge. At some point, it becomes infeasible to write thousands of personal messages, stuff & stamp envelopes, and send cards as your business grows. A good partner, like PenPals, takes on this burden for you - it’s as easy as uploading a contact list through our platform.

We’re biased, but we think the right handwritten mail provider offers a few key things:

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1. Real handwriting: put simply, the handwriting should be real (with actual pen put to paper). Consumers can sniff out the inkjet printed stuff, which then erodes trust of your brand - don’t risk it.
2. Real service: ensure the partner you choose is ready to work directly with you as needed. That could be as simple as providing real-time support when launching a campaign. Businesses without full-fledged marketing departments will benefit from a provider that can get in the weeds on campaign or targeting strategy, or otherwise fully manage the process end-to-end.
3. Actual impact: it’s always worth evaluating whether the provider is a mercenary (with you in the moment, but ready to wipe their hands clean as soon as the check arrives) or aligned with you in driving results. That can be evident from whether they offer campaign tracking & results, or features in addition to handwriting, like trackable QR codes & landing pages, that improve performance.