Sometimes I choose the longer road
This blog post needs your opinion — are you as tired as I am of doing everything electronically?
I’m launching a side street off Avenue Z: presentations and speaking engagements. I’ve been working on the infrastructure to start up the new offering for quite some time. I created a database of prospects who might want to hire me to speak, created a new blog that focuses on that area, commissioned a new cartoon… I’ve been working on this for months.
Last week I was finally ready to announce my new services, and, although I had email addresses for hundreds of potential clients, I chose to write letters. And address each envelope by hand. And add a handwritten sticky note to each.
I sent out close to 140 letters, and it took f.o.r.e.v.e.r. and was e.x.p.e.n.s.i.v.e. I bet it took a solid 8 hours and more than $200. Ugh! I had every email address, and I could have spent a quarter the time and absolutely none of the money to simply put together a nice email blast.
But I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I get dozens of unsolicited emails a week — not including the really trashy spam — that may help me as a small business owner, a runner, a writer or a 40-year-old chick. How many hand-addressed, hand-signed, even hand-touched letters do I get in the mail? Perhaps one every 6 months? I can’t remember the last one.
But here’s the problem… email has a solid ROI that direct mail will never have. So I could probably get a really nice response rate via email that I probably won’t get with the letters.
So, did I make a mistake? Email is cheaper, faster and more effective. My letters with a personal touch were expensive, slow and perhaps not effective (they should be arriving this week. We’ll see). My hope is that by taking a little extra time and doing something a little different, my potential clients will be intrigued. And I will follow up by email, probably early next week.
Am I fooling myself? Should I just do what everyone else does? What would you have done?
Cade Long on 27 Jan 2009 at 9:17 am #
I would say that your decision was a good one. It’s hard to do the old way but it means much more. If you know your potential clients well enough they would appreciate your hard work. If you see no results you can send emails but give it time. It takes alot of courage to run a small company and it’s not always clear as to what you should do. Applause for you!
Mickie Rops on 27 Jan 2009 at 10:47 am #
Beth, let us know what your response is. I think your response might be better with the personal touch…but who knows! It’s too easy for e-mails to go off-screen to be lost forever. Your letter will either get purposefully pitched (oh no!), acted upon (yeah!) or at least filed for future reference (not bad).
Rebecca Smith on 27 Jan 2009 at 1:58 pm #
I think it was a great idea. I believe that people will be more willing to open a hand-addressed envelope than just another unsolicited email. Please let us know how it turns out!
steph on 27 Jan 2009 at 5:39 pm #
I hope it was a great idea! I’m curious about your responses. When I first launched Word for Word, I mailed a package to all the publishers I was interested in, and even some I wasn’t interested in, on purpose, as you did, and received one measly response (they turned into my best but thankfully not only client!). When I followed up, some said they’d never received it (but I did my research before mailing as to the correct address and current contact!), and some actually said the package had been recycled.
I’m really hoping you have a much better response. I think the issue is that it’s unsolicited mail, whether email or post. Colin always says to call, because it’s harder for people to ignore you that way. Of course, it’s also the hardest thing to do. Unsolicited calls, or cold calls, are not all that popular, either, are they?
SimplyForties on 27 Jan 2009 at 7:04 pm #
I think it was a great idea. It will stand out and be different to your potential client. Many of them will be hard pressed to remember the last time they received a handwritten note! I hope you get a great response!
Craig on 28 Jan 2009 at 5:04 am #
Snailmail has two huge advantages over email.
One, it has that personal touch. People KNOW you spent time and money. So that’s in your favor. Two, snailmail does not have DELETE button. That’s also in your favor.
I heard someone older say he regretted the day he cheered the arrival of email over snailmail. He gets hundreds of emails now compared to the mere dozens of post office envelops that he used to get.
The day Outlook died in our office for a few hours, I could see everyone smiling. Not much does that except free food.
Bill Machi on 28 Jan 2009 at 9:28 am #
First rule of speaking “Know your audience”. Same with any communication. You could tell me to do things all day long – in one ear out the other – you email me it’s practically done. I’ve met some people who like paper, like phone conversations, like lunch meetings. Personally, I like emails especially when I know the person, and I’ve had business with them.
karma_musings on 28 Jan 2009 at 11:42 am #
It sounds great, in theory, using the “personal touch” – but, I have to say, my hubs gave his contact info on several “work at home” sites (I think) and we got a number of snailmails that looked personal because they were hand-addressed, but turned out to be just junk about signing up for various MLM schemes. Poorly created and designed junk, at that!
All that to say I hope your prospects look at what you sent and realize it’s real and not just more junk-in-disguise.
Engaging Your Audience | Life on Avenue Z on 28 Jan 2009 at 5:03 pm #
[...] always, I’m turning the mirror toward myself first. As I mentioned, I just spent quite a bit of time and money sending letters to new prospects. I was very careful to [...]
Mark McClure on 29 Jan 2009 at 1:07 am #
Beth,
Does your letter have a special web page for the readers to go to – or you are going to followup via phone or by ?? later?
Maybe put a web page up with a sample presentation clip (or YouTube) and follow up in a week or so?
Just thinking out loud here – I admire your taking action!
Global Patriot on 30 Jan 2009 at 11:43 pm #
That personal touch means a lot, even though it is much more expensive. Hopefully it’s a way to bring in more prospects that you can follow up with using email.
I know marketers that swear by hand written notes, but they tend to do it selectively, to only those they feel are likely to be a good fit for their products or services. It’s too expensive to do for a large volume.
Tim Jahn on 01 Feb 2009 at 9:34 pm #
I think the personal touch you created is priceless. There’s something about getting a personal hand written letter in the mail that’s just exciting.
Who doesn’t love opening their mailbox and getting some (non junk) mail?
So many people take the short road. Kudos to you for taking the long road once in awhile. I think it makes a difference.
Bergen Larsen on 01 Feb 2009 at 9:53 pm #
Honestly, this is one of the best ways to do it. I would take the time, especially if its hand written to open it and read. People don’t think when they email. I read a fantastic article regarding people’s lack of thought behind just sending an email. That lack of thought is what makes people NOT read every email they get and when they do, skim it instead.
You have done the right thing, IMHO, and where you may get a 50% read rate with a mass email, you’ll probably get a 100% hit rate with the snail mail.