Business Marketing Monday: Handwritten Notes for Clients
January 21, 2008 by Bridget Wright
Filed under Business
Welcome to Monday!
Today’s marketing tip is a revisit on something we all know about but have gotten away from:
Letter Writing. Or, more specifically, note writing.
When you visit a client or make a sales call, always follow-up the visit with a handwritten note. Not typed. Not emailed. Handwritten. The personal touch is nice and it shows the client that you care.
Invest in a writing pad of nice, linen paper with matching envelopes and keep them in your briefcase or car for quick notewriting before you leave the parking lot. Also, keep a roll of stamps with you as well. All of this may seem old-fashioned or out-dated but is sure to go a LONG way with your client.
Bridget
You know, at first I thought hand written? Then I thought about it some more and realized, clients or people in our lives love something a little ‘personal’.
I agree that handwritten notes have a nice personal touch. Plus, they’re so rare that they’re sure to be remembered.
But when I was part of the team interviewing candidates for a position at my old company, one of the interviewees sent everyone on the team handwritten thank you’s. I thought it showed attention to detail and a classiness that would make her a great coworker.
My colleagues (and keep in mind that, ironically, these people were from a generation that sent handwritten cards before there was email) thought it was really immature that she hadn’t sent a formal email or letter reiterating her interest.
“Handwritten thank you’s are for wedding gifts,” they said, “not job applicants.” I disagree, but there you have it.
Jackie, yes client DO love things personal. That’s why the touch of a personally-written note is such an impressive thing. Even though we are technologically-driven society, handwritten notes are still a powerful marketing tool.
Susan, thanks for your on-point commennts.
What’s even sadder about what the team didn’t “get” was that this person actually took the time to write this note, which is something we don’t do much of (write with a writing instrument). What they didn’t get was her maturity level required for sitting and doing something that was time-consuming instead of just taking the easy way which would have been a quick, possibly future-dated, generic, no “dear” name email thanking them for an interview. And they were from the pre-email era?