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This week a prospect asked us to quote 100 handwritten letters. Personalized letter, handwritten envelope, real stamp. Those 100 prospects were his whole target market, and I could tell he was hoping 10 to 20 of them would raise their hand.
I told him to plan on about maybe 4-5 interested leads and 1 or 2 real sales conversations. I'm guessing this wasn't the answer he was hoping for.
Short version: robotic handwritten letters still work, just not as well on their own as they used to. This industry has gotten really crowded (read: saturated) in the last several years so I've noticed diminishing returns even with our own outbound prospecting.
So we pivoted our strategy to include lumpy mail with our handwritten cards.
Why Has Robotic Handwriting Gotten So Crowded?
A few years ago, a handwritten envelope in a stack of mail was rare. Now there's a long list of robotic handwriting companies: Handwrytten, Simply Noted, Thanks.io, Scribeless, us, and a lot of smaller shops that bought a machine and built a website over a weekend. (No judgment. That's how we started too.)
The machines got cheaper and better. Lower barrier to entry means more companies, more campaigns, more envelopes.
Everyone found the same tactic at once. Sales teams read the same playbooks, so the same owners and execs get hit by all of them.
Your best prospects get the most mail. The people you want to reach are the people everyone wants to reach.
More handwritten letters go out than most people realize. Handwriting used to be the pattern interrupt, now it's not as novel.
What Response Rate Should You Expect From Handwritten Letters?
For cold outbound, here's what I told that prospect, based on the campaigns we've run:
Campaign | Realistic response | Out of 100 recipients |
|---|---|---|
Handwritten letter only | ~5% interested, 2-3% sales conversations | ~4 leads, 1-2 sales calls |
Handwritten note + clever item | 10-15% response | 10-15 responses |
Some caveats:
Your messaging must be clever and compelling (we help with that!)
100 is not really a measurable sample size. For card/letter campaigns, we recommend at least 500 recipients before you draw conclusions. At 100, one or two responses either way swings your results a lot.
These are estimates, not promises. List quality, timing, and follow-up are all important. Anyone who guarantees you a response rate is selling you snake oil.
Why Does Sending an Item Get More Responses?
Nobody throws away a box without opening it. That's most of the answer, but here's the rest:
It gets past the gatekeeper. Letters get sorted by an assistant or a mailroom. A package with a name on it usually lands on the right desk.
It gets opened. A lumpy package creates curiosity a flat envelope can't.
It earns a reply. When someone sends you something clever or funny, you feel like you owe them at least a response.
It makes the message stick. For a prospect selling to practices that had been burned by marketing agencies, we pitched a fire extinguisher with a note about being burned before. You don't quickly forget that.
It gets talked about. Our campaigns are designed to generate internal chatter.
How Is GhostHandwriter Different From Other Robotic Handwriting Companies?
We started as handwritten cards only. Even back then, I'd tuck a metal business card into my own outbound because I didn't think a letter was enough. Then we went all in on pairing handwritten notes with gifts, and sales quadrupled. (I've got the financial data to prove it.)
Here's what that looks like now:
No catalog. We source whatever fits your message, not whatever's in stock.
We write the strategy, not just the note. The item, the message, and the hook are built around the problem you solve.
Multiple touches. We build a campaign theme and space outreaches across your sales cycle.
Everything in-house. Writing, assembly, packing, and shipping all happen in our Nebraska shop.
We test it on ourselves first. Our most recent outbound was a message in a bottle sent to recently funded SaaS companies. If it didn't work (remarkably) well for us, we wouldn't recommend it.
We've shipped more than 40,000 gifts paired with handwritten cards. We know what works and how to execute logistically.
Are Handwritten Letters Alone Ever Worth It?
Yes. We still write plenty of them. Letters on their own make sense when:
Your list is big. 500 or more recipients gives a lower response rate room to add up.
They already know you. Thank-you notes, client check-ins, donor retention, and follow-ups after a meeting don't need a box to get read.
4 leads from 100 is a win for you. If that math works for your deal size, great. Let's rock n' roll!
Got a List of Prospect That Keep Ignoring You?
Then we can help make you unforgettable. We rarely post the ideas we execute so that other companies don't copy them, but we would happily share some campaigns or come up with a completely unique campaign for you.
Book a call to get started or email hello@ghosthandwriter.com
want us to handle it?
Tell us the outcome. We’ll handle the rest.
Handwritten cards and lumpy mail, planned, written, packed, and shipped for you.
