Tip for Sending Out Letters to Businesses

by freudianslip27

Posted: 14 years ago 22 replies

OFFLINE MARKETING

Hello everyone,

I've got a great tip to share for you today. As many of you already know, when sending out mailings to businesses, the response will be WAY better if you are taking the time to hand address the outside of the envelopes.

Unfortunately this takes a lot of time! My wheels started spinning and I found two interesting solutions:

1) Font Generator - Make Your Own Handwriting Font With Your Fonts
(not an affiliate link)

For $10 you can create YOUR OWN font. You print out a paper, draw the letters in your own handwriting, and then scan it in and upload. YourFonts will convert it into an actual font that you load into microsoft word (or whatever you use). Presto! Your own font.

I used this font, and then printed it directly onto envelopes and wasn't able to tell the difference between printed and hand-written! (I had to play around with the font size and boldness)

2) Customized Rubber Stamps

Using Staples online, I was able to upload an image of my handwritten return address. For around $10-$15, I got one made. It looks great, very natural.

I use this when mailing out to prospects and I use an envelope that is too big to go through my printer.

Time is money, and being able to even just stamp your return address cuts the addressing work in HALF!

Matt

#businesses #letters #sending #tip

JustinBrooke 14 years ago

Can you post a picture of one of your envelopes
I'd love to see what it all looks like when done.
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freudianslip27 14 years ago

Here's a pic of the handwriting. I just typed this into Word and then selected my custom font:

http://localecommercesolutions.com/i...g-sample-1.png

Matt
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- jkstam3 14 years ago
  
  that's genius...
  
  Thanks
  
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newbie2011 14 years ago

Thanks for your suggestion.
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peter.max 14 years ago

It is a very clever idea. Do you have any stats on response rate on your direct mail pieces?
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pethanks 14 years ago

This tip for sending out letters to businesses is very helpful to all of us who are new in business. Thank you for that kind heart.
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Steve Solem 14 years ago

Hey Matt - great tips here - thanks!

I'm curious though, any chance your wife would be interested in selling her handwriting font or addressing some envelopes for me? My handwriting's awful too!

All the best,

Steve
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freudianslip27 14 years ago

Sorry, I won't be giving out the font or selling it. It did cross my mind but its weird to think about others having access to my wife's handwriting. Its bad enough for her that I have access to it, haha!

I encourage you to try it out at truefonts. You don't pay until after you see the font in action. It took us a couple of tries to get it right.

Matt
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Chris Lagarde 14 years ago

Like others, my handwriting looks like the scrawl of a 5 year old. A font made from my handwriting wouldn't encourage anybody to open a letter!

My happy compromise: the Brigitte handwriting font

You can download it free here. I do notice that I have to use a larger font size than is typical when I use a handwriting font.
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freudianslip27 14 years ago

Hey Chris,

That looks nice

I've also found that I have to enlarge the size and bold it to make it look natural on an envelope. Just play around with it until you get it right.

How in the world did you embed that image into the post? I've tried but couldn't get it to work!

Matt
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- TimCastleman 14 years ago
  
  I like the font.
  
  It's cute and for $10 it might be worth trying
  
  My guess is people will notice that it is a font and printed on.
  
  Know how to fool them?
  
  Use real people to address the envelopes.
  
  But that's expensive Tim ... no it's not.
  
  In fact if you post on free places like craiglist you can get people to hand address for about 10 cents per letter. Complete with stamp and return address.
  
  But Tim that's to much you say.
  
  Tough. Either pay, charge more so you can afford to pay, or address them yourself.
  
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freudianslip27 14 years ago

Hey Tim,

I'd suggest you give it a whirl. I printed one and my wife hand wrote one and we showed a few people, and they couldn't tell a difference.

Now keep in mind, this was after messing around with the font size and bolding, but it has made all of this alot more streamlined for me.

Being able to just drop letters into my printer is a HUGE timesaver

Matt
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- TimCastleman 14 years ago
  
  Matt -
  
  I'm going to take you up on it. I'll let you know the results. Thanks for the link.
  
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harryharris 14 years ago

I like postcards myself but have used letters in the past and found that handwriting (percieved or otherwise and doesn't have to be your wife's) wins everytime over type print....just my 10c- might give this at some time...

Thanks for sharing
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- Bronwyn and Keith 14 years ago
  
  Hey Matt
  
  This is cool - thanks for the idea.
  
  We will definately use it.
  
  Regards
  
  Bronwyn and Keith
  PS. It will be Bronwyn's handwriting though as Keith writes like a doctor - BUT worse.
  
  Thanks
  
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  TimCastleman 14 years ago
  
  Ok Matt -
  
  You think your handwriting is bad - check out mine.
  
  Your Own Personal Handwriting Font
  
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Ian Harmon 14 years ago

This is a great find! Generally I always open letters that look like they're personally written even though I know marketers use this technique.

As others have mentioned though, I think I'll use a copy of my girlfriend's handwriting, I've had too much time at a computer keyboard in the last 20 years I think lol
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freudianslip27 14 years ago

Haha Tim,

Yeah it doesn't look perfect but that's the point. Even still, I didn't even attempt to do this myself, my handwriting is terrible! My wife initially wrote the letters in the boxes for truefont, and then after we saw how it looked, did it again with a better understanding of how to center them in the boxes and such.

Looking forward to hearing your results. I've gotten stuff in the mail before with simulated handwriting and it did look fake, but I think that had to do with the generic handwriting font and how I've gotten use to it.

With this its imperfect, and things like spaces between the letters and such being different, help to add to the authenticity.

I think it helps that I have a laser printer, but I imagine ink jet would look good too.

Matt
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redlegrich 14 years ago

Reading this post got me thinking (a bad idea I know). I use Send Out Cards for my holiday and birthday cards. I place a picture on the card, the internal font looks kind of handwritten as does the envelope address. They send the card with a stamp so it looks like it ought to be opened.

If you created a Google search results graphic targeted to your market with some sales copy on the inside you would have a great custom mailer. Send Out Cards costs about $1.40 per card with postage. You do have to sign up for a monthly payment but considering the quality and the customized personal control this might be a cost effective way to generate leads.
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ktshoppe 14 years ago

It is said that handwriting tells a personality so a neat written letter is pleasant at first sight.
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Frank Bruno 14 years ago

Sometimes I find handwritten fonts in the font list and use those. But how do you import a custom font into Word?

Frank Bruno
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- TimCastleman 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Frank Bruno
  
  Sometimes I find handwritten fonts in the font list and use those. But how do you import a custom font into Word?
  
  Frank Bruno
  
  Frank -
  
  Search for your font folder. Open it up and put the font file in it - that's all I did and it worked just fine.
  
  Tim
  
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