David Wachs – The Power of the Handwritten Letter
Summary
TLDRDavid, fundador de Handwritten, comparte su experiencia en el programa, hablando sobre su trasfondo en la empresa de mensajería de texto y cómo la creciente cantidad de comunicaciones digitales ha generado ruido. Expresa cómo los mensajes manuscritos cortan a través del ruido y dejan una impresión duradera. Describe su servicio, que utiliza robots para escribir notas a mano y envía las cartas a los destinatarios, y cómo se integra con diferentes plataformas para facilitar el envío de notas personalizadas.
Takeaways
- 📝 La empresa Handwritten se fundó para revivir el arte perdido de las notas a mano.
- 🤖 Handwritten utiliza robots que escriben con bolígrafos reales para enviar notas personalizadas.
- 💌 La principal forma en que se utiliza la plataforma es para enviar agradecimientos a clientes y prospects.
- 📈 Handwritten ha experimentado un crecimiento significativo en su uso, con 150,000 notas enviadas mensuales.
- 🎁 Además de notas, Handwritten también ofrece la opción de incluir tarjetas de visita o tarjetas de regalo en las envolventes.
- 📅 Handwritten ofrece integraciones con varias plataformas como Salesforce, Hubspot, y Zapier para facilitar el envío de notas.
- 🚀 La empresa está en proceso de lanzar un nuevo gestor de campañas automatizado, inicialmente dirigido a los concessionarios de automóviles.
- 🛍️ Handwritten está trabajando en una integración con Shopify y explorando la posibilidad de expandirse a la solución de marketing de inbound de Hubspot.
- 💡 La personalización y la creatividad en las notas a mano siguen siendo efectivas para destacarse en un mercado saturado de comunicación digital.
- 📞 Handwritten ofrece soporte al cliente para ayudar a los usuarios a configurar y enviar sus primeras campañas con éxito.
Q & A
¿Cómo comenzó David su carrera y cuál es su relación con la empresa Handwritten?
-David comenzó su carrera fundando una empresa de mensajería de texto en 2004, antes de que saliera el iPhone. Posteriormente, fundó Handwritten, una empresa que se enfoca en enviar notas manuscritas, ya que vio que este tipo de comunicación realmente trasciende y crea una impresión de marca fuerte.
¿Cuál fue el problema que David identificó con las comunicaciones modernas y cómo Handwritten busca solucionarlo?
-David notó que con el tiempo, las comunicaciones modernas como los correos electrónicos, mensajes de texto y redes sociales se convirtieron en ruido, y las personas no tienen tiempo para leer la mayoría de los mensajes. Handwritten busca solucionar esto enviando notas manuscritas, que realmente son leídas, guardadas y valoradas por las personas.
¿Cómo funciona el proceso de envío de notas manuscritas por parte de Handwritten?
-Handwritten utiliza robots que sostienen bolígrafos reales para escribir las notas y enviarlas en sobres con sellos reales. También ofrecen opciones adicionales como insertar tarjetas de visita o tarjetas de regalo en las notas.
¿Cuál es la principal forma en que las empresas utilizan los servicios de Handwritten?
-El caso de uso número uno para las notas manuscritas no es para generación de leads outbound, sino para agradecimientos a clientes y prospects. Las notas se utilizan principalmente para expresar gratitud o para recordatorios de servicios, como recordatorios de servicio de HVAC o cumpleaños.
¿Cómo se puede integrar Handwritten con otras herramientas de marketing y CRM?
-Handwritten puede integrarse con diversas herramientas como Salesforce, Hubspot, Zapier e Integromat. Ofrecen una infraestructura de API sólida y también están trabajando en una integración con Shopify. Esto permite a los usuarios enviar notas manuscritas como parte de un flujo de trabajo automatizado más grande.
¿Qué desafíos ha enfrentado Handwritten al crecer y expanderse sus servicios?
-Uno de los principales desafíos es la falta de conocimiento sobre qué escribir en las notas. Para esto, Handwritten está desarrollando un campaign manager que ayudará a los clientes a crear campañas de notas manuscritas de manera automática y personalizada.
¿Qué nuevas iniciativas y proyectos tiene Handwritten en desarrollo actualmente?
-Handwritten está trabajando en un campaign manager automatizado específicamente para la industria de concessionarios de automóviles, que incluirá una serie de notas y tarjetas enviadas a los clientes en varios puntos关键时刻. También están考虑ando una nueva integración con Hubspot y están actualizando su sitio web para mejorar la experiencia del usuario.
¿Cómo pueden las personas contactarse con David y Handwritten para aprender más o utilizar sus servicios?
-Las personas pueden contactarse con David a través de su correo electrónico en handwritten.com o en LinkedIn. También pueden encontrarlo en Twitter como @dbiswax. Para probar los servicios de Handwritten, pueden solicitar un kit de muestras o utilizar el código de descuento 'podcast' para obtener crédito en su primer pedido.
¿Qué tipo de resultados ha habido con el uso de Handwritten y cómo se puede medir el ROI?
-Se ha observado que enviar notas manuscritas aumenta significativamente la tasa de conversión en ciertos sectores, como en el caso de recordatorios de servicio HVAC. Además, el hecho de que las notas manuscritas se mantengan visibles en lugares prominentes en los hogares de los clientes indica su efectividad.
¿Qué consejo le daria David a alguien que está considerando comenzar a usar Handwritten para su campaña de marketing?
-David recomendaría que las personas comiencen small, utilizando una hoja de Excel para asegurarse de que sus datos estén bien organizados antes de pasar a un nivel mayor de automatización. También sugiere que utilicen el servicio para enviar notas de agradecimiento, tarjetas de cumpleaños y recordatorios de servicios para fortalecer las relaciones con los clientes.
Outlines
📝 Fundamentos de Handwritten y su trasfondo
David, fundador de Handwritten, comparte su trayectoria desde su empresa de mensajería de texto hasta el surgimiento de Handwritten. Discute cómo la comunicación efectiva se ha visto afectada por el aumento de canales como el correo electrónico, mensajes de texto, redes sociales y plataformas como Slack e Intercom. David identifica que, a pesar de los avances tecnológicos, las notas manuscritas siguen siendo un medio de comunicación poderoso y personal que corta el ruido y crea una impresión de marca fuerte.
🚀 Estrategias de marketing y personalización
David y Dan discuten sobre la importancia de la personalización en las estrategias de marketing actuales. David destaca el uso de notas manuscritas como una forma efectiva de conectar con clientes y prospectos, a pesar de que el marketing por correo electrónico y mensajes de texto han vuelto a ser problemáticos debido al aumento de la cantidad de información. La conversación se centra en cómo las notas manuscritas pueden ser utilizadas en campañas de marketing, especialmente en el seguimiento de encuentros y en la generación de comentarios en plataformas como Yelp.
🤖 La tecnología detrás de las notas manuscritas
David explica cómo Handwritten utiliza robots para escribir notas manuscritas que parecen ser hechas a mano. Describe su centro de operaciones en Arizona, donde 95 robots escriben notas, colocan sellos y envíanlas en nombre de los clientes. También menciona la integración de Handwritten con aplicaciones, sitios web y APIs para facilitar el envío de notas manuscritas, destacando su enfoque en estar dondequiera que esté el cliente.
💌 Integración de marketing y estrategias de handwritten notes
David habla sobre cómo Handwritten se integra en diferentes campañas de marketing, desde el envío de notas de agradecimiento después de llamadas o reuniones hasta el envío de tarjetas de regalo y tarjetas de visita. Discute la importancia de tener datos limpios antes de la integración con sistemas CRM y la utilización de herramientas como Zapier para simplificar el proceso. También menciona la necesidad de revisar y corregir errores en los mensajes antes de enviarlos.
🎨 Añadir creatividad a las notas manuscritas
David y Dan discuten la importancia de la creatividad en las notas manuscritas, como el uso de imágenes de New Yorker personalizadas o el envío de libros con notas manuscritas. David menciona que, aunque la gente pueda darse cuenta de que las notas son escritas por robots, la mayoría de los clientes aprecian el esfuerzo y la personalización. También habla sobre la integración de notas manuscritas en estrategias de marketing más amplias, como campañas de email y LinkedIn.
📈 Resultados y éxito de Handwritten
David comparte ejemplos de cómo las notas manuscritas han sido efectivas para sus clientes, como la industria de instalación de paneles solar y la pintura de casas. Discute el impacto positivo en la tasa de conversión y la fidelización de clientes. También menciona el reto de obtener direcciones de correo electrónico y las diferentes formas en que los clientes de Handwritten abordan esta dificultad.
🔜 Futuros proyectos y mejoras en Handwritten
David habla sobre los proyectos actuales y futuros de Handwritten, incluyendo el desarrollo de un gestor de campañas automatizado específicamente para el sector de concessionarios de automóviles. También menciona la expansión de sus servicios a plataformas como Shopify y Hubspot, así como una nueva redesign de su sitio web para mejorar la experiencia del usuario.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Handwritten notes
💡Personalization
💡Automation
💡Brand impression
💡CRM integration
💡Email overload
💡Lead generation
💡Customer engagement
💡Direct mail
💡Sales strategy
Highlights
David, the founder of Handwritten, previously ran a text-messaging company that evolved from real estate to general subscription text programs for big brands.
The inspiration for Handwritten came from David's desire to send genuine handwritten notes to employees and customers after selling his last company.
Handwritten notes cut through the noise of digital communication, as they are not only read but also saved and treasured by recipients.
Handwritten operates with 95 robots in Arizona that write out notes, put real stamps on envelopes, and mail them on behalf of clients.
Handwritten offers various ways to place orders, including iPhone and Android apps, a website, APIs, and integrations with platforms like Zapier, Salesforce, and Hubspot.
The number one use case for Handwritten notes is sending thank yous to clients, followed by holiday and birthday cards.
Handwritten has seen that customers who receive apologies in the form of handwritten notes and a second box of snacks have a higher lifetime value.
When crafting handwritten notes, certain digital communication habits like emojis and email conventions need to be adjusted for a more personal touch.
Handwritten offers custom handwriting styles and signature replication for a more personalized note experience.
Automation is key when using Handwritten, with the advice to start small and ensure data cleanliness before integrating APIs.
Handwritten is working on a campaign manager for auto dealers that automates sending thank you notes, birthday cards, and service reminders.
Handwritten's redesigned website aims to improve the user experience and streamline the process of sending out handwritten notes.
David shares his contact information and offers a discount code 'podcast' for new users to try Handwritten's service.
Handwritten notes are seen as a premium form of communication, maintaining their value and effectiveness despite the rise of digital alternatives.
The company's use of robots to write notes and mail them adds a unique blend of technology and personalization to the traditional handwritten note.
Handwritten's integration with various CRM and marketing platforms allows for seamless incorporation into existing sales and customer engagement strategies.
The success of Handwritten lies in its ability to create strong brand impressions and foster meaningful connections through personalized, tangible communication.
Transcripts
david thanks for coming on the show
thank you so much dan for having me
yeah yeah for sure so i i really like
what you guys are doing you know at
handwritten and focusing on
on the handwritten notes so uh i'd love
to just hear a little bit about how you
got here and how you kind of landed on
this model
yeah for sure so my background um i'm
the founder of handwritten prior to
handwritten i ran
for eight years a text
messaging company that started in 2004
so before the iphone came out we used
text messaging
initially for real estate so texting for
info on a house you get back info on a
house
the realtor gets a lead but then we
moved into general
subscription join a subscription text
programs for clients like
abercrombie and fitch toys r us
officemax these big
brands we're sending millions of text
messages a day for some of them
especially
abercrombie and fitch and uh sold that
company
in 2012 had to work for the new owners
until 2014
and you know the landscape changed um
in the time i so i guess i worked for
him for sell it for 10 years the
landscape really changed over that time
period
um you know we went from
just having email to having email
and text and twitter and facebook and
now we have
slack and intercom and all these other
forms of communication
and in addition over that time period
emails exploded i mean they were already
high
back in 2014 but emails exploded to the
point where the average office worker
is spending something like 24 25 percent
of their time just managing their inbox
uh with 135 emails a day or whatever
that number is
uh text messaging is exploding um and
we're on the side of that we were part
of the problem that sell it we were
sending all these text messages to
people they're all opted in
so we weren't spamming anybody but you
know we were sending a lot of text
and then all these other forms too and
what i realized is it's all just
becoming noise
like i don't even have time to read most
of my emails now if
if it's not from somebody i know i'm not
going to read the message i'm just going
to
you know try to find the unsubscribe
link and delete it or just delete it
without even trying to find the
unsubscribe link
it's just like we're all so busy nobody
has the time and even the most
personalized email these days
um you know can be automated and people
a lot of people some people recognize
that i know you're in the business of
sending automated emails and i send a
lot of automated emails so i'm guilty of
it too
but a lot of it does become noise and so
what can we do
um to cut through the noise and when i
sold my last company
i wanted to send genuine handwritten
notes to my employees and to my
customers
because i saw handwritten notes on their
the bookshelves behind my
my employees and i keep them you know
glued to my refrigerator
and i realized that this form of
communication really cuts through
people not only read handwritten notes
but they
save them and they treasure them so i
sat down trying to write handwritten
notes to my employees and to my
customers
and you know within 20 of them i started
losing interest because i'm 80d
or my hand cramped or whatever and i
just gave up
and i thought gee there has to be a
better way and that's where handwritten
came from
handwritten the whole point of
handwritten this new company
is to bring back the lost art of
handwritten notes because
very few people are doing it and it does
cut through
and it creates a very strong brand
impression
the way we do it and there's a lot of
ways to skin this cat but the way we do
it is through robots
so in our facility in phoenix arizona
we've got 95 robots
we're adding 10 more right now and those
robots hold real pens
and they write out your note um right
out the envelope we stick a real stamp
on it
and we mail it on your behalf and then
we can also do
business card inserts or gift card
inserts and that type of thing
on the front end what we do is we
provide a whole suite of ways to
actually place these orders so
we have iphone apps and android apps
um a website apis
substantial api infrastructure zapier
integromat
salesforce.com direct integration we're
coming out with a sales uh
a shopify integration we have hubspot
integration so we're trying to create
a platform where we're wherever you are
and we allow you to easily send out
those handwritten notes
sorry if that was a long-winded solution
uh answer to your question
no excuse me that's that's great and i
think that
regardless of of the medium it seems
that it's all part of the same trend of
personalization
and having to do a lot more on perhaps a
smaller list of people to kind of cut
through the noise because
you know i know whatever it is a few
bucks to send a handwritten note
that's not that's now creating a
situation where this numbers game thing
probably isn't going to work as well
unless you have you know a large company
in a huge sales budget or something so
oh yeah yeah we we don't do handwritten
lead generation really unless we've
honed it and we run the company
unless we've honed in on who we're
trying to target you know
it doesn't work we're not saying there
isn't a place for email or text or
anything else
uh and actually the number one use case
for handwritten notes is not
outbound at all so if you're doing
outbound
uh with handwritten notes you've got a
huge budget you're right it just doesn't
work
right or or you're you know what we tend
to do we find to work well is using
outbound once we know we have
somebody that has a connection or that's
the the when there's something more than
just completely cold which is
kind of how we're building a lot of
these campaigns so i think i i like that
i think overall
we're seeing the same things which is
maybe approaching it through slightly
different channels
um i i guess with with that in mind it's
sort of like
this might be an appointed question but
i don't mean it to be
do you do you see a way of like your own
success becoming your company's own
undoing like if beca if if this becomes
something that becomes really easily
then there's not that costly signal
element anymore
yeah uh i would love for that to happen
that would mean we're like 10 trillion
times bigger than we are now
um i think we're the largest company in
the world doing this
and i can tell you nobody's doing this
because
you know if we're the largest in the
world and i know the volumes we're doing
and we're doing a lot i mean we do
150 000 a month you know something like
that
a 150 000 individual handwritten notes a
month
but you know there's tons of room
you know we're talking about i mean our
clients run the gamut from individual
realtors
to mortgage brokers to snack boxes like
meal box subscriptions to mattress
manufacturers i mean
it's universally handwritten notes are
almost universally applicable
so when you divide the universe of all
these communication you know
of touch points of communication by 150
000 it's
or i guess you inverse that it's a very
very very small number
so yes eventually uh we might
you know start eating our own lunch but
i think there's
it would take a lot a lot to get there
yeah and i guess have you seen any
signals that
the value of handwritten notes is is
changing do you think it's it's
maintained
there's still sort of this premium put
on it or is there a situation in which
people might
say might be more skeptical of it or
i've seen that happen with email for
example so i'm just wondering what
you're seeing on the front lines there
so far it's been great i i think
you know you you've used our service so
you're familiar with it but if i were to
send you a note
and you didn't know i'm the head of a
company that sends robotically
handwritten notes
um you and i said hey craig
hey dan um i have a friend named craig
or so sorry really
yeah we'll talk after because it might
be yeah it's not cool
uh he's too young to be unless he anyway
uh
maybe um so uh he uh
so so if i said hey dan you know um
what did you think of that note i sent
you'd say oh thank you so much that was
very thoughtful of you
if i sent you a note and i said hey dan
was that note written by a robot
you're going to put it through a whole
other level of scrutiny and
i think um you know in those situations
yeah you might guess that it's written
by a robot
but by and large most of our customers
uh their clients never
never notice that even if they do notice
it they'd be like gee well at least
it just wasn't you know another slick
mail piece
or you didn't just text me thank you you
you know
you you sent me something uh physical so
i think they still appreciate it
and um and really while i said text
thank you that's really the use case for
this is sending thank yous
to clients and cus and uh pros uh really
to prospects and clients whether uh uh
appointment setting thank yous
or thank you for your purchase or thank
you for you know
considering us that type of thing those
are really that's the number one use
case followed by holiday cards and
birthday cards and that type of thing
and i could talk to you
all about how people are using this
apologies
are another big one um we've got a meal
box
that uh a snack box that does office
next so it's a b2b
um box play and they send
these snack boxes out to um to their
clients every month or every two weeks
you know for employee snacks and if they
screw up
what they'll do is they'll send you a
handwritten note apologizing for sending
you the wrong box then they'll send you
another box so
you get two times the snacks that month
and you also get a handwritten note and
obviously the
double snacks helps a lot but the
handwritten note doesn't hurt and what
they find is people that they screw up
with
end up having a higher lifetime value
than those that never screwed up in the
first place
so then what do they do they start
screwing up on purpose and sending
everybody a second box of snacks and a
handwritten note
um to really cement that relationship um
yeah then
that doesn't surprise me at all that
makes sense um one thing that
and i love the platform i've used it for
a number of campaigns now uh but
one thing that i found uh kind of
interesting and a bit of a learning
curve is that there's stuff
that that you would type that you would
never hand write you know just like
various things that you type fast in the
email that i had to go back and think
about and
say okay there wouldn't be a slash here
they want to be this or that there
so i guess is there anything that you
found for not just like punctuation
stuff but the way that you have to think
differently about crafting
words over over handwriting versus text
yes um emojis man you'd be surprised how
many people write less than three
or colon parentheses and when we started
this company
we didn't have the technology to filter
it out and replace it
with a correct heart or correct smiley
so
we just deleted it all together now we
do re
insert a correct heart or correct smiley
or sad face or whatever and it looks it
looks great but
it's strange that somebody goes on our
website
or uses our iphone app or android app
and types in
less than three and wants us to write
out a you know
it's very interesting so that's one
thing even just like little things
starting to cut you off but even just
little things like saying hey
bob instead of dear bob or you know
you just don't tend to write that but
you write it it's just weird little
conventions that you don't think about
until you're you're kind of
put put in front of it no you're
absolutely right and we don't
um you know when we started the company
we'd scrutinize every message
and spell check it and stuff like that
because a we had the capacity
we weren't so busy where we couldn't but
it gets us in a funny position where
then
our customers expect that but they don't
pay for that
you know what i mean like they're paying
a self-service rate and expecting a
full-service offering which
gets very sticky so we've backed up and
and for the most part unless it's
egregious
we allow it the one thing that we really
you know if we see it
we will fix it but we don't again go out
of our way to try to fix
is people enter the same word twice like
they'll say
you know because when you're typing it's
stream of consciousness and you might
say the the
or you know what whatever you don't you
don't you know you start typing the word
da and then you walk away grab a coffee
come back type the
again and then the mess and that is a oh
it makes us cringe and we try to fix it
when we see it but
but again it's a self-service offering
we can't go out over a way to
to fix that we we do have some filters
in place
um especially all caps like a lot of
people will go on our website
and type into a mail merge where they
don't proper case the mail merge and
then it's like
dear and lower case you know dear dan
but then dan is in all uppercase
and we do go through because that's
obvious we fix it but
we also then go back and notify the
client that if they do it again we're
not going to fix it because
you know it's it again it's we're not
being paid for that
um that makes sense like i could see
that getting just a serious scope creep
but
you kind of touched on um an interesting
point which is the level of automation
and
yeah you know for for context a lot of
our listeners maybe they're thinking
about using this in the
course of a sales crm and they have a
list of these prospects they want to
send thank yous to or whatever
um what is that that right level of
automation
you know that people should be aiming
for like how do you kind of suggest
people
get off the ground with an initial
campaign and ramp it up yeah
uh i would say before you fully automate
make sure your api feed is clean or if
there's an easy way to translate it so
if all your names come in an uppercase
make sure to proper case it but then on
top of proper casing
proper casing and for those that don't
know is basically making the first
letter uppercase every other little
lowercase
which is fine unless you end up with
like
macintosh you know where it's mc capital
i
and then it looks weird you know so you
have to make sure your proper case
scripts
also work appropriately and we do try to
help with that
but i would say the first step is do a
bulk upload as opposed to an actual api
integration and with those bulk uploads
you can kind of catch this
fix it easily it's just basically an
excel spreadsheet that um
that we would we would assist with and
we do
you know you can call our customer
support a million times and we'll zoom
with you a million times to try to fix
your excel spreadsheets or whatever
and get it right for your upload so we
are there to handhold
um and if you want full service account
management we can provide that too there
is a
you know a paper for service there too
so it's not like we're gonna say
you know hand you the keys and say good
luck with that we we will help you
with that too but it's really just you
know make sure your data is clean
um with every upload or with every order
you also
always get an email that says um these
are the orders that went out so please
review those and if there's any issues
we can always catch them and fix them
um when you do go for the full api
integration a lot of our clients what
they do is they have an approval step
so they will send the data to a google
sheet or something
where somebody will have to check a box
once that box gets checked it goes
through our system
we are going to be adding a um
as opposed to placing an order api it'll
just go into the basket
so then you'll have to log into
handwritten.com where you know if you
choose this option
you'll log into handwritten.com review
your orders there and then hit
send so you could collect orders for a
few days
go into handwritten.com check them all
and then hit send to make sure they're
good
that will be an option very shortly um
but yeah i mean for the most part these
things go off without a hitch we have
thousands of orders that come in from
zapier in particular
and for any of your clients that don't
know what zapier is it's the coolest
thing it's basically
api for um for people that don't know
what an api is so
it's like legos you you know handwritten
plugs into zapier um 2 000 or 3000
other systems also plug into zapier
therefore handwritten plugs in with
those other 3000 systems and it's
point and click it's the greatest thing
yeah zapier it's kind of like learning
how to play a video game as opposed to
like learning how to code a video game
yeah so that's it makes a lot of sense
yeah it's super simple
and one thing and i apologize if this
was old news and maybe it's a feature
you've done away with i read somewhere
that you guys were doing like a custom
alphabet so if you really wanted
the letters to look like at your
handwriting that's something you guys
offer is that still the case or
what is that absolutely yeah we do that
for like we've got i think like 25
26 public handwriting styles we don't
call them fonts
and i could get into the whole reason
for that but you can think of them as
fonts even though they're not
um so we have 25 or 26 handwriting
styles and then we've probably got
70 or 80 private handwriting styles that
you don't see and those are just to
people
that pay for them and it is a one
thousand dollar setup fee because it is
an
art or um what you do is if you decide
to move forward with something like that
you would have a whole bunch of
worksheets that you would have to fill
out
it's not just like getting a copy of
each letter it's
five uppercase five lowercase and then
ligature combinations so what do two o's
look to get
like together two l's two t's do you
cross your two t's with one crossbar
or two you know what does the dot over
an eye look like
yeah um you know what an s at the
beginning of the word versus the end of
the word i mean we take
all this into account it's not bs it
really is
a very robust process that depending on
your handwriting if you do a script
handwriting
it takes our developers or our graphic
designers a full week
to do that so it's actually kind of a
deal for a thousand bucks
and then um that just you see that in
your account
whether it's your web account or your
iphone account or your apis
as one more handwriting style and then
you can just send out notes via that
we also do signature replication
and right now that process is also a
little complex you have to send in forms
with your signature and then we'll
replicate it and put it in your account
that process i'm hoping to streamline
where eventually if you want to do
signature replication
we will send you a link you'll open that
link on your phone and then just use
your finger to like
kind of like docusign a document and
then we'll replicate that signature
if you want that so that
also right now to do a signature is a
250
one-time fee and then you can sign as
many handwritten notes as you want
personally and i think i think you and i
could have a whole discussion about this
i don't see signatures as being a huge
thing because
when you write a full page or a full
card you typically would write your name
i think
you know one man's opinion in the same
style as the rest of the note
but if it's a printed document like a
legal document or a form or whatever
then you sign so personally you know
it's funny i'll talk you out of doing
your own handwriting style and i'll talk
you out of your signature
but if you want those things we do a
great job at them
they look totally real and uh they're
available for you
right right that makes a lot of sense
and i'd love to get into the weeds on
sales process a little bit and uh you
know we've used uh cards successfully
again as you mentioned just kind of
thank yous for people's time you know
for getting on calls and stuff
are there any interesting ways that your
your customer that you're seeing your
customers
integrate whatever else like email
linkedin phone
you know in in the whole process with
direct mail
for sure i mean because we're in zapier
you can add us as kind of a step
in a lot of different uh like outbound
email campaigns
or um yeah hubspot whatever
um so so yeah we can do that we have one
client one of our biggest clients is a
solar panel installer
and they um install they go into your
house to make an appointment you know to
tell you what type of solar panels you
need and then right after that you start
receiving emails from them
and handwritten notes from them you know
saying thank you for letting me in your
house
we're ready to move forward when you are
and they have just exploded
um and they've been a client of ours for
at least three years now
so that while they haven't shared any
data i know it's clearly working because
they've been doing this for
for so long but they have integrated us
in their full email cadence
and uh well now it's email and
handwritten note other clients
use us for post-meeting follow-up
to or for yelp reviews so
the largest house painter in arizona
was using us as a follow-up to get you
to
do a yelp review of your house painting
um experience um so there's there's lots
of ways to do that
but we're seeing we're seeing a lot of
people integrated us as one step in the
flow in fact
uh if you go to our website
handwritten.com and that's handwritten
with a why
you can go to the resources tab and
there's something called the
inbound or the outbound marketers
playbook
and this is a place where we do
handwritten notes for outbound
and what it is is we walk you through
step by step how we collect leads
on linkedin how we get their email
addresses
how we start sending them emails very
custom emails
and then how we follow up with a
handwritten note to those that
open those emails and then we follow up
with an email after that
saying did you get our handwritten note
so it is a
multi-step multi-touch point um solution
that's worked quite well for us
we also do handwritten notes on the
inbound side so if you go to our website
and you just request a sample obviously
we're going to start emailing you saying
you know your samples are on their way
we'll send you the sample kit we'll then
send you more handwritten notes
potentially depending on the how high in
the
target list you are for us and uh yeah
we'll go after you again multi-pronged
approach of phone calls emails and
handwritten notes
cool that that sounds like there's
there's a lot of options um
i think that one thing that i've thought
about is even if somebody was like okay
maybe this is written by robot or maybe
this isn't as cool as it once was years
down the line
the the way to get past that might be
the costly signal of creativity right so
you have
there's a create there's a creative
premium you've built into the process
by thinking thinking about it and for us
you know what we did was we found
a new yorker cartoon related to
advertising it was kind of funny you
know and used that as the the picture
and then
wrote kind of a generic like tasteful
response and it worked pretty well
i guess is there anything that you've
you've seen that's uh that's interesting
anything your clients are doing
you know in terms of the creative it's
funny you mention that because we're
actually
um working with stu heinecke who's the
um this gentleman that his whole
outbound connection strategy is sending
new yorker
uh cartoons where the caption he
personalizes that caption to the user so
it's like
you know it's a picture of somebody in a
phone booth or something and then the
caption says hey dan
uh you know i'm still trying to get in
touch with you
um so it's very funny to mention the new
yorker i mean we're
all over the map at this point we offer
to get your uh to answer your question
you can go on our website
and customize a card customize the
stationery
in just a few steps hopefully it was
easy for you dan um
we're always trying to improve that but
but yeah you can go on
customize the stationery we'll print it
out and then write on it
um i kind of got sidetracked because as
soon as you said new yorker i
i went off on that tangent could you
repeat the question no
that's useful i was just kind of
interested in other uh you know other
creative applications your clients of
doing just stuff that jumps out to you
um yeah yeah well we're doing um
a lot of book so um we have clients in
the us and canada that
uh write a book whether they're writing
that
as a lead gen tool or you know kind of a
marketing tool or if they're writing it
as an actual content piece or both
what they do what they do is they send
us those books uh and then we send the
book with a handwritten note
so it's like you know dear dan thought
you'd appreciate this book that we wrote
on
website analytics or whatever um and
then we'll send that whole package now
that can get obviously
quite costly um because you have to
include a book and the
media mail associated with that book but
it's been a tremendous tool for them
to get in front of their clients with
something different um
so we're doing a lot of that it could be
as easy as a five dollar starbucks card
we include those with cards all the time
so hey
you know we'd love to meet you for a
coffee you know if not
use this five dollar starbucks and buy
yourself one anyway you know something
like that
um we do business card insertion for a
lot of clients
um especially realtors or mortgage
brokers lots of business card insertion
um but yeah there's uh i mean kind of
the sky is the limit
on the different ways people are using
this um
b2b specifically we have
um a lot of very custom tailored
where yes it might be an automated flow
but that note might be very custom to
the user like hey
we saw you've you know came back to our
site and
um wanted more information and
downloaded our white paper you know
we hope you found that white paper
useful um please let us know if it was
and then followed up with
with a business card insertion as well
so there's a lot of ways to go there
yeah yeah it sounds like it and i think
that um
the i think what what's tough isn't like
anything that you guys have
have done wrong or anything like that i
think i think what can be hard is making
these crms connect to each other and
trying to figure out that flow for the
first time so
yeah i'd love to hear your thoughts on
it but we usually say to people that in
our network and
clients and stuff is start small you
know and start with less automation
basically
yeah absolutely we're totally in
agreement so start with an excel
spreadsheet you know that you can double
check
uh easy to quote-unquote automate the
download of that spreadsheet
and then move into a a greater level of
automation whether that's direct
or through zapier um
you know uh with salesforce we have a
full plug-in so in salesforce you can do
like a list view filter
get all your contacts and hit send bulk
handwritten note or you can just go into
the contact record the account record
the lead
you know all these different screens in
salesforce and send a handwritten note
from those what's cool about that
is it records a back to the activity
timeline
we do this in hubspot too but it
basically says oh i was on dan's podcast
on
monday i um sent him a handwritten note
on tuesday
and i gave him a call on wednesday you
know something like that so
yeah uh it's really easy to do that
makes sense and
maybe this is going out of out of scope
for uh for for you but i'm curious about
the data element you know especially now
even in the b2b world
everybody's at home and stuff and i'm
wondering you know
how do you guys help at all in that
regard and if not like how are your
better customers kind of
getting that data and home addresses and
all the stuff that's kind of
tough to come by sometimes yeah
so the home address thing um that's
totally up to the client unfortunately i
don't have very much
insight there as far as results data
um do you want me to go there sure yeah
yeah so with results like i was just
talking to a client they do
hvac systems uh for both commercial and
residential
and what they find is they'll install
your hvac system and then they need to
get back in your
home or business um i don't know i think
it's like eight or
eight months or a year later and what
they find is if they send you a
handwritten note
you know around the time that service
appointment is due you have like a 20 or
30 percent higher rate
of setting that appointment which is
huge for them
so that is one example um a more
um story based you know qualitative
example
is we have a company that i thought
based on the company name
is a i thought they were a law firm but
it turns out he's a piano tuner so i
know this isn't b2b
um but the guy is a piano tuner and he
goes into your house
once a year and when he tunes your piano
he'll send you a
handwritten note thanking you for that
um then it'll be back in your home a
year later
and what he sees in the homes he goes
into a year later is that handwritten
notes still
sitting on their piano or on the
refrigerator
which speaks volumes about the
effectiveness of handwritten notes in
general so
um i think you know there are ways to
generate roi there's whether that's a
coupon code
an event code you know a lot of people
are doing
virtual events these days if you can
provide them a special
um code to get to that event that you
you track through your handwritten note
that you send them
they're they're doing that um but to get
their
base um their home addresses right now
we don't offer any
concierge service to assist with that
we're considering it but we don't offer
um that service so that is it is a
challenge for our b2b
clients um you know compared to our b2c
where it's perfect
and i'm sure at some levels that's
that's going to be forwarded to the
right place depends on your market
though and how
how sophisticated they are so that that
makes sense yeah um
and i guess kind of getting towards the
end of the time i'd just love to hear
what what you're working on these days
and any new projects anything you guys
are up to
yeah so i don't know if this will really
apply well it might uh to your listeners
but
um right now what we're doing so
probably the biggest issue with our
service is people don't know what to
write
you know and we get paid every time a
note goes out so we need people to write
a lot of stuff so
what we're doing is we're coming up with
a campaign manager
that'll be fully automated and the first
version is actually going to be for auto
dealers
so it'll be
the auto dealer industry is actually
fascinating and we're able to set it up
in such a way that it's totally
hands-free
where when when a car gets sold the
um the purchaser will get a handwritten
note from the sales manager
followed by a birthday card followed by
a holiday card followed by a service
reminder followed by an anniversary of
purchase followed by a birthday card
fall by so they will be put into a
cadence without having to do anything
and then we're going to take this model
and customize it and roll it out more
broadly
so it's really an abm you know account
based sales account based management
service where
i put you in my platform and then i
don't even have to think about it i'm
automatically reaching out to you four
times a year three times a year
with a thank you note a birthday card
and uh
i'm sorry a thank you note a birthday
card on a holiday note
um so there's so many ways
um that we can eventually apply this
system that's the biggest one
we are also running it uh rolling out
the shopify offering
after shopify we're probably going to re
re uh re-explore hubspot
right now we're in hubspot crm which is
kind of their competitor to salesforce
but we're trying to get into the hubspot
marketing
inbound marketing solutions so that'll
come after that
um so so yeah so there's a lot of uh
there there's a lot of ways we're gonna
be um expanding the service and then
we're also doing a full redesign of our
of our website which
i know you've seen it now it's pretty
good now but it's still
maybe a little bit slower than we'd like
to get certain steps in the process and
we're gonna we're gonna
fix that um i mean the platform's like
six years old at this point so we we
need to
take a fresh look at it yeah i can only
imagine the the complexity
it it takes to get those orders to
robots and
yeah and i'm getting a an ulcer thinking
just thinking about it so
good on you guys for figuring it out and
i guess with that um how can people get
in touch with you
yeah uh i'm david handwritten.com if you
want to email me
um if you link in just look for david at
handwritten you'll find me there
on twitter i'm david b is in boy wachs
is my last name w-a-c-h-s to repeat that
or hand at handwritten on twitter um i
mean we're on all the social media
and then if you want to try us i suggest
two things number one
go to our business page and uh request a
sample kit
um and then number two uh sign up at
handwritten.com
use discount code podcast for five
dollars in free credit
and see if you like the service so um
you know there's we are here to help
um we've got um customer service reps
that can walk you through setting
sending out your first campaign
or you know reviewing bulk spreadsheets
whatever that is we are certainly here
to assist you
in bringing back the lost art of
handwritten notes awesome dave thank you
so much
thank you dan it's been a pleasure
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