David Wachs – The Power of the Handwritten Letter

Summary

David, 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

00:00

📝 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.

05:02

🚀 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.

10:02

🤖 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.

15:02

💌 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.

20:05

🎨 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.

25:06

📈 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.

30:07

🔜 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.

Keywords

💡Handwritten notes

Las notas a mano son un método de comunicación personal y touchante que se utiliza para conectar con los clientes y los empleados. En el video, se discute cómo enviar notas a mano escritas a través de un servicio que las imita robotizadamente, conservando su calidez y efectividad para crear una impresión duradera.

💡Personalization

La personalización se refiere al proceso de adaptar mensajes o productos para satisfacer las necesidades o preferencias individuales de alguien. En el contexto del video, es un elemento clave para destacar la importancia de los mensajes que se adaptan a las personas y no son genericos, lo que ayuda a cortar el ruido en las comunicaciones modernas.

💡Automation

La automatización es el uso de sistemas para realizar tareas de manera automática, con el objetivo de mejorar la eficiencia y reducir el esfuerzo humano. En el video, se discute cómo la empresa Handwritten utiliza robots para escribir notas, integrándose con diferentes plataformas para facilitar el envío de notas personalizadas a gran escala.

💡Brand impression

La impresión de marca es la percepción que tienen los clientes o los usuarios sobre una marca o empresa. En el video, se sugiere que el uso de notas a mano escritas puede crear una impresión positiva y duradera de la marca, destacando su esfuerzo por conectarse de manera personal con los clientes.

💡CRM integration

La integración CRM (Customer Relationship Management) se refiere a la conexión de un sistema de gestión de relaciones con los clientes con otras herramientas o plataformas para mejorar la eficiencia y la gestión de datos. En el video, se habla sobre cómo Handwritten se integra con diferentes sistemas CRM para facilitar el envío de notas a mano escritas como parte de campañas de marketing o de relación con los clientes.

💡Email overload

El sobrecarga de correo electrónico se refiere a la situación en la que las personas reciben una cantidad abrumadora de correos electrónicos, lo que dificulta el manejo eficaz de la comunicación laboral. En el video, se menciona cómo el aumento del volumen de correos electrónicos ha llevado a que muchas personas no lean todos sus mensajes, salvo aquellos de conocidos.

💡Lead generation

La generación de leads es el proceso de identificar y clasificar a los posibles clientes o interesados en un producto o servicio. En el video, se menciona que, aunque la empresa Handwritten no se enfoca en la generación de leads, su método de enviar notas a mano escritas puede ser efectivo si se enfoca en un público objetivo específico.

💡Customer engagement

El compromiso del cliente se refiere a la interacción y conexión continua que se establece con los clientes para mantener su interés y lealtad hacia una marca o empresa. En el video, se sugiere que el envío de notas a mano escritas puede ser una herramienta efectiva para aumentar el compromiso de los clientes, ya que se percibe como una forma más personal y significativa de comunicación.

💡Direct mail

El correo directo es una forma de marketing que implica el envío de material publicitario a direcciones postales específicas. En el video, se discute cómo el envío de notas a mano escritas es una forma de correo directo que se destaca por su capacidad para crear un impacto personal y memorable.

💡Sales strategy

La estrategia de ventas es el plan o conjunto de tácticas utilizadas para aumentar las ventas y alcanzar objetivos de ventas. En el video, se discute cómo el envío de notas a mano escritas puede formar parte de una estrategia de ventas más amplia que combine diferentes formas de comunicación para conectar con los clientes de manera efectiva.

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