Why Handwriting Affects Sales Response Rates

American journalist Lance Morrow once said, “Handwriting is civilization’s causal encephalogram.”

Just as an EEG provides us with a vivid picture of our brainwaves, handwriting is a window into our thoughts and feelings. When you write, your brain controls your hand and all the motor movements you make; inevitably, there will be connections between your mood and the way you write.

Do you write with heavy pressure and a vertical slant? You’re probably the one who can stay cool in rough situations.

Handwriting can not only determine your stress management abilities, but also your probability of success in certain employment fields. When I went on my first post-college job search, I was required to give a handwriting sample to determine her sales potential.  I scored a 100% for a persuasive personality and the company offered to hire me simply on that outcome.

When developing direct mail campaigns, writing sales letters, or working on some other type of marketing campaign, a simple trick is to use a believable handwriting font so people feel connected to the writer. Different styles of handwriting, however, subconsciously communicate different messages to the reader so it is important that the handwriting font has beneficial qualities.

Granted, graphology has been discredited multiple times in America’s history and still receives some hesitation on the part of psychologists nationwide. In fact, only 60 years ago, serious doubts were raised when a simplistic offshoot of graphology called graphoanalysis was popularized. One graphoanalyst was convinced that a glitch in the upstroke of a woman’s ‘H’ meant that she had heart problems. Well, this simply wasn’t true.

Recently, however, highly educated and trained graphologists have turned their focus back to the complexities of handwriting rather than the simplicities. Psychologists from Jung to Freud were deep believers in graphology but rather than looking at letters alone, they looked at the handwriting as a whole. The location of the writing on the page to the size of the letters to the slant of the letters can provide an insight into a person’s inner thoughts and feelings.

So, before you go sending off your next direct mail campaign, make sure you’re completely clear on what you’re communicating to your potential client and ensure that you’re using a sales-proven handwriting font.

The persuasion features of my handwriting are hard to come by, and if you’re trying to win over customers with non-sales handwriting or just plain old Times New Roman fonts, you’re not doing your product justice. For more information on my product Doodleopes™, visit http://www.pdamarketing.net.

Other tips to help you get your direct mail opened - guaranteed!

With direct mail often delivering a 1-3% response rate or even less, it becomes increasingly important to ensure that you’re using a targeted mailing list and have a well-written, attractive letter. Without these things, you’re in for a disappointing campaign and maybe even losses rather than profits.

There are other steps you can take, however, to increase the rate at which your envelopes are opened and read therefore increasing the number of people who will respond. With direct mail, your first impression is the appearance of the envelope. When an envelope looks unusual and is personalized, the recipient is more likely to take a second look. Also, you want to make sure that it stands out – consumers have seen it all before from the pre-approved credit card applications to bland postcards.

From my experience, working with clients from many different industries, there are five tried and true rules that I follow with each campaign.

1)    Use a Live Stamp

Postage meters may be the easiest way to prepare your mail for delivery, but it is not going to get you the best response. Spending a little extra time to actually stamp each and every envelope will make it look like you aren’t mass-producing direct mailers or ‘junk mail’. It will seem as though you drove all the way to the post office to pick up the stamps and then spent a while focusing on each envelope and the impression you were making.

2)    Never use an inkjet printer

Many high volume mailers use high-speed inkjet printers to spit out their direct mail quickly and reliably. But the key problem here is that many high volume mailers use it! People have seen it before and can tell the difference when you use a nice quality printer that may take a little more time.

3)    Personalized Return Address Labels

Again, it may take time or a few extra cents to stick these on each envelope, but the recipient will appreciate it. Taking time for each customer makes it appear as though you are thankful for their business. Also – think about it – how many direct mail pieces you have received lately that had a personalized return address label? Not many. Most have their name printed in the upper left hand corner, a Pitney Bowes stamp in the upper right hand corner, and a little clear hole in the middle where your address is. They couldn’t even take the time to print your address on the envelope! If you are using your business return address, try putting an individual name instead of the business name.  This really makes the piece look more personal.

4)    Use an outrageous, individualized design on the envelope

The days of the plain white envelopes are over as are the days of a little logo in the corner. You have got to go crazy, be outrageously creative, get someone to notice your envelope. Make your envelope the first thing the recipient notices when they open the mailbox. How do you do it? Use a wild color, draw some ‘unplanned’ doodles on the outside, and make it known that you’re not the average company and this is not the average piece of direct mail. Check out the product Doodleopes® for some examples of what I’m talking about.

5)    Use a handwriting font to write the recipient’s address

How many times do I have to say it? Personalize the envelope! Make it look like you spent a lot of time! Find a believable (not fake-looking) hand-written font so it appears as though you handwrote their address on the front of the envelope. This way, your direct mail piece will look like it came from a friend. If you’ve followed the rest of my tips, the recipient will be so curious as to which company spent so much time personalizing the letter for them that they’ll be excited to open it. And if they don’t need the service right now, you’ll have made such an impact that they may just save your direct mail piece on their refrigerator for next time.