This may be obvious for those of us who already use handwritten notes, but it’s nice to see others catching on. Brad Sugars at Entrepreneur Magazine talks about the general importance of loyalty to startup and small businesses and gives specific suggestions.

For that reason, startups must develop strategies for generating repeat business even before they hang out their shingle. The process begins with the business concept itself and continues with everything from how you answer the phone to how you keep your name in front of your customers. The mission is to cultivate loyal customers who not only keep coming back themselves, but who also spread the word to friends and family.

The three points that jumped out to me were:

4. Send handwritten thank-you notes. It’s old-fashioned, but it’s still a good way to show customers that you want their business. Even Nordstrom salespeople send an occasional note. Just be sure it’s personalized. “Dear Valued Customer” will defeat the purpose.

5. Call your customers. Sometimes just asking for repeat business does the trick. Consider the case of a chiropractor in Georgia whose appointment book was getting noticeably thinner. She hired a high school student to call clients she hadn’t seen for three months or more. The effort doubled her business at virtually no cost.

6. Send “it’s time” reminders. Dentists send cards; auto mechanics post stickers with odometer readings on your windshield to remind you of your next oil change. The same technique works in any business that offers regular or seasonal service. In one case, a barber shop that started sending self-addressed reminder postcards boosted business by decreasing the average time between haircuts from six weeks to four.

Number 4 is obvious. Number 6 less so, but still a powerful use of handwritten notes. And just like handwriting, an old-fashioned personal phone call still has its place.

One question we get is, “How can I add my own unique signature?” Unfortunately, we can’t clone your signature (yet) but you can still make it happen.

The best answer, and the way I do it, is to actually sign all the notes myself. When placing my order (yes, I order our own product!) I add “sincerely,” at the end of the message text. Then, I just quickly add my signature when they arrive. Be sure to leave your order “unsealed” so you can easily sign them before you drop them in the mail. And another tip; we use fountain pens for the best possible writing, so for signatures I use a disposable Pilot Fountain Pen to finish it off and match the ink quality.

We do all the heavy lifting and writing of the note body. It then takes just a second to add your personal signature and drop it in the mail. Nice, easy, and it adds that special something.

As everyone races toward email, blackberries, and 24/7 connections, handwritten mail only gets more valuable. Yesterday’s San Jose Mercury News had a quick article talking about just that.

E-mails may get the message across, but it doesn’t have the elegance or eloquence of handwritten correspondence.

“The pendulum is swinging back,” says Marion Gellatly, president of the Association of Image Consultants International and founder of the etiquette firm Powerful Presence. “We’ve gotten to be such a fast-paced society, and it’s all quick this and that. The whole idea of written thank-you notes has gone by the wayside.”

Resentment toward e-mail, coupled with a return to traditional etiquette, could propel this from a trend back to established practice, specifically for the younger generation.

“I think parents are starting to show children what’s proper,” says Jack Tanowitz, owner of JAX Invitations, Cards and Gifts at Santana Row. “And really, it starts from there.”

Handwritten notes are “absolutely coming back into style, especially with thank-you notes,” he adds.

Small businesses are always looking to stand out in the crowd and offer something a little different, a little better than the competition. And also get value for their marketing dollars. Well, John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing wrote a blog post as a guest blogger for HP talking about just those issues.

When you take the time to send a client or prospect a thoughtfully hand written note, not only do you get the benefit of this connection I describe about, you also:

* Stand out from the crowd (nobody does this anymore and that’s what makes it so powerful)
* Say, I care enough to take the time to do this
* Can’t help but write something that is personal in nature (computers stink at that)
* Make a connection with another form of communication (email, phone, web site, blog, note - you need them all)
* Have the ability to make the person who receives the note feel special (if you can’t figure out why that’s a good marketing thing, I can’t help you)
* Will begin to receive more referrals (your clients will tell people about your unique habit)

As I’ve said many times, if you’ve got the time to write personal handwritten notes, you should. Go do it. I couldn’t agree more. But, if you don’t have that time let us help. Don’t give up the power of handwritten mail just because you don’t have the time.

Don’t forget, effective May 14 postal rates are going up for first class letters.

The Board of Governors set Monday, May 14, as the effective date for new rates and fees for all classes of mail except Periodicals, which is delayed until July 15.

The new prices reflect changes in operations and the marketplace and will offer more choices and ensure that all types of mail cover their costs.

Thankfully, the art of handwriting is not completely lost. I ran across several recent stories, mostly related to Zaner-Bloser’s handwriting contest sponsorship that remind us how handwriting is taught at a young age. What pleasantly surprised me in this age of emails, text messages and voice mail was that Zaner Bloser had 157,000 entrants from around the country.

The National Handwriting Contest is sponsored by Zaner-Bloser, a language arts and reading company. Each year, schools that use Zaner-Bloser handwriting as their handwriting text may select one student from each grade level for the contest.

This year, students in grades one and two submitted manuscript samples, while older students submitted cursive samples. Entry forms on the Zaner-Bloser Web site asked students to first write their full name and then write down a designated sentence.

The final portion of the entry form asked students to write why neat handwriting is important. Colleen’s response was simply, ‘‘so people can read it.”

Entry forms were grouped into the categories of grades one and two, grades two through four, and five through eight. The Zaner-Bloser Web site provides a legibility key to help entrants use the correct size, slant, spacing and shape in their entries. Entries are judged according to these four principles.

According to Zaner-Bloser, this year there were 157,000 entries; 6,500 from Maryland.

Winners are grouped into two categories based on their school, public or private⁄Catholic. Judges choose one winner from each grade level in each category at the state level.

From these, national grade level winners will be chosen in each grade in both categories. The 16 national winners will then compete against each other to be named the Grand National Champion.

You can read the whole article here.

UPDATE: More articles, here, here, and here. And a completely different handwriting contest here.