If you get a chance, there are an awful lot of funny cartoons here. Go take a look.

Kim T. Gordon has penned an interesting article for Entrepreneur.com regarding personalized marketing. I’d say we agree that in today’s world, personalized and authentic marketing really stands out and gets people’s attention. Small businesses have an opportunity that big corporations often don’t, and that’s the power of the personal message. Kim says it best,

As a small-business owner, you’re in the enviable position of interacting with customers you know on a first-name basis. You can more easily maintain a database with in-depth customer information than larger businesses. The key is to use this important data to ensure your communications strike a personal chord with customers.

Handwritten Results is ideally suited to help small-business owners achieve this personalization. And of her three suggestions, number three certainly hits home.

3. Put it in writing.
What better way to make your message stand out than to express it in a handwritten note? After all, with fast online and mobile communications the norm, a handwritten note emphasizes that you’ve taken the time and thought to communicate something in a special way.

Entrepreneurs nationwide swear by the effectiveness of personal, handwritten notes for making a strong, positive impression. …

If you’re in an industry where it’s critical to build one-on-one relationships with prospects, it’s a good idea to print fold-over notecards with your company logo to follow up with customers. Hand address the envelopes and apply real stamps–rather than run your cards through a postage meter–for a personal look that will get past screeners. If the first task of effective marketing is to get noticed and stand out from the clamor of competing advertisers, then handwritten notecards and other personalized messages will achieve the goal.

Once again, we’ve come across data to show that the little things like handwriting really do stand out in today’s world. This study by DayTimer® demonstrates that even in the job search a little extra special touch makes a difference. A related field where Handwritten Results can generate leads, develop relationships, and start a conversation is recruiting, both in-house and recruiting firms. Using Handwritten Results, recruiters can reach out and touch thousands of potential clients, or even candidates. We’re interested in helping recruiters, so if you’re a recruiter let us know if you have any comments or suggestions.

Some of the highlights:

In a survey conducted by DayTimer® over 70% of respondents to their poll on communication said sending a handwritten note was friendlier, “demonstrating special effort to communicate”. These results have direct impact on job search. As the hiring managers mentioned above confirmed, follow-up or thank you notes had a definite impact on the success of the job search process for those candidates who went the extra step. With all this data that supports use of follow-up or thank you notes following an interview, why aren’t more job seekers making use of this easy yet powerful step in their job searches?

It’s also interesting to see why people don’t use handwritten notes as much. This is where Handwritten Results can really help the professional marketer.

Potentially, the issue of writing of something by hand may be a hurdle. First of all, it takes time to sit down and write a handwritten thank you note. Few of us are practiced at this lost art and generally have no idea how to phrase what we want to say without sounding trite or corny. Secondly, those of us who do most of our communicating via a keyboard these days, our handwriting really stinks. The muscles in our hands that control the formation of letters are out of practice and the result of pen stroke on paper is fairly pitiful. How many of you think occasionally “Gosh, I used to have decent handwriting when I was in college…” We are out of practice both mentally and physically when it comes to writing with a pen.

And lastly, women respond particularly well to a handwritten note.

The same study by DayTimer® also noted that women appreciated handwritten communications more than men. 54% of women had positive feelings about receiving a handwritten letter. A good percentage of men also appreciated it – 42%. That’s an interesting viewpoint about something most of us ignore these days – courtesy communications.

For customers looking to generate a large number of personal leads, handwritten notes with a “little extra” are a good option. In addition to our custom handwritten pieces we often include a business card, small pamphlet or brochure about the company or cause. While we focus on the handwritten piece we can also help you accomplish your goal even if it involves a little printing as well.

For tips on creating new cards, check out this post.