The Tribune

By D’Arcy Rahming

When I was in primary school I never got a 4.0 on my grade point average (GPA), even though I did ‘A’ level work for the majority of my classes. Physical education (P.E.) and handwriting were my worst subjects. If I got a ‘B-’ in P.E. it was indeed a happy day for me. I never remember getting anything greater than a ‘C’ in handwriting. In fact, if I did, I would have known the teacher needed to change the prescription in their glasses or had made a mistake putting my grade on my report card.

I always thought my handwriting will not matter because my secretary will type the letters for me. I felt vindicated when the personal computer came around, but it was not until much later that I realised my teachers knew best. You can make quite an impression with superior penmanship in a sales letter or a handwritten note, because hardly anyone handwrites letters any more.

But, if you write ‘chicken scrawl’, like I do, no one is going to take the time to decipher it. As an aside, even the type written word, because of texting, has been corrupted. I literally cannot understand what some of my younger friends are saying on Facebook. Yet depending on your audience, even poorly written communications are a matter of style. They elicit feedback, so someone must understand what they are saying.

So, how does handwriting tie into marketing? One great application of handwriting is that in your business communications you should not be afraid to use handwriting on envelopes. Some people may think this is very unprofessional. But real handwriting is unique, and will help to get your message opened and read. People are not as easily fooled by handwritten fonts.

People often sort their mail over the garbage. Almost no one throws away a handwritten envelope, and most people will read a handwritten letter. They will always open it because they feel it is personal, and not some mass mailing. I did a test like this last year, and had an extremely high open rate. There were some negatives associated with this campaign, though. Have you ever tried to address 4,000 letters by hand? Well, neither have I.

So I had my staff do it, because I thought that being paid was incentive enough. After a short time, some of my staff were ready to kill each other over who was working hard enough. I mean, people I had worked peacefully with for years became completely annoyed with me and their co-workers. Pretty soon, they thought their fellow staff member was not doing their fair share of the handwriting. This human element is something they never write about in marketing books. So use the personal handwritten note for special occasions, or you may encounter more problems than it is worth.

NB: D’Arcy Rahming holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. A lecturer at the College of the Bahamas, Mr Rahming has clients in general insurance, the retail, health and medical fields, sports federations and financial services. To receive his marketing newsletter FREE go to http://darcyrahming.com