Not long ago, I made a first purchase from an online retailer. The price was right, and the product showed up a day earlier than expected, so I was already impressed.
About a week later, the retailer did something surprising. They mailed me a postcard with a handwritten message from an employee thanking me for my order and encouraging me to contact them again.
It was a simple touch, but a masterful one in an age of online retailers that send out large volumes of personalized emails in the hopes of creating relationships. This was a genuinely personal contact.
As fewer people use mail to connect with customers and prospects, that channel becomes more powerful. And taking it the next step, by sending a friendly, handwritten message, leverages personal connections in ways that a mass-personalized letter or email could ever do.