Is it time to return to “snail mail”?

At the COSE Small Business Conference last week I led a workshop titled “You have the business card, what do you do now?”, where we discussed techniques for follow-up after getting business cards at networking events, trade shows, and conferences.

Among the techniques we discussed was sending notes, letters, brochures, and postcards by regular mail. The rationale is that today people are so bombarded with e-mail that they are more likely to pay attention to a physical paper that gets delivered to their desks. Who can resist opening a hand-addressed note card envelope? Then opening the card with an attractive, yet appropriate, picture on the front? A simple message inside can be very powerful.

A young lady, in the generation that considers no media valid if not electronic, approached me after the workshop. She said at first she thought I was nuts to suggest snail-mail – but the more she thought about it, the more she realized how powerful it can be to send out appropriate mailings, and that she would be trying snail-mail in her business.

Sometimes the old becomes new again!

Will Limkemann