Overview

Before the internet, before cell phones, before email...handwritten letters was a surefire way to do business. Fast forward to today. Business has been engulfed in technology, forced to move at a rapid pace, forced to multi-task, forced to meet and exceed results. Salespeople are under pressure to perform and have very little time to step back and think outside of the box. Handwritten letters are an excellent way to take a different angle with your customers, prospects, and partners.

But, who has the time to sit down, write a letter, buy something to drop-in the envelope, get your stamps, and run to the post office? The task is way too time consuming...and we all know in sales that time equals money. It's opportunity cost, it's the cost of paying a salesperson to write the letter, it's the cost of materials - it all adds up. Lead Liaison simplifies the process of creating and sending handwritten letters to reduce a time-consuming task that could take up to an hour of your time (and make your hand hurt) down to a few minutes, and can be fully automated. 

The importance of multi-touch, multi-channel communication in B2B (and B2C) is critical. Handwritten letters, coupled with SMS messages, direct mail, email, and phone calls can make a serious impact on your sales team's ability to convert more prospects into customers. Get ready to be an omni-channel marketer!

Handwritten Letter Templates

Creating a Handwritten Letter Template

To create a handwritten letter template navigate to Content > Letters > Templates > New Template.

• Name = Name of your template. This is for internal use only. 
• Template = Start with a pre-created template to make your new template. 
• From = Select who the handwritten letter is from, the logged in user, custom person, or the lead/prospect owner. 
• Fields = Dynamically insert data from a standard or custom field. The "Default Value" field is what's used if no value exists. The system will fall back to the default value. Note, the green tags in the body of the letter represent the data merge fields. 

Using Advanced Options with Handwritten Letters

Be even more impactful and authentica by sending gift cards, business cards, books, bags of popcorn, t-shirts...anything you can really imagine, along with your handwritten letter. For this purpose, Lead Liaison includes Drop-Ins and Send Alongs.

• Click Show Advanced Options

Below is a description of all the advanced options. 

Use Unique Postmark Location

All of our letters our sent from our Texas office. The postmark location will be Austin, TX. If you do not want this location showing on the letter you can choose your own city and state. The location must be in the United States as international postmarking is not supported at this time. Suppose I want to have the postmark location where our new sales office is in Seattle, Washington. 

• Click Yes for Use Unique Postmark Location
• Enter in your city and state

Pen Color

We offer three pen colors, which we find convert readers at the highest rates. Change your pen color by clicking the dropdown. 

Handwriting

Choose from six (6) different handwriting styles. 

Print	Sample
Male Print
Mail Cursive
Female Cursive
Female Print
All Caps
Gender Neutral

Drop-Ins

A Drop-In is anything that fits inside the envelope. We keep $5 Starbucks cards readily available in our inventory for you to include anytime.

You can also coordinate with your representative to include a custom Drop-In. Example Drop-Ins are:

• $10 Amazon gift card
• Company sticker
• Sticky note with writing on it
• $20 dollar visa gift card
• SD Card with relevant files on it
• "Golden Ticket" redeemable with company
• Business card

We'll coordinate with you to send us your drop-in and set your inventory level on your account. When your inventory runs low we'll notify you. 

Stationery

Pick what type of stationery you want your letter written on. There are four choices:

1. Bi-Fold (4.52” x 6.25” when folded)
2. Bi-Fold with your logo
3. Crane & Co (6 3/8” x 8 1/2”)
4. Crane & Co with your logo

Crane & Co

• Crane & Co. is 100% cotton, high-end, premium paper. 
• The company is a 250 year old company. They used to make money for the US. It's got a thick, wonderful feel. It's like the Burberry of paper, and looks very classy. Add a logo and it gives that "Wow" factor. 
• 6 3/8” x 8 1/2”

Bi-Fold

• Our standard A6 bi-fold is 6.25” x 9.25” when open, 4.52” x 6.25” when folded

Adding Your Logo

To add your logo send your logo source file to your Lead Liaison representative. Logo must be .ai or .eps. and at least 500x500. Higher resolution the better. Our on-site designers will place your logo perfectly on the letterhead. Note, we do not send proofs. 

Send Alongs

A Send Along is anything that changes the envelopes standard size and weight. We do not carry any Send Alongs in inventory; however, you can coordinate with your representative to include a custom Send Along. Example Send Alongs are:

• Bag of popcorn
• Company apparel
• Brochures/fliers
• Marketing propaganda 

We'll coordinate with you to send us your Send Alongs and set your inventory level on your account. When your inventory runs low we'll notify you. Additional service fee for using a Send Along is the cost of the Send Along itself plus additional shipping fees with the letter. 

Editing, Deleting, Cloning Templates

To clone your handwritten letter template navigate to the templates page, Content > Letters > Templates and click the gear under the actions column next to the letter you want to clone. 

Sending a Handwritten Letter

Sending a One-Off Letter

To send a handwritten letter to a prospect navigate to their Prospect Profile. Click the Send Letter action. If a default letter template exists then it will appear first. Use the Template dropdown to select a different template to use. To learn more about Advanced Options, like Send Alongs and Drop-Ins, see the Templates section above. 

Sending via Automation

To send handwritten letters as part of an Automation include the Send Handwritten Letter action in your flow. 

Tip: To make sure you're not introducing a bunch of scheduling errors add conditions around the Send Handwritten Letter action to only send the letter if the Prospect has an Address, City and State in their profile. 

Default Sender Address

If the sender (who the letter is from) is missing any one of these bits of information in their address or the sender is the lead owner, and no owner exists, then your company address will be used. The company address is located under Admin > Settings > Organization Info

• Street Address, 
• City, 
• State, and
• Zip Code

Letter Follow Up

Following up in sales is important. Want to send a follow up email after your letter was sent and include a photo of the letter in your email? Oh yeah, totally possible...and easy! Just include the Last Letter Sent Image field in your follow up email. 

In your follow up email include the image in your HTML email by using the following code:

<img src='%%last_letter_sent_image__c%%' />

Modifying Letters After Sending

Editing a Letter

If you send a letter and say, "oops, I didn't want to say that!"...no worries! Just edit your letter. Letters can be edited when they are in the Preparing or Scheduled State. To edit your letter navigate to your letter management page, Content > Letters > Campaigns, click the gear next to your letter and select "Edit". 

Updating the Recipient Info

If you realized the recipient has different address information don't update their Prospect Profile, make sure to update the Recipient Info. Once a letter is sent we use the address information, name, etc. of the person at the time you initiate the send. Updating the recipient will also update the Prospect's record in the system. Recipient info can be changed while the letter is in the Preparing or Scheduled State. To change the recipient info navigate to your letter management page, Content > Letters > Campaigns, click the gear next to your letter and select "Recipient Info". 

Cancelling a Letter

When your letter is in the Preparing or Scheduled state you can cancel your letter and you will not be charged. To cancel your letter navigate to your letter management page, Content > Letters > Campaigns, click the gear next to your letter and select "Cancel". 

Scheduling Errors

A scheduling error may occur for any of the following reasons:

1. Missing fields from the mailing address
2. Invalid mailing address
3. Not enough Purchase Credits
4. Inventory items (drop-ins, send alongs, etc.) are out of stock

You'll know there's a scheduling error in one of two ways. 

• We'll send you an email notifying you one or more letters failed to send. If you're including handwritten letters in an automation and have multiple failures with the automation, we won't send you an email for each failure. Instead, we'll send you one email per day for the first failure we detect. 
• Under the Status column you'll see "Scheduling Error" for any letter that failed to send. 

Once you've corrected the scheduling error try to resend your letter. Click the gear next to the letter and click Retry. 

To resend/retry multiple letters click the Actions button and choose Retry Selected:

Pricing

Pricing on your account may vary based on the terms and conditions of your Agreement with Lead Liaison; however, the table below will give you an approximation of costs. Costs are per handwritten letter. 

You can learn more about Purchase Credits here. 

For one-off letters, you'll get an estimate of the cost of your letter at the bottom of the Send Letter window. All Purchase Credits used are logged in the billing section of your account, Admin > Account > Billing. 

• To calculate pricing, first choose your letter stationery:

• Then tally up your add-ons:

Turnaround Time

• The turnaround time for a one-off is 1-3 days on our end (production), and 1-5 days on USPS's end (delivery), resulting in a range of 2 to 8 days on average. The turnaround time is increased by 4-7 days when a Unique Postmark Location is used, resulting in a range of 6 to 15 days. 
• When sending a follow up email we suggesting waiting 8 days, and 15 days if you're using a Unique Postmark Location. 

Tips and Other Things to Consider

• The maximum Word Count for any handwritten letter is 80 words. When inserting data merge fields (green tags) the Word Count might not be 100% accurate as the system cannot predict the word count of the dynamic field until the letter is sent. 
• Around 25 to 50 words looks great for bi-folds. Around 50 to 75 words looks great for Crane & Co. 
• If letters come in after 5PM Friday they will not get written until Monday.
• Letter statuses are updated every 30 minutes. 
• Under Advanced Options, click the image to the right to see a larger size version. This is particularly helpful when inspecting handwriting styles.