Even though she died ten years ago, when I re-read them, it's like visiting with her again.Īt the beginning of the pandemic, I started writing sisters and friends I hadn't been keeping in touch with very well. I kept every letter my mother wrote to me during those years I was busy raising young children and lived a distance from her. I have a long-standing pen friendship with my good friend Mary, who wrote a book with me on the topic of female friendship and letter writing. My oldest daughter met her husband through a pen pal ad in "Countryside" magazine. Even my children had pen pals with common interests.
Letter-writing has been a big part of my life, first as a new mother in the ‘80s when magazines like "Women's Circle" still carried pen pal ads, and later as a homeschooling mother of eight children, as a way to connect with the outside world. Writing letters is the one meditative practice I've managed to incorporate into my busy life. Is this something your audience might act on, and does this sound like the consumer behavior you’d expect your demographic targets to display upon receipt of your snail mail? If the research says yes, you might find value in this otherwise potentially outdated method of communication yet. They can either make use of it (or think they can) or they simply won’t want to be wasteful, which means that branded promotional collateral has now made its way into your prospect’s home where it may remain for some time. This results in such mail being opened, and even if the isn’t immediately taken, recipients are unlikely to throw the solid item away. The feel of mail that holds something other than papers is different, weightier, and catches the attention and draws the eye. This is because it draws the attention before the addressee even looks at it. This means doing plenty of research into your demographic targets and their preferences.Īddressed mail and that which is also different from the norm, such as mail containing a gift like a pen or a keyring rather than a single slip of paper or a bill, can be highly effective. Sending snail mail is very costly compared to most other ad targeting methods, both on and offline, so before using such an approach, you need to have a reasonable expectation of it paying off. However, when it comes to junk mail – circulars, unaddressed mail, or whatever term you use to describe generic scattershot mail and flyers, these have had their day. Such groups have different types of life experiences and references than younger people, and they often still assign unconscious value and gravitas to snail mail above electronic communications, whether warranted or not.
It sometimes still has value, in particular when targeting older demographics who might not be internet users at all, who might not be proficient at using tech, or who are suspicious of it.
Whether or not snail mail is obsolete depends on your goal or intention in using or integrating it into your campaign or collateral.
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