So I have form letters on my mind today. I have to notify over 300 people of the same thing and it’s very difficult to personalize 300 letters. Or, rather, it’s not difficult to personalize 300 letters, I just don’t have that kind of time. I feel kind of hypocritical. Especially because when one of my blogging friends launches a new product or wants me to sell something for them, they send me an email. My line of thinking often goes like this, “Dude. You want me to help launch your new ebook/course/paying thing and you can’t even take the time to jot out a personal note?”
But now, I’m sending out massive amounts of email and I’m not so sure that I hate form letters anymore. In fact, I’m finding them terribly convenient. Still, I’ve been called out a few times recently over the use of a form letter, especially when it comes to people I know pretty well. So if it’s all right with you, I want to offer a few ideas for making form letters personal, especially when you know you’re going to be sending a bunch out to people you know.
- Use names – No excuses. Sending an email that just says “hi!” or worse yet, has no name at all just plain sucks. Form letters are impersonal enough. There’s no need to make it worse by saying, “you’re not even worth the effort it takes to type in a name.”
- Use reference points – My form letters had to do with speaker proposals for BlogWorld. I made sure each speaker’s proposal name was referenced in my note. Most of the letter may be of the formed variety, but at least I made sure the recipient knew the note was intended for him and him only.
- Jot a note for people you know – The first time I sent a form letter to a friend I regretted it. I didn’t put in anything that would indicate I even knew her. As soon as I hit “send” I knew it was the wrong thing to do. From that point on, I made sure to add a couple of lines to the people with whom I was friendly. I didn’t have time to write up a whole new letter, but I did my best to make everyone feel special.
No one wants to receive a form letter. We want news and information tailored especially for us. We want to think the party on the other end knows our name and why we contacted them in the first place. Sometimes, though, there’s no way around it. Sometimes we just have to go with the email blast. I find that by using names, especially first names, and that by being personal with familiar names makes receiving a form letter a little less painful.
Do you send out form letters? How do you make them seem less…well…formy?
