Custom field Casanova: mass-mail personalization guide
How the "Custom Field Casanova" used Scribeless to personalize and send thousands of Valentine's notes efficiently.
Introduction
As Valentine’s Day approaches, people around the world are thinking about how they can show their appreciation for that special someone. For some, however, they don’t have a significant other to shower with affection, or to shower them back.
One determined grafter took matters into his own hands, and launched a direct-mail campaign aiming to capture the heart of at least one lucky lady. We chatted to Dean Chapman to find out how he personalised and sent out thousands of Valentines notes quickly and easily with the Scribeless platform.
Whilst we at Scribeless don’t support Dean’s behaviour, we still thought it worth sharing Dean’s top tips for maximising the customisation of your large-scale campaigns!
Q: So Dean, what inspired you to send out a mass-mail campaign this Valentines’ Day?
Well, last year I struck out with a lot of girls and decided to go about it differently this time around. No matter what happens, this year I was gonna find someone to spend the day with.
Last year I wrote a few handwritten letters to try and make them feel extra special, but my hands cramped up after the first hundred or so. When I heard about Scribeless, I knew it was my chance to scale up that personalization without having to spend hours on it!
Q: It must have been hard to settle on a message that worked for everyone. How did you work out the copy of your message?
Actually, it was pretty simple. I was able to use custom fields to add an extra level of customisation. For example, I used Custom Field 1 for different eye colours. I added each girl’s eye colour to the recipient table during Step 3, and then when each note was generated, it replaced the merge field with the eye colour.
Now everyone has a note that seems tailored specifically to them, but I managed to launch it all as part of the same campaign, saving me tons of time.
I’m even considering an AB test to see which handwriting styles perform best too - Stafford was my favourite and is neater than my own handwriting, but Foster is a bit more fun. This way, I can measure the responses I get from the different styles, and whichever one gives me the best return will be the one I stick with next time!
Q: Have you added anything else to go with the note?
At the end of the note I used the signature feature to draw in a little winky face, making it seem even more authentic and showing them that I’m fun-loving and carefree.
Of course, I have to show them that I can be classy too, so I’m planning to send my top 5% a rose from a local florist - the combined impact of the flower and the note should show them I really care! Of course, I could send entire bouquets, but I’m not made of money.
Q: Well, you certainly are a romantic, aren’t you...what are you planning to do with the ‘lucky’ ladies who say yes? I hope you’ll still be social distancing!
Of course, I’ll be making sure that everything is safe and there’ll never be any overlap between any of the dates. I’ve added a QR code to the back of my notes that uses Zapier to send them straight to book a time slot with me in Calendly.
I promise it’s a safety precaution mainly - the fact that none of them will know about each other as a result is an added bonus!
Q: The QR codes sound interesting - are they easy to implement?
Yeah, it was super simple. I just included it in the design of the reverse side of my note and uploaded it. There’s definitely the potential for more though!
Unlike similar providers Scribeless can actually personalize each individual note with a different QR code. At the moment it may be too time consuming to make everyone a unique video, but I’m considering unique codes so I can see who opens my link but doesn’t book a time.
That way, I can launch a follow-up campaign asking them where I went wrong. Any feedback is good feedback!
Q: Well Dean, thanks for your time. Let us know how you get on when your results start to roll in!
Thanks, but I think I’ll be too busy - expecting a high ROI if you know what I mean!
We’re sure that you would never use the Scribeless platform in the same way as Dean - and we’d actively encourage you not to.
But, we hope you can take on board some of his handy tips when you’re creating your campaigns to make them as special as possible for your recipients.
