Write A Letter. I Dare You.

Slow down. Care more.

This is something of a follow-on from my last post, where I dug into what convenience really means and how it can really affect things without you realising. Human communication has evolved over thousands of years. The last twenty years has hyper-accelerated human communication through social media, emojis and now, LLMs doing the writing for you. All somewhat in the name of convenience.

But for every fewer key presses, we erode true human connection that was thousands of years in the making.

One pen stroke, one voice.

In a similar way to how Sophie the Great spoke brilliantly about how she talks to her favourite tree because they “only have one voice” when they vocalise something; the same applies to writing things down - perhaps doubly so when you’re writing something for someone else.

The same applies to when I prepare by task list for the day. The only real way that’s worked for me is to put pen-to-paper and write down my tasks. No reminder notifications, not other distractions, no screens. Just ink on paper that I can cross-off as I go.

Putting pen to paper makes your message a physical object.

Sending someone a letter creates a tactile, physical object that is literally delivered to someone’s door. Beyond the content of the letter, there is a deep meaning to going to the trouble of writing, sealing and posting a letter. Sure, it might cost more to send a letter these days - but that makes the act more valuable, not less.

How can you apply this to branding?

Brands are at risk of believing it’s all too convenient to let the algorithms and LLMs take control of customer communication: the empty basket email, the discount code to re-engage, the tactically created up-sell at checkout, the automated customer support bot. All these tools can be helpful, but at the threat of severing any human sentiment, reason to believe, or simple connection the customer has with the brand.

What’s one thing you can do that creates an owned, honest, old-fashioned human connection with your customers. Tony Hsieh’s book Delivering Happiness is a great study into how to surprise and delight customers, usually at the mercy of traditional customer service KPIs.

But sometimes, it’s as simple as writing a letter.

Hi! I'm James Kindred. I wrote this!

I have over 25 years of experience in brand strategy, design and technology. My experience in both founding brands and defining meaningful brand strategies for others has given me a unique perspective on how to help businesses grow.