Comparison
Handwritten versus printed direct mail
We sell handwriting, so treat the recommendation accordingly — but the comparison below is straight, including the several situations where printed mail is the better buy.
Short answer: printed direct mail costs roughly a tenth as much per piece and handles images, forms and dense text. Handwritten mail costs several times more and buys one specific thing: a much better chance of being opened. Choose handwritten when a single conversion is worth many times the per-piece cost and the list is small enough to treat individually; choose printed for volume, for anything visual, and for anything with thin margins.
Written by Autopen Australia · Updated
Side by side
| Printed | Handwritten | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical cost per piece | $0.20–$0.60 before postage | $3.19 at 2,000 pieces, 120 words, with envelope |
| Envelope-only option | Included | From $2.34 per piece |
| Images and colour | Unlimited | Only on pre-printed stock; the writing itself is one colour of ink |
| Amount of text | As much as fits | Practically up to about 500 words, and cost rises with every one |
| Forms, coupons, reply cards | Straightforward | As printed inserts alongside the written piece |
| Personalisation | Variable data printing — visible as a font match at best | Written into the sentence in the same hand, no visible seam |
| Sensible volume | Thousands to hundreds of thousands | 100 to about 50,000 |
| Chance of being opened | Recognisable as direct mail before it is touched | Reads as personal correspondence during sorting |
| Best used for | Volume acquisition, catalogues, offers, anything visual | High-value lists, reactivation, retention, gratitude |
The decision rule
There is one calculation that settles most of these arguments. Work out the contribution margin of a single conversion, and compare it to the cost per piece.
- Margin above roughly 20× the per-piece cost: handwritten is almost certainly worth testing.
- Margin between 10× and 20×: worth a split test, but be disciplined about the result.
- Margin below 10×: print it, or spend the money on a better offer.
Property, financial services, healthcare, automotive and professional services sit comfortably in the first band. Low-margin retail sits in the third. Fundraising depends entirely on the donor tier you are writing to.
The hybrid, which is what most people should buy
Handwriting the envelope while printing the contents costs about $2.34 a piece and captures most of the available benefit, because the envelope is where the sorting decision happens. It also keeps every printed capability for the contents — images, a reply form, compliance text.
If you are running an existing printed campaign and want to know whether this channel is worth anything to you, this is the experiment to run first. How the envelope service works.
What about handwriting fonts?
A printed handwriting font is a third option, and it is worse than either. The ink is flat, the pressure never varies, and every instance of a letter is identical — three things a reader registers immediately when holding the page, even if they could not articulate why it looks wrong.
The reason it performs badly is not aesthetic. A printed script reads as an attempt to pass as personal, and the reader who works that out has learned something about you that no offer will undo. The physical difference between the two.
Do not run them against each other on different lists
The comparison people usually make is last year’s printed campaign against this year’s handwritten one. Different list, different season, different offer, different economy. That comparison is worthless.
Split one list at random, hold everything else constant, and change only the production method. How to structure it.
Common questions
Can a handwriting font pass for real handwriting?
Not on paper, and not to anyone holding it. A printed handwriting font lays flat ink on the surface with perfectly uniform pressure, identical letterforms every time, and a suspiciously straight baseline. Real pen ink soaks into the fibres and you can feel the writing from the reverse of the sheet. The failure mode is worse than printing honestly: it reads as an attempted trick.
Is a hybrid approach — handwritten envelope, printed contents — sensible?
It is often the best value in the whole category. The envelope does the work that handwriting is uniquely good at, and the contents can carry printed detail, images and compliance text that handwriting handles badly.
When is printed simply better?
When the piece needs images, colour, a form, a voucher, dense compliance text, or when the volume is very large and the list is cold. Printed mail is also the right answer any time the per-piece economics do not clear the bar.
Keep reading
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