Kansas City, MO
Split test 路 16,434 cards 路 vs printed mail
Handwritten vs. printed mail: the Kansas City split test
5.4x
the response rate of the client's own printed card: 2.16% vs 0.40%
The setup
- Shawn, a Kansas City real estate investor, split one list down the middle.
- Half received the client's own printed card. Half received a Mailbots DoubleCard, handwritten in real pen on both faces.
- Same list, same market, same weeks. Responses tracked per cell.
The numbers
| Mailbots | Printed card | |
|---|---|---|
| Response rate | 2.16% | 0.40% |
| Responses | 68 | 18 |
| Appointments | 10 | 2 |
| Deals closed | 2 | 0 |
| Profit | $37,000 | $0 |
| Cost per lead | $122 | $214 |
What happened
The printed cell produced 18 responses, 2 appointments, and closed nothing. The handwritten cell produced 68 responses, 10 appointments, and 2 closed deals worth $37,000.
Cost per lead is the number a mail budget actually feels: $122 handwritten against $214 printed, a 42% saving on the same list, even though a handwritten card costs more per piece to send.
This test says nothing about other handwritten vendors. It measures handwriting against print. For the head-to-head against a competing handwritten mailer, read the Tampa test.
On the same list, the handwritten card did not edge out print. It beat it in every column that leads to money: responses, appointments, deals, and cost per lead.
These are real customer-reported numbers from tracked campaign records. One campaign on one list is one campaign: your list and your market decide your results, and nobody honest promises a rate before seeing either.
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