Going old school – how to reach people effectively

I had lunch with a friend last week when we were talking about the days years and years ago where it was cool to have an email address on your business card.  In fact, I remember picking attorneys to work on our venture deals in the mid-90s not only based on cost and experience but also based on how digital they were - no AOL email addresses please and if you use IM, then great.  Now I can honestly say that I can be overburdened at times dealing with my email, IMs, sms messages, phone calls, LinkedIn and Facebook messages.  So I must say it was quite refreshing last week when I received a hand delivered note from Robert Samet who runs Madison Search Partners, a well respected boutique search firm for senior level sales searches in the digital media and software sectors.  He, of course, had sent me a few emails before that and also followed up with an email afterwards.  Robert went old school with snail mail and physical communcations and with that got my attention.  Yes this is an old marketing trick but one that sometimes gets lost in the shuffle of digital communcation.  I, of course, had to take his call and when we spoke I asked him how his campaign went.  His hit rate was quite high and given his creativity, he is definitely a guy I want to use in the future for a search.  So in this day of constant and immediate communication, physical mail and snail mail can sometimes leave a lasting impression.  As for myself, I actually got some personal stationary last year to send note cards to friends and business contacts when I want to make sure that I deliver a more effective message.