Is it possible to attract customers by letter?

I will help attract customers to a certain hostess bar. The story behind this is as follows.

In mid-February this year, I was on a business trip to the Akoya pearl farm. Sorting of freshly harvested pearls lasted for about 42 days without holidays. After sorting all the pearls, I had a consolation party with the manager of the farm just for the two of us. I and the manager of the farm had a lot of drinks and food at the first izakaya. After that, I went to the hostess bar where the director is friendly. The hostess is the cousin of an employee who works at a pearl farm. Since the islands where the pearl farms are located are very sparsely populated islands, everyone on the islands is likely to be acquaintances and relatives. Due to Covid-19, the hostess bar has been without customers for a long time, and the hostess said she was a little tired mentally. It broke my heart to hear that.

It made me very sad to think that she had a hard time in the bar where no customers came. I thought she only had time. So I made a suggestion to her. If you have time, why not send a handwritten letter to a domestic travel agency? Let’s send it to travel agencies all over Japan even if it takes a few years. If you write letters in your spare time like that, you may not be sick of your heart. Your letter is a positive action, and that action may change you.

I was a little drunk.

The manager of the pearl farm, who was listening to me next to me, said, “Good! You should be a model!” “I like that kind of behavior.”

In general, opinions, proposals, and conversations that come up at drinking parties usually turn into bubbles.

However, this time, there is also an order from the boss next to me, so it seems that the talk will not be a bubble. I told the hostess that I would be busy from February to March with financial statements, the budget for the new year, and sorting out the harvested pearls, so I would not be able to actually write the letter until after April.

And today, April 5th, I have almost completed the contents of the letter. I made it in 30 minutes. Probably after mid-April, I and the hostess will actually continue to send handwritten letters to domestic travel agencies.

In an age when IT and SNS have developed and matured so much, I am very interested in what kind of effect such a classic sales method will have, or whether it will have any effect at all.

If there are 10 people, I am interested in the fact that 9 or 10 people will say, “That’s useless.” However, this letter strategy takes little time and money. All we need is sincerity.

In Japan, there is something called sutra copying. 「using Japanese calligraphy to copy Buddhist sutra text」This is the work of emptying your head and concentrating on calligraphy. In a way, this letter strategy is like copying a sutra. Nothing is wasted.

Earlier, I asked the hostess to look at the draft of the letter through SNS. She was very happy. And at the same time she said, “It has to be handwritten? It’s a hassle,” she said. She is honest.

She is also my customer because she bought my pearl bracelet. I never thought we would end up working together like this, but it’s interesting that we can’t see the future.

I would like to report the results of the letter strategy here.

Please contact me if you would like to visit the island where the pearl farm is located. I also introduce a wonderful hostess bar with all-you-can-drink for $26 for an hour and a half.