I’m sure it’s possible to find a piece of academic research that supports most arguments, so take this with a pinch of salt. A Cambridge University study (Does typing or handwriting exam responses make any difference?) found examiners scored handwritten content more highly than typed. The same content, the same words, but one version handwritten, one version typed.

They also judged the typed content to be shorter than the same words written by hand. In some cases, the less legible the handwriting, the better the score.

What might we read into this? If nothing else, it seems people (even hard-faced examiners) warm to handwriting. The content is considered more favourably, it carries more weight.

This should not be a total surprise. Handwriting is an expression of self, we recognise characteristics in cursive swoops and strong full stops. It is easy to write and rewrite a typed sentence on a computer; getting a handwritten line right, in ink, first time, conveys certainty. Our perception, perhaps rightly, is that writing by hand required more effort.

People like handwritten letters. There is a pleasant, tactile response to opening a letter.

In the words of Rachel Syme, author of Syme’s Letter Writer: A Guide to Modern Correspondence:  “I’ve never gotten a letter and have been like, ‘Ugh, another one.’ Never once.”

In the advocacy world, the power of handwritten should be obvious: it cuts through and underlines authenticity. Where the content is subjective, handwriting can strengthen an emotion. How might you use it? Not as a replacement for existing content, but it could certainly complement.

• Thank you note to every customer contributing to your advocacy program, telling them why you appreciated their help
• Sentence from each customer introducing their case study, blog or video story, explaining what the story means to them
• Monthly letter to your senior management outlining things you’ve learned from your customers, and how this makes the business stronger

Handwriting might be slow, it might not be super-scalable, but it can help your message reach and influence more people. It’s good for the writer, and the receiver.

“Your letter, no matter its legibility or coherence, will be met with absolute excitement,” Syme writes. “Whatever you put in the mail, even if it does not rise to the great epistolary heights that you someday hope to emulate, it is still a surprise on its way to enliven someone’s dreary mailbox.”

More: Go see Letters Live, where remarkable letters are read by a diverse array of outstanding performers. Buy one of the Letters of Note books (or the Stanley Chow/Ernest Hemingway print).

Or create a good, new habit and make an old person happy, with Letters Against Isolation.