Lumpy Mail Marketing Strategy – Podcast Episode 156

by | Oct 20, 2021 | Latest, Marketing Strategies, Podcast, Podcast notes, Small Business Help | 0 comments

Hey there, my fabulous listener, welcome to episode 156 of the Small Business Made Simple Podcast.

Thank you for lending me your ears today – I know you have lots of choices, so I sincerely appreciate me being one of them!

If you’re enjoying this podcast – I’d love to you take a screenshot and share it on your socials and tag me in it.  How cool would that be!

Don’t forget you can get the show notes for this podcast at www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/156

Over the past few weeks, I’ve headed back to Clubhouse – a social media app that was all the rage in Australia just under 12 months ago but, for most of us, we’ve forgotten about it.

But hopping back on with Tracy Sheen (who you met on episode 149) I realised that I still love it and probably need to put more time into it.

But it isn’t Clubhouse that I wanted to chat about this week.  What I want to chat to you about is a marketing strategy that we discussed on Clubhouse on Monday.

Oh, and if you’re keen before I forget, Trace and I are hanging out at Clubhouse on Mondays at 12 noon AEDST.

What was the strategy – LUMPY MAIL!

Yep, lumpy mail!

Perhaps you’ve just said “I’ve never heard of it” or “omgoodness I haven’t thought about lumpy mail for so long”.

So, what’s lumpy mail – just in case you don’t know – it’s mail with a lump!

Snail mail – not email!

It’s the lump that goes the attention – who doesn’t open a parcel or letter with a lump!

But it doesn’t have to be a lump, some of the most successful marketing campaigns that I did back in my retail days were done in bright pink snail mail envelopes.

Tell me a person who wouldn’t be curious enough to open a bright pink, handwritten, envelope address to them?

I bet you can’t!

Because, well, also, who doesn’t love a freebie in the mail!

So if you’re wanting a 99% deliverability rate and a 100% open rate – then lumpy mail is your saviour or your best shot as far as marketing goes!

And it is the curiosity that makes it work so well.

Curiosity gets the open, curiosity gets the mail opened and read – but, of course, it’s the message inside that will convert or not convert to a sale.

So, although lumpy mail will get you the result you want to open and read, it’s not magic!  What’s inside has to be a strong enough call to action to create, well, action!

It’s like a Facebook paid marketing strategy.  You run a traffic objective ad but it fails to get you sales.

The traffic ad worked, it got traffic to your landing page or website, just like you asked it, but it’s what they landed on that failed to convert them into sales.

Ok, so let me give you some examples of lumpy mail campaigns I’ve done, seen done or helped clients in the past work through.  Hopefully, something might inspire you!

  1. A small bar of soap – cold calling piece of mail – you don’t know me from a bar of soap
  2. Gold painted rock – you might have struck gold (having a bit of fun with a serious topic)
  3. Kitchen Timer – the time is now to purchase your new cookware
  4. Fridge magnet with cooking conversions on it – about measuring your cake success (for a cake decorating shop)
  5. Stress balls in the shape of an aeroplane – to fly high with success in leadership
  6. Teabag – rest up and have a cuppa with me as you read xxx
  7. A key – the key to success/life/happiness
  8. Calculator – according to my calculations
  9. Balloons – time to blow your belief in xxx
  10. Hammers – there are two ways to solve this problem a hammer or (business line)
  11. Red Bull can – bring it on!
  12. Donuts – Donut know what I’d do without you

Oh, there’s so many and for loads and loads of ideas just search on Pinterest – you’ll be sure to be inspired on there.

Did you get inspired?

But let’s head back from the creative part of lumpy mail – aka the lump – back to the why and the goals of such a marketing strategy.

Having a goal and knowing what success of a campaign like this looks like is so important.

Obvious success would be sales of whatever you are selling, booking calls – if that’s the bait and having people just reaching out appreciating the thought that went into it – community building (they might even show on their socials – brand awareness.

But you DO need a goal and a measure of success.

And like I said the success isn’t the lump – it’s the copy that goes with it.

The lumpy bit should relate in some way to the written copy that’s with the lump.  I’ve kind of given examples above of that.

The copy and entire project should be on-brand for you – no use sending something that is so out of the box for you and it doesn’t align with your brand or isn’t relatable for your audience.

Like, perhaps for me, sending a golf ball and talking about a business mulligan – which is a second chance to perform an action, best known in golf, if none of my clients knows this as a golf term or what a mulligan is – because I’ll have to explain it to them before it makes sense.

Kind of missing the mark.

I’d be better off sending a kitchen timer saying “times up for bad marketing” – the call to action of course being “chat to me and let’s get your marketing sorted!”

So, set goals.

Set outcomes for success.

Understand what the end goal is and start with the end in mind (like most marketing activities should be), come up with the lumpy mail concept and the action-driven copy to go with it and test and measure!

Test and measure is very important – as it is in all marketing strategies, but this one can be more costly than some.

There’s the price of the lump, postage, printing etc – so it’s important to not send to 1000 people without knowing you are going to get the result you want and deserve.

I always recommend you do it in increments – perhaps pick 20 (or 10%) of your VIP/best customers and send it out to them – measure the success.

Then, perhaps 20 (or again 10%) of your most unengaged audience members, measure the success – make sure it wasn’t a false positive with sending it to your VIPs because they already love you.

If successful, consider widening the net.

If not as successful as you like, tinker, polish and resend!

Are you keen?

I love lumpy mail for all sorts of reasons.  Many I’ve already said, like 99% open rates, brand awareness, personality marketing and of course, standing out from the crowd!

Who does snail mail these days?  If you want to stand out in your crowded and noisy marketplace, perhaps it’s time to consider lumpy mail!

The embarrassing truth is, it’s one of the most underutilised marketing strategies out there – because, as I said, no one thinks about snail mail anymore.

It’s almost a classic marketing strategy that’s a little old fashioned compared to modern digital marketing strategies.

What lumpy mail strategy can you think of for your business?  What do you need more customers or clients to do?

Start with the end in mind!

I’d love to hear your thoughts on lumpy mail!

Let me know in my Like Minded Business Owners group if this podcast episode brought anything up for you?  Or made your mindset shift a little when it comes to a different marketing strategy.  I’d love to hear what you thought.

Or if you want to book a discovery call where we can see how I can help you further, brainstorm your ideas – do that!  Go to: http://bit.ly/Discoverwithjenn

But that’s it for ep 156. 

If you’re enjoying this podcast, which if you have listened to here – you hopefully are, don’t forget to subscribe, share this episode with another superstar business owner who’s doing the daily grind and would appreciate someone making their business simpler, and leave a rating or review to show how much you are loving this free weekly content.

Massive love coming your way if you do!

See you next week on the podcast for episode 157.  But in the meantime, let’s hang out on social and get social on social – you’ll find me on Instagram, Facebook and my fav LinkedIn.

But whatever you do,

……..remember small business peeps, as my opening song says, there’s no point in dreaming small!

 

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Brilliant – it’s on its way – thanks!

 

Brilliant – it’s on its way – thanks!

 

Brilliant – it’s on its way – thanks!

 

Brilliant – it’s on its way – thanks!

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