Is Your Mail Lumpy Too?

Hi, Rick Nuske here.

Today I want to introduce you to the world of “3-D mail marketing”.

And if by chance you already know what 3-D mail marketing is all about, let me know how you use it in the comments box below.

What is 3-D mail? Well, it’s simply a way for savvy marketers to get the undivided attention of their target market in a memorable way. 3-d mail marketing is also known in marketing circles as ‘lumpy mail’. Regardless of what you call it, it basically means a physical piece of mail that is not flat and will stand out from the normal mail your lead would normally receive in their letter box.

To be effective, your physical 3-D marketing strategy must be used in conjunction with a few supporting steps including email sequencing to first qualify your lead before sending them one of your physical packages. After all, you don’t want to send a 3-D package to people who are not interested in what you have to offer as that would be a waste of both your time and money.

So how do you set up 3-D mail? Well, it’s really a matter of first working out what you intend to send in the mail that stirs your target market’s interest and desire. From there, it about arranging a service provider to supply and deliver your chosen 3-d mail to selected mailing addresses. 

But before you send out your package, you will need to do a bit of groundwork using a good ol’ email campaign first. So winding back right to the start, your basic strategy with 3-D mail marketing includes having a well-defined email campaign, an appropriately selected ‘lumpy’ mail item, and often a follow up call sequence to make sure your lead still qualifies to receive it.

With regard to your email campaign, you will need to spend time putting together some specific email copy based around your main sales letter copy for the product you’re promoting. Your emails sequence will basically be your sales letter copy broken up into a number of equal parts to send over the same number of consecutive days via your email auto-responder.

The second part of this strategy that I use includes writing a hand written version of your sales letter that is packaged along with your chosen lumpy mail item. As an example, if you were promoting a dental gel for dogs that whitens and strengthens their teeth, your lumpy mail might include a rubber doggy bone with a message written on it relating to the problems associated with poor dental care for dogs.

You might want to use a follow up phone call as a way to do a final qualification check on your leads so you don’t end up sending out lumpy mail to those who are not qualified to receive it. An example might be that they don’t have a dog and were just making a general enquiry when they opted in for more information about whitening gel for dogs. As lumpy mail can be quite expensive you want to make sure you only send it to truly qualified leads.

The beauty of 3-d mail is that it cannot be ignored. Another way to make your 3-D mail package stand out even more is by making it look like something relating to your chosen target market. So in using the whitening gel example for dogs, you could send your lumpy mail in a doggy bone carry bag, or you could send a real dog collar inside a suitably sized envelope. What you choose to send is limited only by what you can imagine and source.

When setting up your 3-D mail, it’s important to communicate the importance of opening this package immediately upon arrival…by making this statement, you have escalated the importance of your mail over all other mail received alongside your delivery. And the use of a WARNING message in red type is a good way to get the attention you want.

From there, when the person open’s their parcel, they are immediately confronted with a piece of 3-D mail that’s not only fun, it’s also relevant to their interests. This heightened interest sparks further curiosity and they go on to read your sales letter on whitening gel for dogs.

As is the case with all good sales letter copy, there’s a strong call to action for them to complete an action. That might be to visit your website and enter their email for more information on whitening gel for dogs, or signing and returning an order form to actually order the whitening gel.

Now with 3-D mail, the cost of acquiring a new customer using this method can add up. That said, remember that the cost of acquiring a customer can be offset against the average lifetime value of each customer. This is a metric that you should already be familiar with before venturing into the use of 3-D mail.

This basically means that following the successful conversion of your lead into a paying customer, you will have and promote higher dollar value offers to your new customer. This will not only help you break even on your customer acquisition cost, it will position you to go on to make profitable sales from this same customer in the future.

Your use of lumpy mail is about making a massive statement to your lead in a physical sense. And this statement is backed up with your compelling message about the product that you’re promoting. With this strategy you will have given your customer an unexpected but pleasant experience which leaves an indelible mark in your customers mind. From that point on, every time they hear about your business, they will remember you as the one who sent them the doggy bone bag in the mail which makes you more than a little different than most marketers. And that little bit of difference can make a big difference to your bottom line.

If this is new to you, let me know how you would use 3-D mail in your business in the comments box below.