Should you use lumpy mail?
Lumpy mail works. But does it make sense for you?
And if it does, how can you use it to get the best results possible?
On this page you will see some of the best ways to use lumpy mail.
As you read through these strategies, you will be able to understand which (if any) make sense for you.
Lumpy mail strategies
Depending on your current sales & marketing activity, there are a few ways in which you can use lumpy mail. These are some of the ways in which we have found lumpy mail works best:
The Dream Non-Responder Strategy
The Dream 100 Strategy
Hands-Up Prospects
Ghostbuster Strategy
The Dream Non-Responder Strategy
If you’re already using other outreach channels—LinkedIn, cold calling, emails—you’ll likely already have, what we call “dream non-responders”, but may not know it.
Dream non-responders are the people/businesses who you would love to work with, would be worth a lot to you (aka dream clients), but who, for one reason or another, never respond to you.
They don’t have answer unknown calls, they get tons of emails clogging up their inbox, and it can be incredibly difficult to get through to them.
But, you don’t want them to go to waste… So, what do you do?
You use lumpy mail.
We use this approach ourselves. We sent between 10-20 coconuts every single week to dream non-responders.
It’s a simple process, that just takes a bit of time to be dedicated to it each week.
Go through your “non-responders”, and pick out the “dream” ones. We send LinkedIn messages, so we just look through the people who haven’t replied, click on their profiles, and if they’re suitable, we get their company name and address and put them onto a Google Sheet. (If you have a decent CRM system, you can probably do this in a super quick & simple way.)
Pick a lumpy mail campaign that fits a pain point they have. We send coconuts, because “Getting more customers can be a tough nut to crack…”.
Write your copy—we keep these message short, but you don’t have to— and we choose to send this as a handwritten note:
“You probably don't remember, but I reached out to you on LinkedIn not so long ago. Unsurprisingly, you didn’t respond…
It goes to show, sometimes it takes a little more than a cold message or email to get through to your "dream" clients…
So if finding ways to stand out & get in front of your highest-value prospects is your “toughest nut to crack”…
I might just have the answer.
Chloe :)
P.s. You’d be cocoNUTS not to give me a call.”
4. Of course, we handwrite these messages & send them out for you… and then once you can see they have been delivered on the tracking link, wait 1-5 working days, and then follow up!
The Dream 100 Strategy
This is one of the most powerful strategies you can use. It gives you the greatest chances to get through to your absolute DREAM clients—The biggest businesses who, if you only got one of them, would make a HUGE difference to your business. Both from the money in the bank perspective, and the credibility it gives you to work with such a brand.
It takes time & effort. It takes patience & dedication. But it is incredibly worth it.
This strategy was coined by Chet Holmes, in a great book called The Ultimate Sales Machine. If you’d like to hear the full story, you should read the book, but to simplify it:
Chet Holmes discovered that in his audience of around 2,000 companies, about 100 of them were responsible for the vast majority of the deals done in the market. This is commonly known as the 80:20 rule; The Pareto Law.
Chet decided to go all-in on these top accounts, sending them direct mail once a month, and following up each time with a phone call.
This is what you do:
Create your Dream 100 list - identify the companies who would be worth the most to you, who you’d love to work with. Make a list of these. You don’t need to do 100 straight away. It depends on your goals, budget, and capacity. We reach 25 of our dream clients each quarter, aiming to get meetings with 8 of them.
Plan your multi-step campaign. As a member of The Lumpy Mail Shop, you have access to our best-performing, tried & tested campaigns to choose from, and you can use our members-only guide on “How to Pick The Right Items”
In month 1, you will send your first batch of lumpy mail to your audience. and then follow them up (we also have a members-only guide on How To Follow Up). Anyone who you haven’t spoken to, move to step 4.
In month 2, anyone who haven’t yet spoken to, send your second batch of lumpy mail, and then… follow up! Again, anyone who doesn’t respond, move to step 5.
At this point, you’ll be sending your 3rd batch of items. Depending what these dream clients are worth to you and how much you are prepared to invest to get through to them, you may choose to stop the monthly mailers after 3 months, continue for 6 months, or even keep going for a full year! Chet Holmes got his first deal after 5 months… but it was worth $500,000!
If you choose to stop after 3 months, I would still recommend sending something to these people once a quarter afterwards - this also applies to people who have responded, who you have spoken to, but maybe aren’t ready to use your services right now.
Hands-Up Prospects
If you do inbound marketing, ads, email newsletters etc, where you get a list of people who have shown some interest in your services at some point…
These can be great people to send lumpy mail to.
It’s a similar approach to the dream responder campaign, except it’s easier, since they have shown interest already.
So you have to do something that stands out to them, catches their attention, and pulls on their emotions, touches on their pains/desires, and compels them to contact you now.
I personally prefer longer copy for this. I have great success even with 3-5 page sales letters! You don’t need to use copy this long—you have to be very good at writing copy to write copy that is this long and effective—I just prefer it for myself.
Ghostbuster Strategy
What’s more annoying than an audience not responding?
Someone responding, showing interest, and then disappearing. Ghosting!
That’s what this strategy is all about - re-engaging those “ghosts”.
It’s not an easy one to do. Usually these people have hidden objections/obstacles, that you don’t necessarily know.
You have to put yourself in their shoes, try to connect with their pains/desires, and overcome their potential obstacles.
One way to do this is humour. Simply using humour can break down barriers and open them up (Mostly if you' only made it to early stage conversations before they disappeared)
Another way, is with proof. Case studies. Evidence that what you sell works.
A third way is to paint a picture of what they might miss out on.
We sent messages in bottles to say “I travelled around the world looking for you, but no matter what I try, I haven’t heard from you!”
We’ve sent custom vinyl records to say “I don’t want to sound like a stuck record sending you email after email… if you’re ready to make some hit (sales) records, give me a call.
A client of ours sends boxes with empty teabag wrappers inside, with a note to say “Since we last spoke, 52 days have gone by… Based on our average client results, you could have sat [x] meetings over a cuppa by now if you had been working with us…”
To wrap up…
There are tonnes of different ways you can use lumpy mail.
The important thing is to find the way that makes the most sense to you.