My Lumpy Mail Piece

Paul,

So Halbert, Kennedy, Glazer and Lee are all wrong?

Never conclude the connection doesn't matter. Every piece of your mailer must connect because every part in your mailer is relavent.

Remember our opinions are not facts. Results from split testing reveal how effective your campaign outcome was.

Once that campaign is over review the results, tweek it and send back out to test again.

An oversight or dismissal of any part of your direct mail piece will cost you sales had every piece not been sown together.

Just to be clear, the reason I mentioned it had nothing to do with wit.

I also should clarify that I too am just getting started with lumpy mail, after having read about it, so I am not claiming any personal authority, other than the fact that I've read at least 4 good sources on the topic.

Those sources, which I recommend, include Bill Glazer's chapter on the subject in his book, "Outrageous Advertising...", as well as in articles you can find in the newsletter and on the website of our local Glazer/Kennedy group leader, who also sells Dan Kennedy all of his lumpy mail trinkets, and I recall some of Dan Kennedy's words on the subject.

If you're interested, the lumpy mail guy, Travis Lee, is a great resource on the topic, as well as a source for a bunch of different items that work well, and he even has a training course that includes a bunch of letters that tested well for different niches, to be adapted as you like. I am not a paid shill, just a customer and fan. His website is: 3DMail

Every one of my sources made a big point about how each lumpy mail campaign's effectiveness is closely tied to how well you connected the message to the lumpy piece.

I also was keenly aware of the great marketing lesson I was getting when Travis used it on me, which is what got me interested in the first place, because it did make me take notice in a big way; he used a plastic corked bottle with a scroll in it (message in a bottle), a vinyl bank deposit bag, a pill bottle, boomerang, etc, each time with a message connecting his reason for mailing with the object itself.

You don't need to be a comedian; it's pretty easy to do; such as a pill bottle with a "prescription for increased profits", or a boomerang sent to straying customers with a "please come back" message. I think the message in a bottle implied I was "lost at sea", which to me is not that clever, So I think the main thing is just that it connects in some way people can understand; I don't think anyone needs to be Seinfeld funny to do a successful campaign.

Anyway, I am pretty sure those guys all did a ton of testing to prove their premise, and the reason it seems to work so well is not that people are knocked out by the wit (although the stuff does tend to get a laugh, or at least a grin, out of most people, due I think, to the novelty), but because it answers the question that naturally comes to mind when you get something unexpected "why did he send me a boomerang (or Frisbee).

But you have already taken action, so kudos, and I bet you get enough response to make it worthwhile; like you said, it will get opened. But I also bet you'll have even more success the next time, if you do connect the object to the message.