Practical Sales Training™ > How To Get Attention > Lumpy Mail
Lumpy Mail
What Is It
Post arrives every day looking exactly the same. Flat, white, forgettable, and binned half read.
Lumpy Mail breaks that pattern on purpose. It’s direct mail shaped, sized, or packed so it doesn’t look like a normal letter at all. The goal is simple. Get noticed, get opened, and get remembered, because it refuses to blend in with the rest of the pile.
Why Does It Work
It works because curiosity is hard to switch off. So when something arrives that doesn’t look or feel normal, your hand notices before your brain does.
Think about a world of endless identical emails and flat white envelopes. A lumpy one creates a real physical moment of interest. That moment makes your message far more likely to get opened, read, and remembered. So it also gives you a far better shot at an actual response.
How Can You Use It
Pick The Right Moment
Pick a moment where Lumpy Mail earns its cost. Following up with warm leads, sending a creative proposal, or re-engaging a quiet client all work well. So the novelty justifies the effort in each case.
Add Something Small And Surprising
Include something small but surprising inside. A keyring, a dice, a tea bag, or a custom object tied to your message all work. Each one creates the bulge that gets someone curious before they’ve even opened it.
Layer On A Personal Touch
Add a handwritten note or an unusual envelope colour on top. Neither costs much, but both increase the impact, since a small personal touch reads as effort rather than mass production.
When It Works Best
Lumpy Mail earns its place with warm contacts, not cold lists. So it works best on people who already know your name, since the surprise lands as thoughtful rather than intrusive.
When It Becomes Dangerous
It becomes dangerous when the object inside feels random or pointless. So a gimmick with no connection to your message just confuses the buyer instead of intriguing them.
Common Mistakes
Sending Something Random
Sending Lumpy Mail with no real link to your message. The object needs to mean something, so a random trinket rarely earns the attention it costs to send.
Overspending On Novelty
Overspending on the novelty instead of the message. The mailer gets it opened, but the words inside still have to do the actual selling.
Using It Too Often
Using it too often on the same contact. The surprise fades fast with repetition, so save it for the moments that genuinely need to cut through.
Lumpy Mail – An Example
Black And White Christmas Cards
I send black and white Christmas cards to clients and contacts, which is genuinely unusual. It always gets noticed, since it’s about the least Christmassy card most people receive that year.
Everyone else sends red and gold. Mine stands out purely by refusing to look festive at all. That contrast alone earns it a second glance most cards never get.
See also:
- The Bizarreness Effect
- Communication Preference
- 100+ ways to seize buyer attention
- 100+ ways to be more memorable
Hat tip to Sam Ovens for the inspiration.
