We have recently embarked on a new marketing venture. Rather than relying on spamming old and potential clients' inboxes, we decided to take the somewhat novel approach of sending them individual care packages. Within each small Prirority Mail box we included a Summit Management Services coffee mug, 20-year planner, Summit brochure and personalized hand-written note.

Since many of our clients have moved on from where we worked with them previously, once we re-connected on LinkedIn, we'd look up their company's address and send them the box as a surprise. If we don't receive a response within 2 weeks, we'll follow up with a phone call just to touch base.

In about six weeks, of the boxes that have actually made to their intended targets, we have received a pretty good response rate. Not enough of a sample size to compare the effectiveness of a corporate mailroom to a spam filter, but enough to know people still appreciate thoughtful and considerate snail mail packages, even those with a slightly ulterior marketing motive.

Ironically, during a small business conference we happened to attend this week, one of the speakers - a marketing expert - extolled the virtures of exactly what we were doing! His exact quote was, "The most least cluttered inbox is the old-fashioned mailbox." He then went on to describe how his most effective technique, expecially for small firms, was to do what the billion-dollar behemoths could not, namely take the time to send personalized packages and handwritten (no matter how sloppy) notes.

We'll keep you posted on how well this endeavor works ourt for us over the coming months. If you'd like to become a new client that will eventually be an old client we'll be sending care packages to, give us a call today.

Summit Management Services has been empowering our clients to have consistently successful meetings for over three decades. Schedule a meetings analysis today by calling our President Joe Lipman at (973) 239-4005 or email joe@summitmgt.com.