Anyone working in growth knows the drill – you’re spinning multiple plates, juggling the pipeline, supporting on live pitches, trying to grow existing clients and trying to keep the marketing tap running. It’s a constant balance between short-term hustle and the long game.
But over the last year, it’s become loud and clear just how noisy it is out there. Marketers are being hit from all sides – open LinkedIn and it’s a blur of thought leadership, events, roundtables, podcasts series…all genuinely good stuff. But from our side, staying relevant and front of mind across the year is tough.
So, the big question became: how do we stay visible and interesting outside of our usual events and marketing activity?
That’s when we decided to go a bit old-school – physical mailers.
Before Covid, physical DM was a big part of our strategy – and they worked. But when everything shifted online and offices emptied out, we parked them. Fast forward to now. Then we thought – hang on… when was the last time a client got something fun through the post? And honestly… it’s been a game-changer.
People might not be in the office every day, but when something tangible lands on their desk – it gets noticed. It gets talked about. It puts a smile on their face. And sometimes, it even makes its way home to the kids. (Kevin the Carrot definitely helps with that).
We took our proudest work, best proof points – like Aldi’s social transformation and our effectiveness story – and packaged them up in a way that was fun and interesting.
The response? Really good. It started conversations, opened doors, landed meetings -and even got us a few unexpected briefs (we still had to pitch of course). But best of all, prospects came to us – without the usual chase.
DM takes time and effort. It needs thought, care and craft. But if done well, it can work just as hard as any event or roundtable you’ve got in the calendar.
It’s not about gimmicks though. It’s about creating and sending something that’s thoughtful, relevant and genuinely worth opening.
Mix things up… Not everyone tunes into your podcast. Not everyone turns up to your event. So, build a plan with variety. Test things.