There’s one thing I put off every day — getting the mail.
Pretty ridiculous, right? We’re not even one of those houses in a remote place where you have to run down a dusty dirt road to get to the mailbox. Nor are we in a cookie-cutter neighborhood with a joint mailbox for everyone to collect for some water cooler chat while casually thumbing through envelopes.
Our mailbox is at the end of the driveway.
Sure, the driveway is a little bit long, but it’s not that long for me to make an excuse every day of not sauntering 50 feet to grab the stack of envelopes from the locked box.
Don’t even get me started on my P.O. Box, which is undoubtedly overflowing. I only check that thing when I’m expecting a check.
As reference, here’s a picture of the not-too-long driveway I hesitate going down just to get mail (taken during a rare Arizona snowfall earlier this year — something I’m missing now with this heat).
When I finally check the mail, I sort it as I mozy back up the driveway.
Card from my sister-in-law for the kids, front stack.
New bill statement, middle stack.
Another new bill statement, middle stack.
Current Resident, back stack to immediately toss in the recycle bin on my way to the kitchen.
Success leaves clues.
So often, those clues go unnoticed.
Clues like which mail goes to the front pile and which mail goes to the back pile.
It seems so simple. Sorting out the junk mail is something nearly everyone does, and yet…
… when it comes to marketing, we often mimic the approach of the stack that gets tossed into the recycle bin than the one that gets put in the front stack.
Rather than a 4x6-inch envelope hand-decorated with swirls and undoubtedly containing some sort of confetti inside (thank you, Ashley ;)), many small business owners send a gloss-printed flyer with bright colors, cheesy photos, and dotted rectangular lines surrounding percentage signs that cheapen the brand.
Rather than taking advantage of the benefit of being an entrepreneur, where you can get personal, build relationships with buyers, and make your content feel like something you’d want to open, you try a more impersonal approach for the sake of professionalism (ugh).
There’s a better way to get attention on your business.
Whether you send direct mail or email, there’s a better way to move your business’s communications to the front of the stack — and it’s not a more flashy design.
It’s your writing.
Take note of which emails you keep and which you delete.
Chances are, the emails you keep are the ones that feel directly relatable to you. They’re the ones with your name in the subject line. They’re the ones that hold a message you know will be relatable on some level. They’re the ones written by a human. They’re the ones that are a little bit messier, so you can read it with your hair down and not fall into a comparison trap. They’re the ones that teach you something new and leave your life a little bit better than before you left it.
A personal touch goes a long way in marketing.
In today’s lifeless world, your audience craves your personal touch. Your audience wants to know the person writing to them, wants to hear your stories, and wants to connect with you in the same way they’d connect with a friend they met up with for coffee so they could pick their brain about something.
Your marketing needs more of you.
I’ve been working hard on this behind the scenes during my shifts with the Roadpreneur brand: helping others develop a campfire-level connection rather than a copy-and-paste approach to their marketing.
Because it’s not just about having a list to sell to when you have something to offer…
… it’s about having people who will drag your emails to the Primary folder on Google, put your letters in the front stack, and who will hit reply and share a quip with you every time you hit send.
Start sending letters instead of mail and watch what happens.
~ Kimberly
P.S. Want help knowing what to send and adding pops of personality to your brand so your emails actually get read? Put your name on the waitlist for when doors to the Content Creation Lab open back up. It’s happening in just a few short weeks but only for a quick 48 hours and I don’t want you to miss out!