Darren Jamieson: [00:14] On this week’s episode of The Engaging Marketeer, I’m going to talk about something I’ve not covered before. It’s not really something you would expect somebody in digital marketing to talk about because it has nothing to do with digital marketing whatsoever. In fact, it could not be further apart from digital marketing if you tried.
Darren Jamieson: [00:32] It’s about physical media and it’s about sending things through the post. When I first got a job back in the early 2000s, whatever it was at GAME, digital marketing was a relatively new thing. People were not buying from the internet as their first port of call. They would go to a physical shop, or they would phone up and order from a catalogue.
Darren Jamieson: [00:57] They would have a physical catalogue, phone up, and place an order through it. When we first started, that catalogue was pretty much 50/50 with the website. Phone orders were on a par with the website because that’s the way people used to do business 25 years ago. That’s how they used to shop.
Darren Jamieson: [01:18] Then came digital television, and we thought people were going to buy stuff through their TV. That never really took off because the internet just completely skyrocketed and took everything out of the equation.
Darren Jamieson: [01:29] But if you go back to the idea of physical media, the catalogue book, some of you listening may remember things like the Argos catalogue if you’re from the UK. A big physical book full of loads of stuff that you would circle what you wanted. It was good to have something in your hand.
Darren Jamieson: [01:45] Now we are in this digital world of websites and social media and apps, and quite frankly, I’m responsible for some of it. I’ll hold my hands up.
Darren Jamieson: [02:01] There’s been a big loss in physical media and getting something physical in your hands. People turn to email marketing as a way of getting in touch with people. I don’t know about you, but my email inbox, if I go away for two days and come back, there’s usually about 150 to 200 emails in there. By and large, I ignore most of them.
Darren Jamieson: [02:18] If you are emailing me, please understand I’m not ignoring you. I’m ignoring all of it. Email marketing has lost a little bit of its sparkle because it’s oversaturated.
Darren Jamieson: [02:34] What I find really effective right now is going back to what people were doing in the early 2000s, or the 90s and the 80s and the 70s. Physical media through the post. It’s not something many people do, which is why it works so well.
Darren Jamieson: [02:50] I sparked the idea for this podcast because I had a physical sit down one to one with somebody last week. I sat down with this chap, spoke to him for about an hour and a half, maybe two hours. We talked a lot and had a great conversation about what he has done within his business.
Darren Jamieson: [03:08] I’m going to get him as a future guest on this podcast. His name is Matt Bennett. Great guy, really interesting guy, and his story is phenomenal about how he had this business that lost millions and millions of pounds. I will not give you the story now. I will let him tell you that when he comes on as a guest.
Darren Jamieson: [03:27] And just today, I received something through the physical post. If you’re listening to this on iTunes, you’re going to experience none of this marvel. I received this little parcel through the post.
Darren Jamieson: [03:41] It says, Especially for you, including a wink from the postman. I did not know what that was, and I thought, is that something a bit dodgy that I’ve ordered from one of those websites? I have a tendency to do that, with a wink from the postman.
Darren Jamieson: [03:57] Luckily there’s no one in the office right now, so I was able to open it without any fear of something popping out that I really did not want other people to see. But I did not need to worry because it was not something I’d ordered.
Darren Jamieson: [04:08] If I open this and hold it up again, if you’re on iTunes or Spotify you cannot see any of this. This is the parcel I received. For those listening, it is a lovely red box. Inside the red box there is a blue chocolate bar with Great to meet you on it. It has the logo for Nordstrom Advisory right in the middle, which is Matt’s business.
Darren Jamieson: [04:37] Matt helps people with their business. He advises people on how to not make the same mistakes that he made. It’s a lovely big, thick, chunky chocolate bar that I got through the post that I was not expecting. Matt sent it. I thought, that’s brilliant. That’s lovely to get.
Darren Jamieson: [04:53] If more people did that, it would help you remember what you talked about. It would help build relationships.
Darren Jamieson: [05:00] And because I’m the kind of guy that I am, the first thing I did when I got it through the post was take a photo of it and share it on social media. I tagged him in, so other people see, this is Matt Bennett from Nordstrom. This is what he does. He has one to ones with people and sends them chocolate bars.
Darren Jamieson: [05:19] More people are going to want to have one to ones with Matt Bennett, I’m sure. Not just to get a chocolate bar, but to find out about him and his business. Again, he’s going to come on as a guest on the podcast later on, early in 2026.
Darren Jamieson: [05:37] He’s got that extra coverage from having a one to one that you would not normally get.
Darren Jamieson: [05:41] This is something we do at Engage Web as well. We send physical stuff through the post. Whenever somebody becomes a client of ours and they take on a website with Engage Web, one of our Fresh Start websites, which is £99 a month or £165 a month if you have unlimited updates, we do all of it for you.
Darren Jamieson: [06:01] We do the design, we do the build, we write the content, we manage it, we update it. The whole thing is done for you, and it’s just a subscription model. You do not pay huge sums up front like you would with a normal web designer. Any time you want something changed, we handle it for you.
Darren Jamieson: [06:16] When we get a new client for that, we send them one of these. Again, if you are on iTunes or Spotify, you have no idea what I’m doing right now. I’m holding up one of our books that we wrote here at Engage Web called Engage and Grow: 97 Ways to Power Up Your Business.
Darren Jamieson: [06:33] These are available on Amazon. They are very reasonably priced on Amazon right now. I do not know why Amazon has them so cheap, but grab yourself a copy. It’s a massive book. It’s not one of these thin little pamphlets. It is a huge, thick book with 97 different tricks and tips to grow your business via digital marketing.
Darren Jamieson: [06:50] It’s also available on Kindle, by the way. You can get one of those if you buy on Amazon, or you can become a client of Engage Web and we send you one for free. We do not tell you we’re going to send it to you. We just post it out. It’s in our processes.
Darren Jamieson: [07:04] When we have a new client, we take them on for a website. They have their meeting with the designer, with the editor. We do the design. We do the content for the website. They approve it. That then gets built. It goes live.
Darren Jamieson: [07:16] Once the website has been live for a couple of weeks, we send them a book. We send them a free book for them to learn about how they can grow their business without paying Engage Web any more money if they want to do it that way. Or of course, they can look in the book and go, Wow, that’s brilliant. Can you help with that? Yes we can, because it is a business card for your business.
Darren Jamieson: [07:35] What I’m suggesting here, with this slightly excited podcast about getting free chocolate through the post, and thank you Matt for sending that through, is for business owners listening to this to have a think about your own business.
Darren Jamieson: [07:45] What can you do? What can you send to somebody that is a client of yours, or somebody you’ve had a one to one with, or somebody that is a referral partner? What can you send through the post that makes them think of you and thanks them for spending their time with you or spending their money with you?
Darren Jamieson: [08:07] Ideally it is not alcohol because not everybody drinks. Some people are actively against drinking for one reason or another, so it’s advisable you do not do that. But pretty much everybody likes chocolate, and pretty much everybody likes a book, or an audiobook, or something of use for the office.
Darren Jamieson: [08:24] What could you send somebody without them paying for it, without there being a transaction, as just a thank you? Something that is going to make them think about your business and think, That’s really nice. That was a really lovely thought. I’m so glad they thought of me and sent that through.
Darren Jamieson: [08:42] Even better, something that might be branded that they might want to post on social media.
Darren Jamieson: [08:49] And the other angle is, if you really want to go for it, do not send them something branded with your business. Send them something branded with theirs because that’s going the extra mile. If you get something made up branded with their business and send it to them, that’s incredible.
Darren Jamieson: [09:06] We had that a few years ago. Somebody sent us a Christmas decoration made up with all the names of the people from Engage Web on it. We’ve still got that now. It’s in the office. It’s hung up on the tree. I’d pull it down and show it to you, but I’d get told off for dismantling the Christmas tree, so I will not do that.
Darren Jamieson: [09:19] It’s a Christmas decoration made up with all of our names. What a fabulous gift that was, and that was from one of our clients. We should be sending her gifts, not her sending us, but that’s the kind of clients we’ve got. Lovely people.
Darren Jamieson: [09:34] If you are a client of ours and you’ve not sent us a gift yet, you know where we are. We do welcome everything.
Darren Jamieson: [09:39] That’s it for today. It was very quick. It was very ranty. It was very scatter, and I apologise for that.
Darren Jamieson: [09:46] But have a think about what you can do to send your potential clients, your referral partners, people you’ve had a one to one with, something through the post. Physical, lumpy mail, they call it, because that really grabs people’s attention, because so few businesses are doing it right now.
Darren Jamieson: [10:00] So many people are relying on email, or websites, or WhatsApp. Few people are actually sending physical, lumpy stuff through the post.
Darren Jamieson: [10:08] What can you send your potential clients, your referral partners, or people you’ve had one to ones with to thank them and make them think about you?
Darren Jamieson: [10:15] This has been The Engaging Marketeer. Thank you very much for listening, and I will catch you on the next podcast.
