A Direct Mail Package Guaranteed to be Opened

If you are an author of a printed book on Amazon, you have the unique opportunity to leverage Amazon’s powerful (and irresistible) branding to send a direct mail package to a targeted individual directly (even potentially bypassing “gate keepers”).

If you do any sort of business to business (B2B) marketing and are trying to reach C-level executives or the business owner, you often have to deal with assistants and secretaries who have the responsibility of weeding out mail that reeks of promotion or marketing.

Getting past these gatekeepers has challenged the best marketers in the world in an attempt to get their information in front of the intended target.

If you are the author of a quality, printed book, you have a leverage point your competition probably doesn’t have— you can send your book in a direct mail package.

Smart marketers know that not all direct mail is equal, so let’s look at three different ways a printed book author can send his or her book.

 

1-The most common strategy would be to mail the book in some sort of “off the shelf” envelope or box. This is not bad, but it’s probably going to be checked out by any gatekeeper and the book may or may not get into your intended reader’s hands.

2-A better strategy, and one I have heard Dan Kennedy preach for years, is to send the book via FedEx because a package sent via FedEx must be important. I cannot disagree with this strategy (or any of the other services like UPS, DHL, etc.), but I know for me, sending FedEx packages is a hassle (which is why I use USPS Priority Mail). While I know this strategy works, sending packages via these services is common in the business world, which could result in the package being screened by gatekeepers.

3-A more unique and effective strategy would be tap into the powerful brand and recognition of Amazon.com. What gatekeeper is going to open an Amazon box addressed to his or her boss, and what recipient is going to wait to open it? As of 2020, an Amazon box arriving at your home or business is still a welcomed thing by most people.

While this Amazon book gift strategy does require you to have your printed book available for purchase on Amazon, this is typically not an issue for most B2B book authors.

To leverage this “get attention by sending your printed book as an Amazon gift” strategy, all you need to do is buy a copy of your own book and have it sent as a gift to your recipient. Yes, you will be paying the retail price of the book and incur the cost of gift packaging, but if you are a Prime member, the cost to ship it will be free.

If you have a book on Amazon, I thought it would be helpful to list the steps and show you what the end result looks like.

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To send your book as a gift (steps as of March 2020):

1-Go to your book’s page on Amazon and order a copy of the book by clicking the Add to Cart button.

2-Proceed to checkout.

3-Enter the intended recipient’s mailing address as the shipping address.

4-Choose your payment option.

5-In the Review items and shipping, optionally click the Add a gift receipt button. This will allow you to see the various gift options, including a personalized message. If you want to make the package stand out even more, choose the Gift Bag/Box option.

6-Click the Place your order button to finalize.

Here is what your recipient will receive:

An Amazon shipping box with Amazon as the sender. The last thing this looks like is a promotional or marketing package. If you chose the Gift Bag/Box option, your book will be inserted into a gift bag like this along with your personalized message attached to it.

I think you will agree, this is a powerful way to send your book and if you are an Amazon Prime member, it’s even less costly than FedEx, etc.

The final result? Your book in the hands of your intended reader (in this case my client, Jeff Shamus, CEO and author of the just published shook, White Label CRM Success, which you can get on Amazon here).

Of course, if you have a Kindle or audio version of your book, you can choose those as gifts, but in my opinion, nothing has the dramatic and powerful effective of an Amazon-branded box arriving and your printed book contained within it.