Leaky and Shattered Mail Gifts Were Onto Something, Marketing Leader Says

The returned boxes were leaking in the lobby.

Val Riley, the marketing leader who now runs marketing for landing page builder Unbounce, was then working for SharpSpring, a marketing automation platform built for marketing agencies. It was what Riley called "growth at all costs," which she described as a glorious time to be a marketer, and the plan was simple. Ship something so big and curious that an entire office would crowd around one desk to see it, and turn that attention into a product demonstration.

That logic made sense because SharpSpring had a tight target, independent marketing agencies, and a pricing model that agencies liked. Riley said the team only needed to get agencies to sit for a demo, because once they saw the software and the price, the company was likely to win their business. It was also before COVID, when everyone worked in an office, and before modern mailing services that, to use her example, send a message like, "What's the best address for you?"

So the team shipped root beer kits, complete with ingredients and a small gift certificate, so agency staffs could make root beer floats together. Some of the packages leaked in transit, were sent back, and spilled in SharpSpring's own lobby. Riley joked about all the sticky opportunities around the office.

Another box carried a plant and a little potting soil, under the theme that money grows on trees when agencies used SharpSpring. One recipient opened it at work and got dirt all over her desk. Riley's verdict was blunt: "clearly we're not closing that one," and she later suggested they should have double bagged the soil.

The most ambitious gift started with research. The company hired designers to visit agency websites, copy their logos, redraw them, and print them on glass, along with a note and a small puzzle. Agencies treat their logos as their babies, Riley said, so the hope was that recipients would hang the glass on the wall and agree to a demo. Some arrived intact and produced fun unboxings, but others broke in transit, meaning the company was effectively mailing shards of glass.

A custom Slinky, a coiled toy meant to show that the platform could expand and grow with an agency, brought a nasty reply. The address was incomplete, delivery failed, and one man had to drive to warehouses by the waterfront to collect his package. He got out of his car, found a Slinky, and sent a nasty email saying SharpSpring had wasted his time. There was also a lemonade promotion with very sticky lemonade.

Riley said the company grew rapidly and, in her words, "sold for many, many millions of dollars." She said they were onto something with the aggressive, creative direct mail, even though it came with pitfalls including broken glass, leaky root beer, dirt on a desk, and the trip to the docks.