What Was In Your Mailbox over the Holidays?
We received a smattering of catalogs, but our mailbox seemed to be surprisingly much lighter this holiday season.
Gallup conducted a perception study about American reactions to receiving different types of mail last year. Here are the results:
- A letter from someone you know, 97% very positive or positive or neutral (only 3% very negative or negative)
- A catalog, 70% neutral to very positive
- Letter from a business, 64% neutral to very positive
- Advertising card, 45% neutral to very positive
As Gallup points out, “in a world of email, texts and social media, 41 percent of Americans nevertheless look forward to checking what is in their mailbox each day.”
According to Gallup’s conclusion from its research, “the deluge of electronic email, texting and social media updates…may mean that a ‘fresh’ way of communicating may have increasingly unique value.”
I know I shouldn’t use my own experiences as a guide, but this year I unsubscribed from businesses that I enjoy doing business with due to the too frequent emails filling my inbox. And these are brands I really like.
What all this could mean is that old-fashioned mail may see, as Gallup calls it, “a renaissance” in the coming years.
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle.
After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant.
He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.”
Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.”
One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College.
Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board.
Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.