A Free Gift Inside
For years, I loved Cracker Jacks. You get a great product and a surprise inside. Now, when I opened my new Bluetooth headsets, I also got a free gift inside.
I bought a pair of SoundPEATS headphones with the built-in magnet design and Bluetooth compatibility (I’d give them 4 starts by the way). There was a little booklet inside that said I received “something special for me, A GIFT.” If I join their community they will extend my warranty by 6 additional months. Not bad. But as a marketer, I was mostly impressed with this statement, “Thank you for ordering from Us. If you like our product, apart from leaving a review on Amazon to encourage us, you can also…blah, blah, blah.”
I like that they asked for the review and gave a good reason, the why, to “help encourage us.” Most companies ask for the review, but don’t give you a solid reason. This company is providing the WHY and providing a value if you join their community. Well done.
By the way, this is not a paid endorsement. I received no compensation for my review or blog on these headphones. I just like them and their corporate culture.
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.