Do You Get More Email Than Me?
It’s the new brag comparison in business. Who gets more email in a day? Sorry I missed your email, but I’m wanted because I get a ton of email in a day.
Because I’m one of the owners of AMPERAGE Marketing & Fundraising, I’ve always used my work email for everything. That’s a mistake. Besides a work email, I’m told I should have a shopping email, a signup for promotions email, a spam email and a home email. So I do get a “ton” of email. I’ve always loved to count things, so I averaged the emails I receive while I’m writing blogs. I’m receiving 10 emails per hour. Some estimate we see 5,000 messages a day. Others say 10,000. After 1,000, what does it matter?
Many have said that personalization is the key. However, more than one-third of U.S. consumers say they unsubscribe from all or most brands that invite them to sign up for personalized messages. It doesn’t matter how personalized the message; if you get too many, you will unsubscribe. The other half of unsubscribers say the personalized messages didn’t match their taste or the communications were “creepy.”
So back to my email. If I’m gone all day doing interviews for a marketing plan, I will have around 100 emails to sort through. The clutter busters are not the personalized emails. They are not ones with tricky subject lines. They are the messages that offer something I want. How do you know what I want? That is why you hire a good marketing firm with a research department.
If you want to win the email contest and get hundreds more email, one piece of advice: Have your work email as the contact email for all of your credit cards, shopping rewards clubs and airline frequent flyer programs. You’ll win.
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.
