This edition talks about why you should read spam and what you can learn from it. Here's how to Open, Blink and Think.

Spam, spam, spam. I love spam.

Since I have a company website, I get the gift of other spam too. This is probably no surprise to you. What is a surprise is that I’m talking about it so fondly. I bet you’re even a little concerned that I’m genuinely interested in it (ok. a few of you probably think I’m loco). In fact, I’m not only interested in it, I’m appreciative of it. SPAM is marketing plain and simple. I notice it and I notice what parts of it catch my attention. As a marketer – I know that’s important. It’s always important for me to know what marketing tactics are being used and what’s working. And as scary as SPAM can be, as a business owner, it’s important for you to know what gets noticed. Consumers get presented with a mountain of information – knowing what gets their attention is critical.

So for spam, I notice if it’s plain text, or graphical. I notice if it’s black and white or color. I notice if they address it to me, or if they use a generic salutation. Noticing emails is what I do – I’m an email marketer. And today is your lucky day! I can teach you how to do this too.

Here’s what you need to do:

First, I want you to start reading SPAM and other companies E-newsletters.

Notice what gets noticed.

Notice what’s important.

Be an active reader.

Here’s how:

(read the instructions first then go to your email and read)

That is: open it, take a quick look and then close your eyes.

What do you remember?

And in what order did you see it?  (are your eyes still closed?)

What jumped off the page first? What thought are you left with?

Whether you have an existing E-Newsletter, or if you are just thinking about starting one – this technique will show you what’s important on the page. It’s something like a webpage, but it has its own special attributes. And once you start to notice these attributes that get your attention, you can start to incorporate them into your E-Newsletters.

What you should do is:  Open, Blink, Think.