Want to do better than other email marketers? If so, don't be a blue parrot.

If you pay attention, your Inbox can teach you a lot about how people will respond to the marketing emails you send out.

I just received an email from someone whose name I didn't recognize. It had an Aweber unsubscribe link so I followed it and recognized the list name (not the sender's name) as a product I recently purchased.

I unsubscribed anyway, and here's where this little post should become instructive. I unsubscribed because of one thought that popped into my head.

That thought?

There's nothing wrong with sending offers, per se; this isn't about me being cheesed at someone trying to market to me. If I'm a marketer I'd better accept that other people will market to me because we seldom succeed at something we disapprove of -- our subconscious mind will sabotage our efforts so that we don't disapprove of ourselves -- but that's another story.

This is about rising above the masses. This guy sent me an affiliate link and an indistinct pre-sell message.

So what! I get dozens of emails like that every day. He did nothing to distinguish himself from anyone else. He was probably following what he'd been taught, but robotic obedience often isn't very profitable, as many of you may be figuring out.

There was nothing about that email or that person that stands out from a very crowded field of squawking parrots. If there are 99 squawking blue parrots and one squawking red parrot, which parrot stands out?

Hint: If you're not the red parrot, you're just making noise.

The most profitable thing we can do for our business is often a self-analysis.

Why should anyone listen to you? What are you doing to set yourself apart from the thousands of other voices clamoring for attention? What is your UMP (unique MAILING proposition)? Would you be responsive as a subscriber to your own list? Would you even open your own emails? What can you do to distinguish yourself from others?

Here's a big one . . . are you adding value to your subscriber's lives? Do that and I practically guarantee that you will succeed.

Anyone can build a list and send out affiliate offers. Those who rise above the ease of formulaic mediocrity are the ones who get, and deserve, the best results.

The next time you get ready to send a marketing email, ask yourself if you're just being another blue parrot.