If you're like most people, you are ignoring this valuable learning opportunity. In fact, you're probably throwing away your junk mail immediately and deleting emails without even looking at what's being offered and how it's offered.

As far as email goes...most of us sign up for mailing lists in order to access information. We understand that the price for that information is giving up an email address. The result is a series of subsequent marketing emails from the person providing the goodies. When we get those emails, we might read them or we might just delete them as we go about our daily business.

Whether it's a direct mail piece or an electronic email delivered to your inbox...what you should be doing is reading each of them very carefully. No, I'm not saying that every product offer you receive deserves your purchase via credit card! Far from it! What I'm arguing is that each of those offers is a free object lesson in marketing.

Read them. Analyze them. What is the person sending them doing right? Is the letter/flier or email a good one or a bad one? Is it effective or does it turn you off? Does it get your attention? Does it make you want to buy? Would it make others want to buy? What can you learn from it?

Pay careful attention to the mailings from successful marketers who are recognized as top performers in their fields. Learn from their direct mail and emails. In many cases, major advertising agencies have put these offers together at a tremendous cost.

I'm not suggesting that you read every piece of spam sent to you, but you should pay close attention to the opt-in mailings you receive. Even if you aren't interested in the product behind the mailing, the text of that copy itself can be extremely valuable to you as a mortgage professional and a marketer.

Everyday I receive over three hundred emails. Many of these are a result of my opt-ins to subscriptions, newsletters, and email courses. Some are just plain spam. I don't use any email filters because they also inadvertently filter out the good emails I want to read. The spammers will always win the battle with programmers that design our email filters. Never do I miss an important email because it was placed in a junk folder somewhere automatically.

I try to handle each email once. It is either deleted immediately or, if it is a result of my opt-in and covers topics like Real Estate, Mortgage and Finance, Internet Marketing, or Customer/Client stuff, I do a speed read and save it using the sender's name as the folder name. I don't save the emails in an Outlook folder...instead; I set up an email folder on an external disc drive and save each in their own file. If the email requires my action, it's flagged and left in the inbox until completed. It's then saved and the original message deleted.

You'll be surprised how quickly you can review your junk mail and email and benefit as a result. Subscribe to as much as you can and read them. You'll learn how to better market your mortgage products, how to refine your advertising copy, and much more. It's a completely free resource that deserves better treatment than a quick trip to the trash can or the delete key!