Introduced in 1937 by Hormel Foods, more Spam® is consumed per person in Hawaii than in any other state in the United States. Almost seven million cans of Spam are eaten every year in Hawaii. They even have a festival, which will be held next month in Waikiki, Honolulu. More than 20,000 people attend it!
Stateside, we aren’t as crazy about Spam – the lunch meat product or the electronic trap that snares our communiqués and blacklists us in perpetuity.
On the Spam Jam Website, they have some recipes for Spam.
Here’s a recipe to avoid being sent to the Spam filter (courtesy of our friends at True Presence):
- Don’t use “Dear” in the subject line. You can start a letter to your college roommate, or your aunt, or long-lost friend, but Spam filters read it as a foreign spammer’s attempt to be personal. Just use the first name merge field and be done with it.
- Be transparent. The subject line should refer to the content of the email. Be honest about what your email is going to say. That way, no surprises when I open it. It’s just good email etiquette.
- In the subject line, avoid excessive punctuation, asterisks, ALL CAPS, Re: and Fwd:. Spam filters think those are indicators of Spam. In a transparent email, you shouldn’t need to use those words.
- In the body, avoid words like Oprah (as in, “as seen on Oprah”), call now, check out, compare, instant, lose weight, free, offer, cash, and casino. Again, if you are transparent about your communications and are working to build rapport and credibility, you don’t need those words.
- Send a Welcome email. When you have a new person on your list, say “Hey!” Send a welcome email that acknowledges that they’re new, and that they’ll be hearing from you again. You can also invite them into a conversation by asking to share a little about their company and what makes them great. People love to talk about themselves.
