When people ask me where they can learn about effective email marketing, there is always one source that springs to mind first. You can learn for yourself there too. Where? In your own inbox!

Sometimes the best place to get ideas for your marketing endeavour is to think about what you’re already receiving. If your inbox is anything like mine, you’ll have between ten and a hundred different mailing lists messages coming in each week

What is it about some emails that makes me want to open them? And what is it that makes me want to take action and click through on the offers? Over the next few months I’ll be sharing these very thoughts with you to help show what works and what doesn’t.

Learn for yourself

Before I tell you my answers though, why don’t you have a go for yourself? Here are four examples straight out of the real world. Look at the call to action (the link or button or instruction that tells the reader what they need to do next). Which ones do you think work best? Why do they work?

Next time I’ll take you through each one and highlight the good and the bad. Come back next week and see if you agree with me.

Example 1: A well known fast food restaurant

Example 2: A web hosting company

Example 3: A lighting company

(I honestly have no idea how I even got on this particular mailing list, but I like their design!)

Until next time…

Decide for yourself. Consider things like:

• – Where do your eyes go when you first look at the image?
• – Is the call to action clear?
• – Do you know where to click?
• – Do you want to click?

Then compare these to some of the emails in your own inbox and see what you can discover about good graphic design and marketing. I’ll be back in a week.