8 Outside-the-Box Email Ideas That Will Draw Your Subscribers’ Attention

Why care? Because a little fun can go a long way in your campaign

Two reasons: conversion and open rates.

Sameness is boring. If you want your subscribers to read, click, reply or buy something, you need to go the extra mile to create engaging content. An email that captivates converts better.

If now and then you give a little fun treat for your audience or make their experience a little bit unusual, people will care to read, improving your email marketing campaign stats and metrics including deliverability.

Top out-of-the-box email ideas to try

Include GIFs to spark wonder

GIFs are animated images that add a little spark to your campaign. Using GIFs in emails, can highlight your call to action, explain your product better, build a sense of urgency by placing a countdown GIF, create a vibe or just be funny.

You can create your own GIF (if you have the technical skills or team), or just get one from Tenor or Giphy.

Get emotional with video

Adding videos in email marketing can be tricky: most email providers don’t support embedding and even a very short video can blow past recommended email size. Don’t worry, here’s our guide to embed video in email.

Videos are great to explain ideas that may take a long text to write, or even better, to convey emotions. That’s why every marketer nudges clients towards video content every time they want to get emotional. 

Video can also share great news when even A VERY BIG TEXT won’t suffice or when you want to show something is human-made or handmade.

Involve your readers

The classic engagement game online ends with a CTA for replying via email, comments, or direct messages. But you can do more!

Ask for suggestions about themes, products, feedback, and even stories. This works better when your newsletter or brand has a more personal tone. 

The next step is to showcase the best contributions you received in a “best reader contribution” session in the next newsletter! This will stimulate your readers to participate more and create a sense of community.

Try gamification to score

If you want to spice up your email marketing strategy, gamification is one way to improve retention. Gamification is a strategy that involves a game-like system for your readers to participate in: points, tasks, challenges and, of course, a leaderboard (everyone’s a little competitive!)

You can take your game to social networks, a landing page or any other brand channel to increase exposure. Just note that not everyone wants every email to be a game and not every time. Save it for special seasons like Easter or Christmas.

Consider cross-promotions with other companies

Sometimes we’re all alone sending our emails to our customers, and forget we can help and be helped by some other brand. Cross-promotion is sending an email about a “friend company” whose service or product your clients may be interested in too.

There are many cases when a non-competing company is targeting the same audience. For example, a marketing company that specializes in small business may have the same marketing personas as a financial consulting company in the same segment.

If you keep it simple, the best approach is to help your customers by sharing some useful reference for them, and not tooting your own horn too much.

Come up with a creative subject line

Seems like we write about the importance of the subject line in every other blog post. And rightly so! That’s what drives your client to read (or not) your email. So, to be creative with the subject line, you will need to go the extra mile:

• Brainstorm ideas.
• Try some jokes or add a bit of curiosity.
• Be ultra-specific: make it about your brand, your audience.
• Choose the best ones and vary the phrasing.
• Add or remove words, check how it sounds.
• Read it out loud!
• Finally, don’t overthink every subject line. Email marketing is an ongoing process, sometimes you’ll hit the mark, sometimes you miss and win next time. 

Don’t be afraid of using humor

While not everyone can be a comedian, any decent content writer can crack some jokes here and there. Don’t be afraid to use some light humor in your campaigns, since it can be a great icebreaker and make your brand sound more human and interesting.

Everyone is drowned in serious emails. You can be a little funny sometimes. Just be aware of your audience preferences and you’ll be a long way towards brand recognition, connection and conversion.

P.S. You can use these

Last, but not least, you can be creative with a postscript. While everyone knows it was not an afterthought, it sounds like that whisper after the fanfare has passed, and it can break expectations, land a joke or take a moment to be real and human.

The secret? Humor, engagement and connection

These methods are not rocket science (maybe cardboard-box science), but the real trick is to know your audience and find new ways to connect. Email marketing is a long game, and you need many tools in your toolbox.

If you need more inspiration, email marketing is a source of new and creative ideas, as always.