Mixing it up with the creative - just a little though

Great Design Doesn't Always Follow The Rules
by Chad White, Tuesday, July 28, 2009, 10:02 AM for Media Post's Email Insider

Chad points out something that we often forget to take the time on, mixing up the creative - just a little though!
We often spend a lot of time trying to get the perfect template to show our brand the way we want it to be seen. We make it consistent, easy to read and easy to get content into. I know I do!
The idea behind it is so that we have not go to go through the nightmare of getting the whole look and feel right each month, we want to put the effort in early, get it right and then focus our efforts on the content.

There is nothing wrong with that at all - keep doing it, it is good!
BUT - every so often mix it up, a little bit - don't change the entire colour scheme and rearrange everything but give people a chance to get out of the routine. If there is only one big thing to say this month, do more of an alert style email rather than a newsletter. If you've got shed loads to say make the articles shorter. If something new and special and you have something particularly remarkable to say - do it with a twist in appearance to emphasis the event.

People's inclination to allocate time out of their busy day to read your emails is only as good as the feeling you left them with last time they read it. If that feeling is the same over and over, it will become the norm, unremarkable (thanks Seth) and the novelty will be gone.

YES keep the dialogue, YES keep the interaction, YES keep the story, YES keep the branding but ALSO add a visual spark every so often just to perk up the readers' attention.

Chad's 4 points are really useful and give some very good examples to relate it to as well ...read on