There’s a simple answer to the question, but let’s leave it for a few moments and consider the difficulties of coming up with some revolutionary inspiration that will put your latest email marketing campaign into the vanguard.

Most writers are asked where they get their ideas from and the answer often disappoints. Mostly it is sorting a little wheat from a mountain of chaff. Ideas are easy; good ideas are more difficult, the problem being that it is so difficult telling the two apart. 

For us it is easy. Split an email marketing list and try it. The returns will not only be quick but unanswerable. The aphorism most applicable to us is; If at first you don’t succeed, try something different. Different is the keyword here.

Like everyone else, you will monitor the performance of the competitors at your level. These are the ones you are going to have to beat. It is logical then that merely copying them is not going to help. You’ve got to go for something they are not doing.

But what?

There are a number of ways of discovering the next big step in email marketing. Here are the more obvious ones:

1/ Copy someone outside your speciality

We are inundated with adverts on a daily basis. It’s not email marketing, but that’s no reason to ignore it. There’s a camera company that has tied in with National Geographic. Cue images of men and women in extreme conditions. Is there something similar you can do?

2/ What are others missing?

There's a scientific magazine that has a regular feature called Feedback. In magazine shops, browsers will turn to that page and read through the humorous articles. Yet there’s no advert on the page. Are you using your most popular webpage for signup? Is there something you could put on it to get more visitors?

3/ Just try it

Different is good. Don’t try too much evaluation. Check it with a split email marketing list.

Finally, the answer to the question in the heading is that by the time it is noticeable, the latest idea is already being used by everyone.