Here’s a little experiment you can try. I first saw it used by a content manager, whom I was assisting, against the owner of a website, but it works just as effectively for email marketing. She asked the chap, “What’s your favourite bit of your website?” He mentioned a feature that I had already identified as either needing major modification or deletion.

My colleague said nothing at the time. When we adjourned to Nero’s, I asked the point of the question. She replied, “It showed two things: the weakest part of the website design and also that we will need to generate a lot of evidence for our suggestion that it needs to be deleted.” I would like to point out that the ‘we’ in a statement should really have been ‘me’.

I’ll make one thing clear: this is not a pitch for a contract for content management. Tried it. I didn’t enjoy it. An irritating aspect of website and marketing email copy is that most errors are simply of grammar and, bewilderingly, spelling. Why, when there have been spell checkers for decades? 

Asking a company manager what’s their favourite part of the website or marketing email design always produces the same result; the worst part of either, so it’s not so much an experiment as a demonstration.

Have you got the nerve to take part? You will not enjoy the answer.

It’s a trope used by all those who teach creative writing; ‘Kill your favourites,’ and for good reason. It works. It is equally effective when it comes to aspects of design, layout, colour scheme, heading, and logo – especially logo.

You have access to free email marketing templates, so there’s nothing to stop you trying a new one. Equally, there’s nothing to stop you testing any design, or just the logo, with a split email marketing list. Is the only thing stopping you the fact that you’re frightened of losing your favourites? Whether it is affection, conceit, or just personal preferences, if you haven’t tested your favourite aspect of your emails and web design for ages, now is always the time to do so.