Guess the 2nd most frequent question I get about writing emails.
(The first is “How often should I send emails?”.)
I’ll wait.
Got your answer?
3…. 2… 1…
“How do you come up with email ideas?”
(Did you guess right?)
As with most creative work, ideas come a little bit through lightning strikes.
And a lot a bit from initial process work.
Here are the top 3 tried-and-true processes that grease my creative gears
Subscribe to a LOT of emails.
In your industry. Out of your industry. Good emails. Bad emails. Just read lots and lots of emails every day. Feeding your brain with what others are doing can inspire you in all sorts of directions.
Did you catch that?
Reading emails should inspire you. You’re not looking for copy-paste ideas.
For one, it’s not so ethical.
But even if you don’t care about that,
(um… not judging. Ok, totally judging)
you don’t know how well the emails you want to copy are performing.
And eeeeeven if you magically knew said emails are performing, you need to adapt them so they perform for your audience anyway.
Which brings me to process #2:
Talk to your subscribers.
Send out surveys. Ask for interviews. Create self-segmenter emails, with links that tag responses. Discover why your subscribers are on your list. What they want from you. The intersection between what they’re looking for and what you can provide.
Knowing all of the above helps direct your ideas into a contained area of interest.
And nothing fosters creativity like boundaries.
Which brings me to process #3:
Do some sleuthing.
Talking to your subscribers gives you some deeper qualitative data – and often engenders a sense of loyalty.
But poking around unseen can give you insights that subscribers may not want (or be able) to articulate to you.
Plus, looking to different sources verifies and triangulates your data.
My favorite stalking ground is customer reviews.
You’ll see all sorts of great things in reviews – why customers bought, what they worried about prior to buying, and of course the impact buying made on their lives.
But that’s me.
You might get ideas from Facebook groups, support chats, or Reddit threads.
Find out where your audience hangs out and get into their shoes. 
Thanks for reading,
Nikki
nikkielbaz.com/subscribe
P.S. Want to dig a little deeper into process #1? Here’s a tutorial on how to ethically gather inspiration from the various emails that land in your inbox.
Tune in tomorrow for Action Rocket’s Bex Highfield as she teaches you about Email as part of bigger strategy.