Welcome to our first monthly roundup of beautiful email content, where we share some of the industry’s best work, and explain why we love it so.

Photo: Havel’s Heart by flickr member European Parliament

It’s not a stretch to say that some of the best creativity in the digital universe is being applied to email marketing. Our inboxes are filled with emails that delight, tell stories and push boundaries. It’s one of the reasons why email marketing has truly hit its stride: creating email content has become a creative discipline in its own right.

So let’s cut to the chase. Below, are six marketing emails that make our hearts go pitter patter. In the spirit of sharing our true feelings with you, we’ve rated each email: Crush, Infatuation or True Love.

Ecommerce emails

Unionmade: Shoe scramble

Rating: Crush

There’s something brave about breaking the monotony of super clean, spacious content. We love the organized chaos in this Unionmade email. Scrolling down the page slowly reveals shoes that have been carefully knolled and sorted by colour. It’s a great way to showcase the season’s available styles, without succumbing to a boring grid.

We’re seeing a lot of vendors placing their call to action at the end of the email — it breaks convention — but if your creative is compelling enough to make people scroll (and of course, the entire thing is clickable anyway), then where’s the risk?

This email has one drawback: it appears to be one, giant image. This is never ideal. If for some reason the image doesn’t appear, subscribers are left with a whole lot of nothing. Our recommendation: break up the image with some HTML text and a punchy ALT tag, so subscribers get your message in the absence of your lovely giant image.

Apple Store: Headphone mandalas

Rating: True love

Like the email above, here’s another designer who is using unconventional patterns to disrupt our expectations.

Maybe it’s unsurprising that we’re including an Apple Store email in this mix. We don’t care. Like the email above, Apple has delightfully broken the mould by finding a remarkable way to display everyday products.

Despite the unusual presentation, this email remains quintessentially, subtly Apple, thanks to the ubiquitous font and tiny, blue buttons.

Email newsletters

Collaborative Fund: New is as new does

Rating: Infatuation

Collaborative Fund’s playful newsletter says exactly what it does: it reproduces the spark of a new idea.

By mixing the thrill of learning with interviews and quotes from thought leaders, this content instantly gives us something to dream about. It’s a pretty great strategy for a venture capital fund whose goal is to support and inspire a collaborative future.

If subscribers are opening newsletters in a quest for inspirational new ideas, Collaborative Fund takes it a step further by delivering activities subscribers can do right away. It’s hard not to get excited about content that’s so clearly aligned with an organization’s purpose and possibilities.

Casper: The unblinking eye

Rating: True love

While not exactly a newsletter, this sleep symposium invitation looks less like an invite and more like a New Yorker magazine cover. So we figure it fits the bill.

How can you not pay attention to an email that gazes, unblinking, right back at you? Make sure you catch the eye in action, as it appears in the live email transitioning from day to night. Remarkable.

It feels like an invitation to an occult club where we are going to learn secrets (instead of just a conference about… sleep). Hats off to the designers, who opted to create something weird enough to take us away from run-of-the-mill conference invitations.

Whether or not Sleep Symposium turns out to be an unusual event, the newsletter has definitely raised our expectations.

Business-to-business emails

Moo: Don’t be square

Rating: Crush

While a lot of business-to-business content has remained squarely old-fashioned, companies that target small businesses and start-ups get it. Their content is as quirky as small businesses like to think they are.

Moo gets our attention by resolutely focusing on just one product. (That must have been a difficult conversation.) This breaks the business to business mould in so many ways… right down to joking around with copywriting cliches. Rounded corners indeed.

Besides, Moo’s email isn’t targeting your dad’s printing toner company, they’re talking to the same people who open hipster fashion emails. Why not use the same format?

Invision: Getting out of its own way

Rating: Infatuation

We like the way Invision delivers easy, pragmatic protips by email. The prototyping and collaboration tool is not trying to get in anyone’s way. It says “We know you’re busy. This isn’t about us, it’s about you. We thought you might need a hand getting started.”

This onboarding email tells you up front that learning the basics will only take seven minutes — then reiterates brevity in the headline.

Furthering the goal of brevity, the email’s fuschia buttons pop against the muted background, keeping everything in this email action-oriented. No one here is going to waste your precious time.

By presenting its content this way, Invision shows that it knows its place: a transparent layer between you and your production. This email artfully emphasizes the product’s ease and utility, without having to say a thing.

What do you love?

Has a marketing email made your heart beat just a little bit faster? Tell us about it (and don’t be afraid to share your true feelings). Maybe we’ll feature it next month…