What do your emails look like on your prospect's mobile device?
We’ve all been in meetings, or stuck in traffic, or even in the elevator when you look over and someone is checking email on their BlackBerry, Treo, or iPhone, with that frantic look on their face – I’ve got to read my email NOW! In fact, a recent study by MarketingSherpa indicates that 64% of key decision makers are viewing email on their mobile device. And we can only hypothesize that in some segments (like technology) this number is probably even higher. So, as marketers we cannot take for granted that a significant portion of the emails we serve up are read on mobile devices.
So what can we do to be smarter email marketers?
The research indicates that many use their mobile device as a way to skim their emails for the most important topics until they’re back at their computer. So we need to understand how to develop our emails for the best mobile device user experience – as well as via desktop.
Here are some simple rules of the road to follow:
- Do your research – understand your target audience and in-house database. How many of your customers and prospects are using mobile devices? Consider developing multiple versions of your creative so each user experience (mobile environment and desktop) are optimized.
- Educate and talk to your creative teams. Discuss what your prospects are viewing on their mobile devices and ways to improve usability. Consider the following:
- View samples of well designed mobile messages and the ones that are not as successful.
- Look at the font size and how it appears on screen.
- Re-evaluate your call to action and linking strategy.For example use full friendly URLs vs. hot links that could take up the entire screen.
- Write subject lines and copy that can be easily scanned.
- Utilize simulators so you can preview your email on a mobile device prior to publishing.
And of course test and refine, test and refine so we can continue to push the needle for higher interaction and response rates.
- Test Subject lines
- Segment your lists
- Test content length
- Track and optimize templates
- Track link activity, etc.
For those of you who only think this is a B2B phenomenon think again – consumers are more frequently checking email on mobile devices as well.
For additional tips on how to optimize your communications for the mobile environment please read this special MarketingShepra Report.
