Archive for Email for Mobile
6 Design Tips for Mobile Email
Source: Rich Barrett, Email Transit, Blog Post
Email design has always been a challenge due to the many technical limitations that the various ways of reading emails can present. Now that mobile devices are becoming a more and more popular platform we face a whole new set of challenges. The thing about these challenges is that, if treated right, they can make for better looking and more accessible emails that will work across all platforms.
The following are six tips that will help with creating an email design that is clean and clear enough to be read on smart phones while also looking good on desktop readers. continue reading »
Email Design for Mobile: Three Solutions
Source:Â Â Alex Madison and Lisa Harmon, emailinsider
Mobile adoption among businesses and consumers has skyrocketed over the past few years, and it’s only going to continue to rise as smartphones deliver increasingly stellar experiences. Morgan Stanley Research predicts that smartphones will begin to outsell computers by next year, and 33% of consumers in the U.S. and U.K. already access email on their mobile devices. What does this mean for email design?
We were lucky enough to have a long talk with Rocky Thomas, an awesome designer who also happens to be an expert on email-mobile cross-channel integration. With mobile usage on the rise across subscriber demographics, the imperative for email marketers to keep up with the times continues to grow, and Rocky gave us the scoop on how we can create email campaigns worthy of on-the-go reading:
Email for Mobile Design: Three Solutions
While building email programs that can deliver a rich mobile email experience requires thought and hard work, the long-term rewards of allowing subscribers to connect with your brand anytime, anyplace will be well worth it. Here are three ways it can be done:
1. Text-only versions. At the most basic level, text-only email versions ensure that your subscribers can access your messages when they want to. The experience isn’t dazzling, and readability can sometimes be an issue, but this is a worthwhile first step if you haven’t yet offered anything to mobile users.
2. HTML Light versions. HTML Light is a format that strips out most graphically rich elements, leaving just a masthead, sometimes a small hero element, and the email text. It can be thought of as a step between plain text and graphically rich email versions, and it can be linked to in the preheader.
3. “Mobilized” email – where you want to be heading! Designing your email campaigns to be mobile-friendly is the best way to stay on track with the direction email is headed. Rather than “minimizing” your mobile subscribers’ email experience, make intentional choices to “mobilize” it. Here’s how:
Getting ‘Smart’ about Mobile Email Marketing
Source: Kathleen Maher, Product Manager, V12 Group Inc.
Do you own a smartphone? How frequently do you check your email on your mobile device? The answers to these questions make it clear that mobile marketing is the wave of the future.
Did you know Smartphone sales will surpass PC sales by the end of 2011 with over 400 million shipments (RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky)? Also did you know?…
- …85% of consumers check email on their smartphone (Response Media in 2010).
- …35% of consumers have made a purchase on their smartphone (Response Media in 2010)
- …12 million people are expected to buy an Apple iPad in 2011 and 2012 (Piper Jaffrey)
When you plan an email marketing campaign in today’s mobile world, you need to consider how it’s going to look in any browser and on any device. There is no one-size-fits-all, and there never will be. Marketers need to work at both a strategic and tactical level to understand and manage the impact of a message on the user’s experience.
Due to differences in smartphone models, browsers, operating systems, and customer preferences, HTML email rendering across mobile devices and PCs is a critical consideration in order to maximize the results from an email campaign.
Here are some tips that can ensure your email campaign is as successful as it can be:
1. The “from line†and “subject line†of your email are two of the most powerful influences on open rates, especially when consumers are scanning emails on a mobile device. Ensure that you quickly communicate your brand and your offer.
2. Be sure to add an option to view your email on a web page designed for mobile rendering.
3. Optimize your HTML message across all platforms. Consider using HTML, text and rich text formats so consumers can open your message across multiple environments.
4. Make the key point of your message viewable in the preview pane to create a hook and increase open rates.
5. The Apple iPad has unique capabilities and limitations. It has a large preview pane maximizing the impact for viewing emails, but does not support Flash which limits the use of video.
6. Be aware that graphics can also trigger spam filters, so you need to balance the advantages and disadvantages of using images and video in emails.
7. Always offer superior value – as a company. When consumers value your company, your products, and your customer service, they are going to be more likely to open and respond to your emails.
In the fast-paced world of email, social, and mobile marketing, rely on V12 Group to help you stay on top of industry trends and in the lead with best practices in online marketing. V12 Group now has the capability to track user engagement at the browser level which gives valuable insight into mobile usage. V12 Group is dedicated to ensuring your email marketing campaigns are a success.
Are your consumers getting their emails on their mobile devices?
Source: Sundeep Kapur, eMail Yogi, Blog Post
Do you know how many of your recipients are viewing emails on a mobile device?
Is that message for mobile or email?
This number continues to increase, and your ability to engage the consumer on the mobile device is going to determine their continued (or lack of) interest in your solicitation.
If your message is mobile friendly, it will intrigue the consumer enough to either respond via the mobile device or go back to the message in their in-box.
Here are a few things that you should definitely be doing:
1 – Track the recipients that are opening your messages on mobile devices. You should take the time to segment them into a special group.
2 – Track the mobile browsers to see if it is worth creating special content for those particular browsers. Less is better on mobile with a clear call to action.
3 – Survey recipients to determine their message type preferences (HTML or text/ mobile friendly)
4 – Use multi-part (HTML and text) as your lowest common denominator, this could cover you until you are able to survey recipients
5 – Consider restating your main offer or subject line as the first line of the email’s body (before the “If you can’t see this click here.â€) By doing this, your recipients will get the gist of your message without needing to see the associated image.
6 – Think hard about your subject lines. If you can get to the point quickly, you can do a better job engaging your consumer.
7 – Try to engage your consumer on social media. Consumers are more likely to engage on social media via their smart phones and don’t mind visiting your social site.
Ask them for their mobile number to build up your preference database. If you do not already have a mobile marketing program, you need to consider putting it in place and keeping it integrated with your email program.
iPad and Email: An interesting new palette for marketers
Source:Â Katleen Maher, Email Product Manager, V12 Group
According to Piper Jaffrey, an estimate12 million people are expected to buy iPads this year and next, So how does this new device affect email marketers?
Here are some things you need to know
- iPad has a large preview pane (approximately 700px x 580px) maximizing the impact for viewing emails.
- Graphically rich e-mails will be image- and even video-enabled by default on a large and bright screen making the iPad e-mail experience more engaging and create an interesting new palette for marketers to play with.
- Adding a link to view the email on a web page designed for mobile rendering is one tactic to use for iPads but it is recommend that you optimize your creative across all environments, which mean you need to identify which email clients are associated with your email list.
- Marketers need to take into consideration the increase in market share of the iPhone, Android, Windows OS and other mobile email systems consumers are using to open their email. Consumers could open one single email across multiple environments so messages should be optimized for all of them.
In summary, marketers need to be closely monitoring and measuring user adoption of the iPad. As Always with the introduction of a new technology come complexities, but also more new opportunities. Consumers can now view their email on desktops, laptops, phones, social networks, television sets, and now “tabletsâ€- the key is to understand their impact on the user experience and respond appropriately at both the strategic and tactical levels.
Six Steps to Improve Your Smartphone Email Rendering
Source: BlueHornet, Whitepaper, The Third Screen: What Email Marketers Need to Know About Mobile Rendering
We expect the mobile-phone email market will increase at an average annual rate of 68% over the next four years, totaling more than 1 billion mailboxes by the end of 2013 (source: Radicati Group)
Do more people check email on their smartphones than on their PCs? Not yet, but that could be the case in the near future. According to a study by RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky, smartphone sales will surpass PC sales by the end of 2011 with over 400 million shipments.  Due to differentiators between smartphone manufacturers, models, and operating systems, HTML email rendering across mobile devices has become an important consideration when it comes to marketers’ ability to maximize the results from their email campaigns.
Here are some recommendations you can apply to your email campaigns now to get better results:
1.    Create a web hosted mobile version
2.    Use your space wisely
3.    Use alt tags for your images
4.    Avoid nested tables and multiple columns
5.    Validate your code
6.    Test your campaigns
How to optimize your email for mobile devices
Source: Justin Jordan, iMedia Connection, October 4, 2010
As more research regarding both the sales and usage of mobile devices — specifically smartphones — becomes available, many marketers are asking, “How should I be optimizing my email for mobile devices?”
Optimizing Email for Mobile Devices
Source: Heather Fletcher, Target Marketing, Sept 8, 2010
Keys? Check. Wallet? Check. Cell phone? Check.
This is the mental list many ponder before going anywhere. And studies show that some Americans check their email accounts in the middle of the night and many remotely peruse their work accounts on Sunday evening; meaning that the next trend—that consumers are checking their email accounts on-the-go with mobile devices—isn’t much of a shock.
Email Dominates Mobile
Source: eMarketer, August 13, 2010
Email, portals stay ahead of social networking—at least on mobile devices
Social networking has become such a staple of online activity in the US that, according to Nielsen, internet users spent more time on social networking sites and blogs than doing any other activity in June 2010. Games, which came in second, took up less than half as much time.
Designing for mobile viewing
Source: Christina Galbornetti, Director Creative Services, V12 Group
Email design goals need to be clear…you are delivering a message to a prospect or subscriber. You want them to be compelled by your offer/messaging to read the email and take the actions you want them to make. Stop forcing an entire web page into an email and expect to get results…especially now that your ‘window of opportunity’ just got a whole lot smaller.
As mobile marketing spreads, email becomes a 2-screen medium and you need to change the way you develop and design campaigns so that your message renders/appears as you originally intended. Currently, there are no set proven mobile design methods or standards since there’s still too much variety out there in terms of how different mobile devices treat email. (ie. smartphones, blackberry, etc.)
We will continue to see a significant rise in the number of users who are reading email on mobile devices and the smaller screens of netbooks and tablets, so email preview panes will continue to vary. For average desktop computers, we recommend conventional emails to be set up with a fixed width between 550-600 pixels. Most marketing emails and newsletters are designed to that specification.  However, mobile email readers are much smaller. The better devices on the market are just under 500 pixels, but most common mobile email readers are in a range of 320 pixels.
There are 3 simple solutions to avoid the variables and challenges of mobile email design:
1. Add a link at the very top of the email (pre-header) to a hosted online version of your email that is optimized for mobile users
2. Ensure your from line and subject line quickly communicate two critical points: Branding (who you are) and Offer (the value in your email) As stated in the HTML Creative Best Practices section, the recognition of both the sender and the email’s value drive open rates and responses.
3. Effectively use the pre-header. A pre-header is basic text that can be found at the very top of your email. Hand-held devices make the use of pre-headers a necessity. The 2-screen medium means it’s just as likely that your target will access email via their mobile, so the pre-header is prime real estate where you want to include key information and offer specific details that entice the consumer to read on. Some clients use text phrases (ie. Click here if you cannot see images, or Add us to your safe senders list) However, since this is likely the first thing a prospect reads it makes sense to highlight your offer/promotion.
The goal is to encourage mobile users to save your email for later viewing on a home computer that better supports your email design.
It should also be noted that template driven email service providers may not offer options to host a mobile version, so you might have to research further in order to accommodate mobile devices.
The following articles provide some insight and solutions for mobile email that are noteworthy for discussion: