5 Tips for Better Results with Mobile Email Marketing
Mobile use is dominating online use, with more than 145 million Americans using their smartphones to work, shop, browse, and communicate. The number one smartphone activity? Yep.
According to a study by IDC, checking email (78%) is the number one smartphone activity.
These are big numbers, people. If you haven't adapted your marketing emails to fit the small screen, NOW is the time.
Mobile Email Marketing
Here are some quick tips to send the right message to your mobile customers.
1. Start with the subject line. As a basic rule of thumb, you've got 5 words to get your customer's attention (ok, 7 if they're short words). Longer than that, and the subject is truncated. All that work to craft the perfect “read me” line and your customer won't even see it. Keep it short and punchy and you'll have a better open rate.
2.Make your links user-friendly—big, easy to spot, and easy to click. One fairly common mistake is to place links close together. By making links separate and positioning them where they make the most sense, at the beginning or end of the email, or under a product photo (or as part of a product photo), you improve your chances of conversion. And speaking of links, be sure to include an unsubscribe button (nowhere near your CTA), to avoid accidental fat-finger unsubscribes.
3. Responsive design. We've talked about responsive web design and the same principles can be applied to well-crafted emails. Most email providers and mail marketing services will provide tips or templates for creating mobile friendly emails. If your email text and images resize automatically to fit any size screen, your customers will see your message just as you intended, without having to scroll endlessly.
Since some users choose not to display images, you might want to consider a plain text version of your email. And while we're discussing photos and text alternatives, be sure and include a text link with your CTA if you're using a clickable image. That way, customers who prefer text only still have the option to follow your links.
4. Email preview or preheader. Many phones display the first line of the email. Lots of businesses use this valuable real estate for generic text like “Having trouble reading this email?” Instead, use the first line in the body of your email to tease and add extra enticement to open and read.
5. Test your design. You probably won't have access to many different types of phones and devices, and there's no guarantee that what looks good on an iPhone will also look good on a compact Android tablet or a BlackBerry. Check your design before you send it out at a mobile device emulator site like MobileTest.me or MobilePhoneEmulator.com so you can see what your customers see...no matter what device they use.
Learn more: Download our hands-on guide to successfully navigating email marketing's new set of rules.
By providing your customers with emails they can open and read, you keep your relationship active and retain their trust...not such an easy thing to achieve today. It's your job to provide them with emails that are interesting, colorful, and entertaining. Now get out there and knock your email marketing campaign out of the ballpark!