7 Tips to Getting your Mobile Email Experience Right
By Steve Susina, Marketing Director
If you’re in eCommerce, you are well aware of the need to provide your customers with a pleasing and effective user experience, not only on your site, but for all touch points. We’ve already discussed how important it is to have an effective and strong email marketing strategy, but if your customers, especially on mobile, can’t efficiently access your messaging, you’re going to lose out. Considering over half of emails are opened on a mobile device, it’s imperative you get your mobile email experience right. Here are seven tips for you to consider.
- Testing, testing, 1-2-3. You need to go beyond spelling and link checking. Since your customers will be opening up your emails on a variety of mobile devices, you should run your campaign end-to-end on multiple devices. At a minimum, test the initial invitation email, all landing pages, any registration forms, as well as the user experience after form completion. Be sure you test both iOS, Android and even Windows smartphones, as well as a variety of tablets. Furthermore, every email client will render your message differently; consider setting up accounts through various email providers and sending out your campaign to and from each of those.
- Raincheck content. Provide a way for the recipient to pick up the content later, and let them know you’ll be doing that. Don’t simply pop up a PDF of the requested content on their device; your customer may get frustrated by an interruption. Instead, direct them to a second landing page with the link where they can download at their convenience. Follow up with an email that provides a direct download link.
- Fort Knox is a place in Kentucky, not the name of your email messaging. Either minimize the data entry for gated content, or, even better, strongly consider doing away with the gate altogether. A tip for those who use a marketing automation system: your system tracks the email recipient down to the link level. You already know who got the invitation–when the download link is clicked, you don’t need to collect their information again. Use the system logic to identify those that click on the link rather than requiring them to type information.
- What is this? A center for ants?! Button sizes and links matter. Make sure they’re large enough to work on smaller smartphones. If it works on an iPhone 4, you’re probably safe, but again, just like in tip #1, test multiple phones and operating systems.
- There’s value in video. Consider using video in your mobile content delivery. Consumers love video (globally, consumer internet video traffic will be 80 percent of all consumer Internet traffic in 2019). Take advantage of the advanced capabilities of mobile devices. Smartphones today have robust video replay capability, and engagement with video can be greater than traditional content.
- It’s called mobile for a reason. Your costumers will be reading your emails on their mobile devices at their convenience. Write your content for smaller devices and readers on the go. Break up long form copy into bulleted, scanable lists that people can scroll through on their phone.
- Handle with care: subject lines. Smartphones don’t give you much room to make the offer in your subject line, and if the reader isn’t interested by the subject and deletes the message from the email system right from her smartphone, you can’t count on her seeing the longer subject when she gets back to her desk. Focus on the first few words of your subject lines to make sure they capture your audience’s attention and inspire your customers to act.
Want to learn more about optimizing your mobile emails? Contact us.
An electrical engineer by education and marketer by choice, Steve Susina uses data and analytics to help firms generate demand, establish thought leadership and strengthen the company brand. He currently serves as Marketing Director for Lyons Consulting Group (LYONSCG), a full-service eCommerce digital agency. He is a Marketo Certified Expert with more than five years experience using marketing automation.
