This document summarizes a presentation on mobile-friendly email. It discusses how mobile email opens have grown significantly and continue to increase each year. Best practices for mobile email include using responsive design, increasing font sizes, simplifying content, and ensuring touch targets are large enough. Future trends may include more device detection capabilities and inspiration can be drawn from examples from companies like Jetsetter that are mobile-aware.
Mobile-Friendly Email: Trends and Best Practices [Webinar with ActOn Software]
1. Mobile-friendly email
Trends and best practices
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2. Welcome! Thanks for joining us today.
Janelle Johnson Justine Jordan
Director, DemandGen Marketing Director
Act-On Software Litmus
@janelle_johnson @meladorri
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3. Agenda
• Email Marketing Basics & Best Practices
• Spam and Content Filtering
• Reporting and Tracking
• Mobile Email Stats
• Mobile Email Best Practices
• Tips and Tricks/Quick Wins
• Trends and the Future
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4. Importance of Email Marketing
• The future of Email
• Strongmail survey Nov. 2012 (n = 1,000)
• 56% plan to increase email marketing budget
• 65% plan to integrate email marketing with social media
• 52% will increase their social media marketing budget
• 52% plan to integrate their email and mobile activities
• Radicati Group Email statistics report 2012 – 2016 (April 2012)
• Worldwide email account to increase from 3.3 to 4.3 billion by 2016 – average annual growth of 6%Email clickthrough
rates dropped to 4.4% in Q2 of 2012, down more than 6% from 4.7% in Q1, and marking the 3rd consecutive quarter-
over-quarter drop. (Source: Epsilon Q2 2012 Email Trends & Benchmarks Report)
• Email’s Pipeline Contribution
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5. Leverage Email Marketing
• Consistency in messaging
• Planning and coordination
• Resonating messaging
• Content is King
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6. The Basics
• Create a marketing ecosystem
• Deliverability, verifiability,
bounce reduction
• Email Haiku
• Tracing behaviors and metrics
• Post-Click engagements
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7. 5 Email Marketing Best Practices
1. Segment
2. Subject line
3. CTA / Landing Page
4. Test & Refine
5. Mobile -friendly
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8. Some Stats: A Lay of the Land
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9. Email Opens: January 2013
Mobile:
Smartphones (iPhone,
Android) and tablets
Desktop
Mobile 33% Desktop:
42% Installed email programs
(Outlook, Apple Mail)
Webmail Webmail:
25% Email accessed through a
web browser (Gmail,
Hotmail, Yahoo!)
Source: Litmus Email Analytics
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10. Change Over Last 12 Months
Opens in Each Environment
42%
50%
38%
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20% 33%
Webmail Desktop Mobile
Mobile opens have grown 138% in 18 months; 45% in last year
Source: Litmus Email Analytics
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11. Mobile Market Share
Other Smartphone OS Share
1%
0.40%
Others 1.70%
0.60%
Symbian 1.20%
iPad
2.90%
27% iPhone Microsoft 3.00%
56% 6.40%
Blackberry 3.50%
36.30%
Android iOS 20.90%
16%
53.40%
Android 69.70%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
Mobile Email Opens US Worldwide
Source: Litmus Email Analytics
Source: ComScore (US); Gartner (Worldwide)
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12. Know Your Audience
What percentage of
customers/prospects
interact with your
organization’s mobile
email messages?
31% of marketers
don’t know their
mobile email
open rate!
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13. Back to Basics: Best Practices
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14. Subscriber Experience
From Name
Subscribers view emails
Subject Line
in stages, making
Preheader
choices as they go.
Preview/Open
Click Landing Page/Site
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15. Envelope Fields
From Name
~25 characters
Subject Line
~35 characters
Preheader
~85 characters
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17. Preheader
• Support the subject
line with a
creative, useful or
helpful preheader.
• Call-to-action
• Special offer
• Reminder
• Clickable/measurabl
e
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19. Preview/Open
Emphasis on from name & subject line. Images often disabled.
iPhone Windows Phone Blackberry
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20. Click
• Tappable touch targets
• Bulletproof buttons that
don’t rely on an image
• Left-hand side
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21. Landing Page/Site
Don’t forget the landing page!
Not these… But these!
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22. Tips and Tricks for Mobile Emails
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23. Consider Context
• You can’t predict where users open… most of
the time.
• Mobile app follow-ups
• Travel alerts
• Mobile coupons
• Weekend sends
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24. The Finger is the New Mouse
Design for tappable touch targets; not text links
44 x 44px minimum
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30. Trends and the Future
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31. Symbols in Subject Lines
Can increase open rates.
Use carefully to support
your message rather than
detract from value
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32. Mobile First/Aware/Scalable
• One layout for all screen
sizes
• Single column design
• 320-500px
• Large text & buttons
• Generous white space
• Clear calls to action
• Short, concise body copy
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34. Responsive Design
• Uses media queries or @media
• Not a “line of code”, more like a conditional
statement that enables alternate styles
• If the screen size is x, then display y
• If the screen size is x, then increase headline size to y
• If screen size is x, then show image at 100%
• Detects screen size of the device being read
on and enables alternate styles accordingly
• Not supported everywhere
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35. Device Detection
Detects mobile device at time
of open: deliver “deep link”
directly to app
store, specialized
content, timers
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41. Your Takeaways
• Know your audience!
• Don’t forget about the basics
• From name
• Subject line
• Landing pages
• Quick wins:
• Bigger text
• Touch targets (big buttons)
• Streamline content
• Explore different approaches; find what works best
• Responsive design isn’t a silver bullet
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ConsistencyCall to action in email permeates all touch points (landing page, collateral, WP, sales team, etc.)Whole company is a unified-frontPlanningResonatingCapture mindshare in the inboxSegment and deliver “personal” messages that you can scaleContentFresh, creates value and drives trafficLiving content that is regularly updated and added toWritten for readers and written wellScalable with the ability to be repurposedLocalized (“speaks” to them)Call to action
EcosystemConsistency in messaging and value proposition across all touch points (email, web, social media, sales teams)Main Goal - Prospects should be able to easily engage with youDeliverabilityCreate permission-based lists (get their buy-in)Continuously cleanse your list and dB of recordTrack message activity and navigation habitsHaiku3 seconds to make capture attention and make an impressionOne objective – what am I asking, why should they care, is it easy to actCTA should be clear, simple, and easy to respondIf it’s relevant, it’s not intrusiveTracingCapture all characteristics – demo/psycho-graphics, on/offline interactions, transactionsCharacteristics paint a picture – use it to deepen a customer profile and drive personalizationTest-Test-Optimize (A/B tests)PostKey – consistency in post-email touchpoints – landing page, L&F, offer, etc.Call to action remains crisp and clearWatch for drop-off – adjust real-time (learn from activity, refine, improve)
SegmentContent must speak to the targetConsider multiple versions for specific market segmentsSubjectAKA – email open rate strategyOptimize for mobile“Be clear or get cleared out”CTAEmail ties to everythingUnified front and consistencyShoulder-to-ShoulderTest and RefineTry, refine, enhanceA/B testing – what works best with whomMobile FriendlyMobile is becoming increasingly importantAdopt a plan to optimize mobile email
Since emails opens are only measured when images are turned on, this can under-represent those clients that block images by default. Looking at smartphone sales figures can help.
Web analytics stats, measuring mobile open rates, app downloads (if applicable), customer surveys, etc.
All the basics still apply, but in a slightly modified way!
Let’s re-examine classic best practices with a mobile lens
In almost all cases, the from name and address is the first thing that subscribers see.Is your from name recognizable and trustworthy to external audiences? Does the subscriber have a relationship with a person at your company, or will they recognize a brand name first?
All the basics still apply, but in a slightly modified way!
All the basics still apply, but in a slightly modified way!
All the basics still apply, but in a slightly modified way!
All the basics still apply, but in a slightly modified way!