2. Objective
To find out if optimising
Kitbag.com’s emails for mobile
devices results in higher open,
click through and conversion
rates.
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3. Kitbag.com
Kitbag.com is Europe's leading online sports retailer
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4. Why are mobile devices important to
email marketers?
Morgan Stanley predicted that the
population of mobile users will exceed
desktop internet users within five years.
Mobile e-commerce is ramping up faster
than online e-commerce, now making up
4% of total retail sales
Research by Nielsen shows that Email
accounts for 42 percent of mobile internet
time (compared to just 10.5 percent using
social media, for example).
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5. What are the main issues?
What does your email look like on a small screen?
Is it hard to click on links?
Do your subscribers have to zoom in to read
the content?
If you have optimised the email for a mobile device,
what does it look like on a large screen?
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6. Testing method
Litmus email analytics tags added to Kitbag emails from December 2011 –
February 2012
Top email clients analysed – Apple iPhone was used by 22.49% of
recipients making it the most popular email client among Kitbag
subscribers
Apple iPhone subscribers flagged within Lyris HQ
Lyris and Kitbag develop iPhone optimised email templates which are 400
pixels wide rather than 750 pixels wide
50% of flagged iPhone users are sent a regular sized version of the Kitbag
newsletter and 50% are sent the iPhone optimised version
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8. Popularity of reading environments
among Kitbag.com subscribers
35% of opens
from Kitbag.com
subscribers come
from a mobile device
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9. Top email clients used by
Kitbag.com subscribers
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10. Top mobile email clients used by
Kitbag.com subscribers
66% of Kitbag’s
mobile opens come
from the Apple iPhone
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11. Top email clients used by iPhone users
98% of iPhone
users view their emails
with the built-in mail
client
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14. Option 1 – Removing fixed width tables
One of the most widely used solutions to this issue is having a table that
is equal to 100%. This means the email will automatically fill 100% of the
screen it is being viewed on.
Pros
• Easy to do
• Usually looks good on
mobile devices
Cons
• Not appropriate for image
only emails
• Can look very bad on
larger screens
• Doesn’t always look good on a
mobile device, especially if there
are images
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15. Option 1 – Removing fixed width tables
Example of an email with 100% table fully open in Outlook
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16. Option 2 – Add a view on mobile link to
your email
Add a link to the top of an email which points to a mobile friendly version
of the email.
Pros
• Easy to do
• Looks good on mobile devices
Cons
• Requires subscriber to click on a
link to view
• Takes longer to code the email
• Often gets overlooked because the
link is usually quite small on a
mobile device
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17. Option 3 – Intelligent CSS
Use CSS media queries to remove unnecessary elements of your email
when viewed on a small screen.
Pros Cons
• Allows you to change the look of the • Requires a coder to implement
email depending on screen size • Not effective for image only emails
• Looks good on large and small • Can take longer to code
screens • Adds weight to email due to extra
• Gives you the ability to remove code
unnecessary parts of your email • Doesn’t work in Gmail’s Android app
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18. Option 3 – Intelligent CSS
Outlook iPhone iPhone
without CSS with CSS
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19. Option 4 – Design your email for mobile users
Reduce the width of your current email to between 300 – 500 pixels and
use a single column layout. Ensure the email text is large enough to read
on a mobile and the call to action is easy to click.
Pros
• Not hard to do
• Easy to read on a mobile without
having to zoom in
• Links are easy to tap
Cons
• Could look slightly strange when
viewed on a large screen
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21. Regular email design – Within iPhone
750 pixels wide
Very small pre-header text
Small navigation buttons
Multi-column layout
Unreadable text
Small calls to action – can be
hard to click through on
desired link
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22. iPhone optimised email design
400 pixels wide
No pre-header text
No navigation buttons
Single column layout
Larger text
Large calls to action that are
easy to tap
Unnecessary content has been
removed
Main message is clearly visible
at the top of the email
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24. Non-iPhone users
Full size emails sent to all non-iPhone users
Key Metrics Results
Average unique open rate 12.3%
Average unique click rate 2.3%
Average click to open rate 19.11%
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25. iPhone users sent full size email
Full size emails sent to 50% of iPhone users
Key Metrics Results
Average unique open rate 39.8%
Average unique click rate 5.3%
Average click to open rate 13.31%
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26. iPhone users sent optimised email
Optimised email sent to 50% of iPhone users
Key Metrics Results
Average unique open rate 43.4%
Average unique click rate 4.9%
Average click to open rate 11.37%
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28. Higher open rates for mobile optimised emails?
Why would the mobile optimised emails
consistently have a higher open rate?
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29. Size matters!
Average Email Average open
weight rate
Full size version of email 17.42 KB 39.84%
iPhone optimised version of 9.35 KB 43.38%
email
Light weight emails =
Higher open rates on mobile devices
Internet download speeds can vary greatly on
mobile devices so it makes sense that the faster
downloading email would have a higher open rate
on a mobile.
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30. How about conversions?
Although we received great
open rates from our iPhone
segment we did not see an
increase in conversion rates.
There could be several
reasons for this:
Kitbag.com does not have a mobile
optimised version of their website
Subscribers are most probably not
in a position to purchase when
viewing your emails on their mobile Kitbag.com on an iPhone
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31. Why bother?
Why bother optimising for mobile devices if
conversion rates are not higher?
We believe that it’s still important to optimise for mobile devices because:
Open rates from mobiles are much higher than other email clients
Having a clear mobile optimised email design will encourage these
subscribers to return directly to your website or shop at a later date – via
their desktop or tablet
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Lyris customer for 9 years – Currently using Lyris HQExclusive rights to operate the official online stores of Manchester United, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Everton and CelticOnline and offline direct mailings / catalogues, call centre operations, and pick pack parcel distribution and warehousing