Emerging Email Tactics and Trends - Mike Snusz - Scanpo 2013
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Emerging Email Tactics and Trends - Mike Snusz - Scanpo 2013
- 1. 4/21/2014 Footer 1 EMERGING EMAIL TACTICS & TRENDS: WHERE TO FOCUS YOUR EFFORTS Mike Snusz Sr. Internet Marketing Consultant
- 2. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 2 • 10 years working at or with nonprofits • Email, fundraising & online strategy consulting • Strategist for Guide Creative • Blog: www.npENGAGE.com • Twitter: @mikesnusz • Based in D.C. ABOUT ME
- 3. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 3 1. Mobile (including 10 ways to create mobile-friendly emails) 2. Email testing 3. Multi-channel integration 4. Triggered emails 5. Personalization AGENDA: 5 EMERGING EMAIL TACTICS & TRENDS
- 4. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 4 EMERGING TREND #1: MOBILE
- 5. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 5 IN CASE YOU HAVEN’T HEARD.. •5 billion mobile users 5x more than PC-based •More time spent on mobile apps than web last year •Average person carries smartphone 23 hours per day. Source: Yext Infograph
- 6. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 6 TIPPING POINT? Knotice predicts: End of 2013! Knotice’s Mobile Email Opens Report: 1st Half of 2012
- 7. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 7 YOUR INBOX: A CLUTTERED, COMPETITIVE PLACE MOBILE DEVICE
- 8. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 8 MOBILE EMAIL OPENS BY TIME OF DAY Source: Knotice’s Mobile Email Opens Report: 1st Half of 2011
- 9. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 9 MOBILE EMAIL CLICK-THROUGH BY TIME OF DAY Source: Knotice’s Mobile Open Report: 1st Half 2011
- 10. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 10 CLICKS LACKING ON MOBILE DEVICES Source: Knotice’s Mobile Open Report: 1st Half 2012 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Education Retail Entertainment Associations Desktop Open % Mobile Opens % Desktop Click % Mobile Click %
- 11. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 11 EMAIL OPENS INCREASING, CLICKS DECREASING Source: Epsilon and Email Experience Council “Q3 2012 Email Trends and Benchmarks,” June 20, 2012
- 12. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 12 READING EMAILS LATER? 98% of emails are only being opened on one type of device Source: Knotice’s Mobile Email Opens Report: 1st Half of 2012
- 13. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 13 Images Blocked By Default: Hotmail Yahoo Gmail Blackberry Android Default Android Gmail Outlook 2003 Outlook 2007 Outlook for Mac 2011 Windows Live Hotmail Windows Mobile 7 AOL Webmail/Desktop Images Not Blocked By Default: iPhone/iPad Outlook Express Apple Mail Lotus Notes Source: http://awe.sm/5y5lA WHY ARE OPEN RATES INCREASING?
- 14. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 14 MOBILE DEVICES RESPONSIBLE FOR MOST OPENS? Source: Knotice’s Mobile Email Opens Report: 2nd Half of 2012
- 15. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 15 FOCUS ON IMPROVING CLICKS The largest difference between high and low performing nonprofit email programs was in email click-through rates* *2010 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study, NTEN & M+R
- 16. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 16 EMAIL RENDERING ON MOBILE DEVICES
- 17. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 17 EXAMPLE – DESKTOP RENDERING
- 18. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 18 IPHONE RENDERING •Scales down email to fit in screen •Initial text size controlled by width of email
- 19. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 19 ANDROID RENDERING •Cuts off right side of email •Inability to pinch/zoom on some devices •Does not scale email to fit •About 320px width shows
- 20. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 20 ANDROID RENDERING
- 21. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 21 10 WAYS TO CREATE MOBILE-FRIENDLY EMAILS
- 22. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 22 1. USE RESPONSIVE DESIGN Desktop view
- 23. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 23 1. USE RESPONSIVE DESIGN: MEDIA QUERIES iphone view
- 24. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 24 1. RESPONSIVE DESIGN: MEDIA QUERIES iphone view
- 25. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 25 2. WIDTH 600 PIXELS 500 pixels 500 PIXELS : 320PX – 550PX
- 26. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 26 3. TEXT SIZE Apple minimum:13px Apple can automatically resizes text under this Android: 16-18px are medium-large text size Headlines: 22px+
- 27. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 27 4. KNOW YOUR PREHEADER
- 28. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 28 5. SUBJECT LINE: UNDER 34 CHARACTERS
- 29. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 29 6. BUTTON SIZE
- 30. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 30 7. KEEP IT SIMPLE
- 31. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 31 8. LINKS
- 32. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 32 9. MOBILE-FRIENDLY LANDING PAGE
- 33. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 33 10. KEEP EMAIL SIZE UNDER 102KB
- 34. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 34 BONUS TIP: PREVIEW EMAIL RENDERING AT LITMUS.COM
- 35. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 35 MOBILE: WHERE TO FOCUS YOUR EFFORTS 1. Understand where you’re at 2. Simplify 3. Get ahead of the game by using media queries
- 36. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 36 EMERGING TREND #2: EMAIL TESTING
- 37. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 37 WHICH SUBJECT LINE TEST WON? Red Shoe Shindig Celebration of 30 Years Helping Families vs. Grab your Red Shoes and Join Us at Hangar 10 to Celebrate 30 Years! Click-Through Rate 7% Higher
- 38. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 38 WHICH SUBJECT LINE TEST WON? You Can Help the Next Generation of SVA Artists Today vs. Support the Talent Open Rate 6% Higher
- 39. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 39 WHICH SUBJECT LINE TEST WON? Sunbeam News - Adult Education Returns to Tamassee vs. Sunbeam News - Awards Date Announced Open Rate 7% Higher
- 40. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 40 WHICH SUBJECT LINE TEST WON? Make a Difference This Year! Join WVF vs. Invest in Yourself, Join WVF Today Click-Through Rate 5% Higher
- 41. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 41 WHICH LINK WAS CLICKED MOST?
- 42. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 42 WHY TEST? According to top email programs: • 82% test and measure everything* • Email testing is the most important value driver* *2011 Gleanster survey on Email Marketing
- 43. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 43 MOST EFFECTIVE ELEMENTS TO TEST 1. Target audience 2. Landing page 3. Subject line 4. Call-to-action link Source: 2011 MarketingSherpa Email Marketing Benchmark Survey
- 44. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 44 IDEAS FOR TESTING CALL TO ACTION
- 45. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 45 HOW TO TEST? 1. A/B or multi-variate? 2. Send 2 tests • Over 10,000 10% • Under 5,000 20% 3. Review test results and check statistical significance eMarketingDynamics.com calculator 4. Send “winning” message 5. Repeat
- 46. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 46 RECORD TEST RESULTS • Simple spreadsheet • Date • Audience/List • Variable tested • Open rate • Click-through rate • Conversion rate • Unsubscribe rate
- 47. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 47 TESTING: WHERE TO FOCUS YOUR EFFORTS 1. Subject lines 2. Call to action links
- 48. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 48 EMERGING TREND #3: MULTI-CHANNEL
- 49. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 49 EMAIL PROMOTE OTHER CHANNELS
- 50. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 50 MULTI-CHANNEL INTEGRATION Which channels are most often integrated with email? 86% - Website 78% - Social media 50% - Events 45% - Blogs 33% - Direct mail Source: 2011 MarketingSherpa Email Marketing Benchmark Survey
- 51. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 51 INTEGRATING EMAIL AND WEB PAGES
- 52. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 52 INTEGRATING SOCIAL MEDIA INTO EMAIL
- 53. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 53 INTEGRATING SOCIAL MEDIA/BLOGS INTO EMAIL
- 54. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 54 PROMOTING CHANNELS FROM EMAIL SIGNUPS
- 55. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 55 PROMOTING CHANNELS FROM EMAIL SIGNUPS
- 56. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 56 PROMOTING CHANNELS FROM EMAIL SIGNUPS
- 57. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 57 OTHER CHANNELS PROMOTE EMAIL
- 58. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 58 TOP TACTICS TO GROW EMAIL LIST • 75% - Website registration page • 47% - Offline events • 47% - Social media sharing buttons Source: 2011 MarketingSherpa Email Marketing Benchmark Survey
- 59. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 59 EMAIL LIST GROWTH Source: The Relevancy Group LLC Executive Survey 4/12 Most used & Most valuable channels 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% Website Social Sites Paid Search SMS Text Opt-in Use Delivers most valuable subscribers
- 60. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 60 DRIVING EMAIL SIGNUPS FROM PINTEREST
- 61. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 61 PROMOTING EMAIL SIGNUP ON YOUR WEBSITE
- 62. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 62 PROMOTING EMAIL SIGNUP ON YOUR WEBSITE
- 63. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 63 AGAPE
- 64. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 64 GO PROUD http://www.goproud.org/
- 65. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 65 SHADOWBOX/POP-UP
- 66. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 66 EMAIL SIGNUP FROM SEARCH?
- 67. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 67 EMAIL INTEGRATED INTO SEARCH RESULTS?
- 68. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 68 MULTI-CHANNEL: WHERE TO FOCUS YOUR EFFORTS 1. Make email signup a priority on your website 2. Drive channel engagement from email
- 69. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 69 EMERGING TREND #4: TRIGGERED EMAILS
- 70. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 70 WHAT IS A TRIGGERED EMAIL? An email, or series of emails, automatically sent in response to a certain action
- 71. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 71 WHY SHOULD YOU CARE? What is the most effective way to improve relevancy of email Messages? 1. Automatically send email based on triggers* 2. Send email campaigns based on behavior* *Source: 2011 Marketing Sherpa Email Marketing Benchmark Report Sending the right message to the right constituent at the right time can be almost impossible to manually organize!
- 72. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 72 4X MORE OPENS AND 5X MORE CLICKS Source: Experian: The welcome email report: benchmark data and analysis for engaging new subscribers through email marketing 4x MORE OPENS 5X MORE CLICKS
- 73. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 73 10X MORE REVENUE & 10X HIGHER TRANSACTION RATES Source: Experian: The welcome email report: benchmark data and analysis for engaging new subscribers through email marketing 10x MORE REVENUE 10X HIGHER TRANSACTION RATES
- 74. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 74 EMAIL #1: PERSONAL GREETING Remind Feel-Good Thank Website Expecta- tions Educate Give Share
- 75. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 75 EMAIL #2: WAYS TO GET INVOLVED Remind Feel-Good Give Monthly Donate Add Address Events Volunteer
- 76. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 76 TYPES OF TRIGGERED EMAIL SERIES •Email signup welcome series •Donation welcome series •Event registration welcome series •Community signup welcome series •Membership purchase welcome series •Membership expiring series •Monthly donor credit card expiring series
- 77. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 77 KEY DETAILS Involvement: •Time and effort to initially setup •Monitor ongoing results and adjust campaign •Coordinate with other emails Benefits: •Deliver extremely targeted, timely, relevant messages •Automated! •Limited time commitment after setup
- 78. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 78 TRIGGERED EMAILS: WHERE TO FOCUS YOUR EFFORTS 1. Email subscriber welcome series 2. Donor welcome series
- 79. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 79 EMERGING TREND #5: PERSONALIZATION
- 80. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 80 • Top tactic to deliver relevant and engaging content* • Open rates increase 7% & click-through rates increase 80%** • Click-through rates twice as high first 30 days*** *2011 MarketingSherpa Email Marketing Benchmark Survey **MailerMailer 2010 Email Marketing Metrics Report ***MarketingSherpa "Email Marketing Benchmark Guide 2008” WHY DOES PERSONALIZED CONTENT MATTER?
- 81. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 81 • Provide value • Connection • Without relevant content, risk: - Level of engagement - Level of attention - Decreased response - Weakened relationship WHAT DOES PERSONALIZED CONTENT DO?
- 82. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 82 AMAZON
- 83. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 83 SPCA ERIE COUNTY Campaign Emails Click-through rate Email #1 1.68% Email #2 1.98% Email #3 (personalized) 3.50% 2010 participants 2009 participants 2008 participants 2007 participants
- 84. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 84 UDM ALUMNI NEWSLETTER Audience Open rate School of Architecture 23.5% Engineering Grads 18.9% Everyone Else 11.9% School of Architecture Engineering Grads
- 85. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 85 DELIVER RELEVANT CONTENT
- 86. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 86 DELIVER RELEVANT CONTENT
- 87. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 87 HIDDEN WAYS TO PERSONALIZE ANY EMAIL Cultivate • Thank recent donors • Tell how donations were used • Thank recent event attendees • Thank recent volunteers Provide value • Deliver relevant content • Reminders (membership, event reminders)
- 88. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 88 CULTIVATE: THANK DONORS & TELL HOW DONATIONS WERE USED
- 89. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 89 HIDDEN WAYS TO PERSONALIZE ANY EMAIL Solicit • Match areas of interest to funding opportunities • Provide past gift info • Planned giving prospects Data Integrity • Missing information • Verify information
- 90. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 90 www.3dayz.com/subscribe PROVIDE VALUE: ASK FOR INTERESTS
- 91. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 91 PERSONALIZATION: WHERE TO FOCUS YOUR EFFORTS 1. Make it a priority to ask people what they’re interested in 2. For appeals, pick main audiences and connect with them
- 92. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 92 A FINAL WORD ABOUT…CONTENT
- 93. 4/21/2014 Blackbaud Confidential 93 QUESTIONS? 3 Additional Resources: 1. npENGAGE.com 2. Blackbaud.com/Nonprofit-Events 3. GuideCreative.com/Blog
Editor's Notes
- The ratio of email recipients choosing to view and read emails on their mobile devices – whether smartphones or tablets – is increasing extremely quickly. This audience grew on average 36% in just half of a year. A chart showing email read on a desktop would show the opposite.And the pace may quicken still, as the adoption rate of smartphones and tablets combined continues to grow. From a marketing perspective, the progression from emerging consumer behavior to established consumer behavior is ridiculously fast – better measured in months, not years. Viewing emails on mobile devices may be the established, majority behavior within a year. Simply put, organizations do not have the luxury of time, and to put mobile optimization of email on the back burner may be extremely detrimental.
- As people are on the subway, at a bar, restaurant, or coffee shop, waiting in line, and at their desk, in bed, you’re competing even more
- The share of email opens occurring on mobile devices spikes during early morning hours and start to increase in the early evening. Could be that user are checking email on the mobile device shortly after waking up and during other “downtime” activities like watching TV in the evening . Once the workday begins, computers are back in greater use.
- When we look at the correlating graph for mobile email clicks by time-of-day, we see a far less pronounced peak-and-valley trend. Instead, the mobile click-to-open rate remains relatively consistent during the day. In fact, when mobile open rates were highest early in the morning, the click rate is at it’s lowest of the day. Similarly, while mobile open rates starting increasing in the early evening, the click rate starts to decrease. The conclusion? During the times mobile users open emails the most, they’re not necessarily clicking through to take action. This has been pretty consistent in the past 18 months of their analyses.
- The report looked at 11 industries altogether. I’m showing your 4. Looks at the disparity between the two green bars (opens on desktops vs. mobile) compared to the larger disparity of blue bars (click % on desktops vs. mobile). Across all 11 industries, there was a much larger disparity between on desktop clicks vs. mobile clicks than there was of desktop opens vs. mobile opens.
- Email open rates in North America have been rising for a few quarters to 26.2% in Q12012. Data from Epsilon and Email Experience Council for the last two years showed clickthroughs fell below 5% for the first time in the first quarter of 2012. So what's going on? Chances are the interfaces for checking email on mobile devices make it easier to "open" an email thereby leading to higher "false positive" open rates. Once opened, these emails are quickly deleted and not acted on leading to lower click-through rates. Call it a hunch.When mobile click-to-open rates lag far behind desktop click-to-open rates, it suggests consumers aren’t having desired or ideal experiences when they decide to open an email on their mobile device. This can range from poor rendering for emails and web pages that are not optimized for mobile devices, to “desktop-oriented” content and calls-to-action that are less valuable to mobile users – regardless of how they are rendered. Investment in optimized email content should turn mobile opens into a greater rate of mobile actions. We can attribute the lag in mobile and tablet click rates to the fact that most email marketers are not yet optimizing email content for mobile users.
- One of the theories you may hear is that users will leverage their phones to perform a quick preview of their inbox and specific emails (aka, “inbox triage”), but take no immediate action – saving the email to open later on a desktop or tablet device when they have more free time. Knotice’s reports of the past 18 months has consistently debunked this assertion. Consumers today see a subject line. If they open it, they want to act on whatever call to action is presented to them. If they don’t act in that moment, Knotice’s data shows only about 2% will reopen that email on another device – whether on their desktop device, smartphone, or tablet.
- Why are open rates increasing? Here’s one possiblility. Who knows how open rates are determined? Email marketing vendors track opens by using a hidden pixel placed in an HTML email. It’s important to note that iPhone readership can skew high, since images are shown by default when an email is opened. Android readership can skew low because the reader must often choose to show images in the email, which doesn’t always register an open. The iPhone Mail app has images turned on by default, so they’re always downloaded when an email is opened (including the one-pixel image email service providers use to track opens). As you can see, most other clients have images turned off by default, so iPhones might show open rates that are higher than the actual number. So what's going on? Chances are the iPhone makes it easier to "open" an email thereby leading to higher "false positive" open rates. Once opened, these emails are quickly deleted and not acted on leading to lower click-through rates. Call it a hunch.
- Email opens occurring on phones continue to outpace those occurring on tablets, withmobile phones representing 25.85% of all email opens and tablets 10.16%.
- No question mobile usage is increasing and will continue, and will overtake desktop at some point. Just know that as you see mobile open rates continue to increase, it’s possible those rates are slightly exaggerated. Be sure to check your click-through rates, as they’re really where the action takes place. And (slide above)…
- The iPhone scales your email down by default so that the widest element in the email fits within its viewport. From there, the user must scale it back up (outward pinch) in order to read it. After scaling up your email, they will be forced to scroll left and right to read each line. By resizing your widest graphic and/or HTML container, you can control the size of your text at first glance.
- The Android handles text readability much differently. In this device, your text (usually) wraps within the center viewport and the rest of the graphics and/or HTML containers can be scrolled from left to right. Therefore, important messages often get cut off to the right of the viewport window. Check out our Android demo to see what I mean. http://www.emailonacid.com/blog/details/C13/repurpose_your_images_for_mobile_emailIf you’re using a two-column template, consider using a smaller left column and wider right column (figure 20). In our research, we found that if the right column takes up the entire screen on initial download, the reader doesn’t always remember that there may be an additional column hiding on the right side. Android users in our research had an easier time reading single-column (figure 21) and left-sidebar designs. Also watch the margins and padding on the edges of your email. For instance, on the Galaxy Nexus in the Gmail app, if your text is right against the edge of the screen and your reader scrolls too far horizontally to read the text, they’ll scroll to the next email instead of to the end of the text or image they’re viewing. We’re going to save you some headache here. Unless you’re getting down to the super nitty-gritty details, most emails look the same on most Android devices. The differences come in how the Android user chooses to set up their device for email, and in what app they choose to read their email. They can set an overriding text size, set download limits, choose plain-text only emails, and set all their email to clear out of their inbox in a number of days, which doesn’t help much with saving for later.However, they don’t have a lot of control over the HTML email display. It’s common for an HTML email on an Android device to show only a small portion of the email at a time (figure 19).This, of course, leads to a lot of scrolling left, right, up, and down for your reader. Add to that the inability on some Android devices (especially in the Gmail app) to pinch/zoom in email, your reader is just going to have to scroll to read your content. And if the device does allow pinch/zoom, it often doesn’t zoom the images, but just the text to better fit the screen. Ouch.So if you know you’re sending to an Android-heavy readership, take these tips into consideration.All taken from MailChimp post. http://mailchimp.com/resources/guides/html/email-on-mobile-devices/
- 6. Use Media QueriesMedia queries are a big player in any responsive design, and luckily they can be used in your mobile friendly email campaign as well! With media queries, you can specifically adjust the font size, change height and width of content blocks, and hide or show certain elements just for the mobile layout.Media queries are a way to change content delivery according to media types and media features. The idea behind a media query is simple: Change presentation rules (CSS) when certain conditions are met. For example, if the screen is small, your CSS can reflow the layout and increase the font size to make a better reading experience.On a mobile screen, an ideal solution is to have the email fill the screen completely, regardless of whether the phone is in portrait or landscape orientation. Media queries help you change the width of your email from a set pixel width on desktop to 100% of the screen when viewed on a mobile device.When you code your templates and include media queries, you can also bump up your email’s text size, change a font or do more cool things with email-valid CSS when viewed on mobile. Tech journalist Dave Pell uses media queries in his HTML emails to scale type to a legible size for mobile reading (figure 9).All taken from MailChimp post. http://mailchimp.com/resources/guides/html/email-on-mobile-devices/
- Media queries are a way to change content delivery according to media types and media features. The idea behind a media query is simple: Change presentation rules (CSS) when certain conditions are met. For example, if the screen is small, your CSS can reflow the layout and increase the font size to make a better reading experience.On a mobile screen, an ideal solution is to have the email fill the screen completely, regardless of whether the phone is in portrait or landscape orientation. Media queries help you change the width of your email from a set pixel width on desktop to 100% of the screen when viewed on a mobile device.When you code your templates and include media queries, you can also bump up your email’s text size, change a font or do more cool things with email-valid CSS when viewed on mobile. Tech journalist Dave Pell uses media queries in his HTML emails to scale type to a legible size for mobile reading (figure 9).All taken from MailChimp post. http://mailchimp.com/resources/guides/html/email-on-mobile-devices/6. Use Media QueriesMedia queries are a big player in any responsive design, and luckily they can be used in your mobile friendly email campaign as well! With media queries, you can specifically adjust the font size, change height and width of content blocks, and hide or show certain elements just for the mobile layout.
- Don’t work in Gmail App
- Use a max of 600px, but you may consider less than that. If 320 px (iPhone width) is too skinny, try between 480 – 520px. Android: 480px, Blackberry: 360pxWhile IOS devices zoom to fit your email within the width of the screen, Android and other don’t. You have to scroll. Consider trimming your email width to between 320-550px.
- Be Aware: Automatic Text ResizingOne important thing to keep in mind if you use small font size in your layout: webkit email clients (iPhone, Pre, and Android) will increase font size on text smaller than 13px, which could potentially break your layout. To avoid your text being resized, define “-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%” in the CSS.Strive for font size minimum of 14px and headlines of 22px or higherIt might seem cliché, but readers in their mid-40s and older do mention having trouble reading tiny text on mobile devices. Luckily, the Apple recommended font size of 17-22pts in mobile emails satisfies most mobile readers (figure 15 and 16)(4). Large 18px (left) and 19px (right) type makes reading on a mobile device much easier All taken from MailChimp post. http://mailchimp.com/resources/guides/html/email-on-mobile-devices/ 2. Legible Font Size for Desktop and MobileWhat’s a comfortable font size that could be read on big monitors or small screens? Our general rule of thumb here at Bluetrain Mobile is to set body text no lower than 13px. I believe that is a pretty good measure. You may also utilize relative values such as: medium, large, x-large, xx-large (I recommend never using small, x-small, and xx-small). Once you set the body text value, you should use em to define headings. For example, set the h1 tag font size to 1.6em, h2 to 1.4em, h3 to 1.2em, and so on.Pulled directly from http://www.bluetrainmobile.com/blog/7-tips-for-creating-mobile-friendly-email-campaigns/
- There’s now a third thing people will initially see
- Under 35 characters --- will fit on first line and in Inbox view in IPhone
- Don’t be afraid to make it a bigger size. Apples Human Interface Guidelines recommends a minimum target area of 44 px x 44 px.
- Less is more. You have less space, so err on keeping your design simple. Use whitespace and line spacing. Increase button sizes. Help the reader out by bolding your most important phrases. Less off your message shows up so get to the point quicker.While single-column layouts initially look good on a mobile device, they aren’t very practical. Half of the people we spoke to knew to use double tap to expand text to the size of the screen, but few enjoy using it. Double tap doesn’t offer much control over expansion of the text, and often results in accidentally tapping an image or link. When zooming is necessary, most people prefer to pinch/zoom the text to exactly the size they want to read. Zooming in on a single-column mobile email often leads to scrolling left to right while reading, which can be distracting and seen as an interruption in the flow of an article (figure 10). It’s important to take into consideration the way the email will look on a desktop if you use a single column, which, again, is where media queries and appropriate text sizes can make your mobile email very readable. Although it might seem counter-intuitive, multi-column layouts are OK! With two or even three columns, the reader can zoom the text to a comfortable reading size without having to scroll left to right while reading (figure 11).All taken from MailChimp post. http://mailchimp.com/resources/guides/html/email-on-mobile-devices/3. One Column to Rule Them AllWhen there is a fair amount of text, multi-column layout almost never works on mobile. It’s best to stick to an one-column fluid layout that adapts to various screen sizes. By doing so, you’d have to set the container table and any scaling images to 100% width, but you must remember to set a max width (ideally 600px), otherwise your layout could become very wide and hard to read on desktop.Pulled directly from http://www.bluetrainmobile.com/blog/7-tips-for-creating-mobile-friendly-email-campaigns/2. Make the left hand column 320 pixels wide. The new iPhone 4 has a resolution of 640 but there are still plenty of other email mobile readers and users with smaller screen resolutions. As time passes and smart phones get higher resolution screens you may need to upgrade to 640, but for right now, stay with 320.. Use a two-column template and place your main content to the left. That’s all that will be visible on most smart phones, without requiring the user to move the content around. But with the second column in place you’ll be able to display additional content to those who will read your email on a computer. Pulled directly from http://lightspandigital.com/make-your-email-mobile-friendly/
- Make sure your readers know where the links are. Remember, no hover state. Make sure links show up underlined or use outlines or subtle shadows.Style Links and Calls to ActionConsider using thumb-friendly buttons for your ‘Read more,” ‘Buy now,” and social-media links. Big buttons are not only more visible on a mobile screen, they’re also easier to interact with. When asked to compare two newsletters, we observed that readers more easily notice icons and buttons instead of links as calls to action, especially if a small font is used (figure18).If you really want to use text, keep the sizing guidelines in mind, but note that some readers also mentioned that while it’s old school, it helps to have links underlined in mobile emails to make them stand out. If the link is buried in a paragraph of text and is just a different color, it looks like it’s highlighted text rather than a link (figure 17).All taken from MailChimp post. http://mailchimp.com/resources/guides/html/email-on-mobile-devices/7. Have Touchy FeelingsMobile users have different behaviors: links are for touching, not clicking. It’s best to keep in mind that calls to action should be big enough for the mobile user to touch with a large thumb! The recommended hot link area is at least 44px in height and width. Avoid having text links too close to each other. Pulled directly from http://lightspandigital.com/make-your-email-mobile-friendly/4. Make clickable links and calls to action tappable. In other words, make them big enough for a finger to comfortably tap on them. Yes my friends, it’s a finger-tapping economy so adapt your emails to it.Pulled directly from http://lightspandigital.com/make-your-email-mobile-friendly/
- Between smartphones, smaller tablets and larger tablets, the mobile screen size can vary from roughly 3” to 10” or larger. Even more meaningful though is that tablet users and phone users demonstrate much different behaviors, as do users of the primary operating systems, iOS and Android. Add to the equation the emergence of smaller tablets such as the Kindle Fire or Samsung Galaxy, where user traits are something of a hybrid between traditional smartphone and tablet user traits. A mobile optimization plan needs to account for these different experiences to provide a best possible user experience whether the screen is 4”, 7” or 10”, in terms of device identification, rendering, and best support for the different user needs.
- Video link had as many clicks as other links combined. 3x as many as top right corner link. 3x as many as the main left column link. PS link had 0 clicks.
- Can do more on your website – donate, register for an event, watch a video, explore your website. Experiment with color.
- Multivariate testing tends to be used for smaller changes over a longer period of time.A/B testing is a great testing method if you need meaningful results fast. Because the changes from page to page are so stark, it will be easier to tell which page is most effective. It is also the right method to choose if you don't have a ton of traffic to your site. Because of the multiple variables being tested in a multivariate test, you'll need a highly trafficked site to get meaningful results with MVT.If you do have enough site traffic to pull off a successful multivariate test (though you can still use A/B testing if you're testing brand new designs and layouts!) a great time to use the testing method is when you want to make subtle changes to a page and understand how certain elements interact with one another to incrementally improve on an existing design.Pulled directly from:http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33466/Answers-to-the-19-Most-Frequently-Asked-Questions-About-A-B-Testing.aspx#ixzz23jubfWXT
- Consumer study
- Since you don’t really wantto post your email signup forms on Pinterest, here’s an example of posting portions of a graphic-heavy Enewsletter on Pinterest. The caption on Pinterest directs people back to newsletter landing page. After subscribing to newsletter, you’re directed back to Pinterest to a Travel Resource board filled with travel ideas.
- Google is in the testing phaseof AdWords that allow advertisers to collect email addresses directly in the ad unit to additional advertisers. When users sign up,advertisers receive individual emails as people sign up via the AdWordsad.
- Unveiled in August as a field trial. Must be signed into Google. Only for gmail, which has 400 million active users.One of the main selling points of Gmail when it was unveiled back in 2004, was that it had a ridiculous amount of storage capacity, so you didn’t have to worry about deleting emails. From a nonprofit perspective, email drives 1/3 of all online donations come from email (Razoo). Imagine adding email to search results! Increases the value of your email even more.
- Many nonprofits wonder ‘How much email should I send?’ Are we sending too little/too much? For some people, maybe it’s too much. For others, like those who recently donated, attended an event or subscribed to email (i.e. are engaged), maybe it’s too little. Triggered emails can you help deliver more quality content to those who are engaged. Without them, you may be sending engaged constituents the same as everyone else – and that may not be enough.Open rates: 4x higher,CTR: 5x higherTransaction rates: 9x higher
- Point: The real-time acknowledgment email you send is the first opportunity in the welcome series. Signup for email become and advocate or encourage monthly gift. Make a donation signup to volunteer or connect with us on social media. Some may not be revenue-based, but the point is your constituents are into you at this point. Give them other ways to make a difference.
- This could be your organization’s Executive Director, a staff member that works in your development department or a celebrity spokesperson. (Quick tip: Tread lightly with your spokesperson. Constituents want to talk to someone that relates to them on an ongoing basis not just a talking head.) This email will highlight the state of your organization and with educate the new constituents about what your organization does and the people or community that you serve. Focus on educating your new constituents and reminding them what they signed up for. Reinforce benefits and set expectations about what your constituents will receive and how often.
- Have really great programs geared toward families? Looking for volunteers for your homeless ministry? Planning a gala dinner and recruiting committee members? In your second welcome message, place emphasis on educating newcomers on ways to get involved or highlighting the value of being a supporter. Mentioning upcoming events will also give new constituents a chance to meet your staff in person and will likely increase their level of involvement with your organization. Tell them about the ways they can connect with your staff through Facebook or Twitter (Want to learn more about engaging donors with these tools? Check out the also free guide: Woo and Wow Your Donors with Social Media). Do you post great videos that are super sharable? Include a link to Your YouTube channel.
- Traditional, broadcast emails – however targeted – still rely on a big dollop of serendipity to get a response. Did we guess your interests right? Are you ready to buy right now? Is this topic relevant to you today?Trigger emails do a much better job of meeting those challenges.
- Relationship-building tool. Don’t want to weaken it.
- Relationship-building tool. Don’t want to weaken it.
- Much like nonprofit database