Mobile Email Marketing 101

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BLUE SKY FACTORY WEBINAR SERIES

Mobile Email Marketing 101

May 20, 2011

2:00 to 2:45 ET

#MobileEmail

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WHO ARE WE?

Blue Sky Factory Become a better marketer through

effective email marketing

BlueSkyFactory.com

Wood Street, Inc. Bringing your ideas about the

web and mobile into focus

WoodStreet.com

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LET’S TALK ABOUT MOBILE

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SOME STATS ON MOBILE

• Mobile is growing EVERY DAY!

• Of the 4 billion mobile phones in use, 1.08 billion are smartphones.

• Smartphones showed the strongest growth in 2010; this continues in 2011.

• Most popular activities on the mobile web are search, reading news and sports

information, downloading music and videos, and email and instant messages.

- Think Marketing: Mobile Marketing and Usage: Statistics and Facts for 2011

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EMAIL DOMINATES WEB TIME

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MOBILE IN EMAIL

• 85% of smartphone users check their email on their smartphones (e.g., read the

subject line and from address), and 82% actually read their email on their

smartphone. - ExactTarget (2009)

• 43% of mobile email users check email four or more times per day, compared to 29%

of those who do not use mobile email. - Merkle "View From the Digital Inbox 2011” (2011)

• 13.36% of emails are opened by a mobile operating system or device. - Knotice (2011)

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BUT…

Only 31.6% of US marketers said having an

optimized mobile marketing experience for

customers is important.

- eROI "The Current State of Social, Mobile, & Email Integration" (2010)

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WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

IT MEANS… PEOPLE READ EMAIL ON MOBILE - ACT ACCORDINGLY!

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ARE YOUR EMAILS GETTING READ ON MOBILE DEVICES?

Use Google Analytics or another tool to find out. Get instructions and learn more in

“How to Measure Your Mobile Email Marketing Strategy.”

http://blog.blueskyfactory.com/creativeanddesign/how-to-measure-your-mobile-email-marketing-strategy/

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TWEETAWAY

Mobile email usage is growing; adoption by marketers lags. #MobileEmail

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DESIGNING EMAILS FOR MOBILE

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GETTING INTO THE INBOX

• Inbox = eMarketing gatekeeper

• Your crucial first impression

• Take this moment seriously!

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DON’T BE THAT GUY!

Source: http://daveatherall.blogspot.com/

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THE EMAIL MARKETING TRIFECTA

From Name

Subject Line

Preheader

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FROM NAME

From Name • Subscribers scan for familiarity • Use a company or brand name they know

• People trust names they know, and they will

click on those names

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SUBJECT LINE

Subject Line

• 15 characters or less is ideal

• Make it eye-catching AND relevant

• Make it irresistible!

• Consistency helps

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PREHEADER

Preheader

• This is preview text for the email

• Usually “View in Your Browser" or similar

• Use this as a way to hook them “Special Offer Inside” “Great Marketing Tips in This Email”

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5 THINGS TO CONSIDER

1. Think about thumbs

2. Space things with touch screens in mind

3. How much is enough content?

4. How much is too much?

5. Keep it scannable

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AN ANATOMY LESSON

Note: A minimum of 44px by 44px is the average finger tap on an iPhone

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MOBILE EMAIL MARKETING BEST PRACTICES

• Try your color palette in different lighting environments

• Keep the main navigation to three or four links

• Think about fluid (liquid) designs for best adaptation (minimum width of 320px)

• Use lists rather than tables

• Reduce load time by using CSS3 instead of images for gradients, rounded corners, shadows, etc.

• Place important content on the left

• Maintain visual consistency with your existing website (if you have one)

• Reduce the amount of text

• Use legible fonts on every screen; don’t rely on the resolution

• Use background colors to separate sections

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TWEETAWAY

When designing emails for mobile, user experience is most important. #MobileEmail

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CREATING A MOBILE VERSION

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SCREEN SIZE AND OTHER HEADACHES

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SCREEN SIZE

Rank Phone Type Resolution

#1 Nexus One 800 x 480

#2 Droid Incredible 480 x 800

#3 Apple iPhone 3 GS (32 GB) 480 x 800

#4 HTC Evo 480 x 800

#5 Blackberry Bold 9650 480 x 360

#6 HTC HD2 480 x 800

#7 Motorola Droid 480 x 854

#8 Palm Pre 320 x 480

Design for minimum of 320 px wide OR

Place most important information within a 340 px-wide area.

Mobile is a vast array of shapes and sizes.

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TWEETAWAY

Email displays differently on different mobile screens; account for your target devices.

#MobileEmail

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4 WAYS TO ENSURE CROSS DEVICE COMPATIBILITY

1. Use a tool to test

http://litmus.com/

http://www.returnpath.net/commercialsender/monitoring/gold/

2. Design for lowest common denominator

480 px wide

Design for legibility at 50% size of original (for feature phones)

3. Use Meta tags and CSS to allow for proper rendering in devices

CSS3 for setting up styles, etc.

Meta tags can alert the device to render certain ways:

• <meta name="“viewport”" content="“width=320”"> for rendering properly

on an iPhone for example

4. Design with a grid format using color and areas of content that can adjust variably - StrongMail Blog (2011)

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DIFFERENT DEVICES, DIFFERENT RESULTS

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TWEETAWAY

Mobile email conversion = encouraging the open & designing for conversion. #MobileEmail

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GETTING MOBILE SUBSCRIBERS TO CONVERT

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ENCOURAGE THE OPEN

• Keep best practices in mind

Send time

Frequency

From name

Subject line

• Make sure your subject line & preheader

work together

• Build relationships

• Provide value

Read more on Wood Street’s blog, “4 Ways to Get Your Emails Opened.”

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DESIGN FOR CONVERSIONS

• K.I.S.S. (Keep it Simple, Silly!)

• Refine your call-to-action

Mother-in-law test

Arm’s length test

• Above the fold

Main call-to-action

Share links

Flickr: quinn.anya

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GROWING YOUR AUDIENCE

• SMS/text messaging

In-person events

Signage

Traditional media

• QR Codes

• Mobile application (such as Blue Sky Factory's

Publicaster)

• Optimize for mobile

Clear contact information

Include share links

Read more on mobile on the Blue Sky Factory blog.

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WE WRITE USEFUL STUFF ALL THE TIME!

Visit the Wood Street blog for more on web & mobile.

Latest posts: • 3 Reasons Design Matters on a Web Site • 3 Reasons Your Web Site is Still Important • Why Your Web Site Needs Email Marketing

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FREE EMAIL MARKETING EBOOK

http://www.blueskyfactory.com/mobilewebinar

Download “50 Ways to Build Your Email Marketing List”: BlueSkyFactory.com/mobilewebinar

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THANK YOU!

Amy Garland Client Services Manager

Blue Sky Factory @amygarland

BlueSkyFactory.com

@blueskyfactory Blog.BlueSkyFactory.com

866.216.BLUE

Jon-Mikel Bailey Founder & President

Wood Street, Inc. @jonmikelbailey

WoodStreet.com @woodstreetweb Wood Street Blog

301.668.5006