When Apple launched its newest iPhone recently, it sold 1 million units the first weekend. That means a million more people are helping to shift the email landscape and making the mobile phone itself the new inbox.
It also means the mobile revolution is officially on your doorstep.
Here’s the bad news: It’s no longer business as usual, especially if you send business-oriented, time-sensitive information. Mobile email is a much different user experience and poses a different set of challenges to overcome.
Design challenges are foremost. Your message content has to show up no matter what the mobile’s email program does to it (and be warned, mobile email can get ugly). Also, going mobile-friendly means changing other aspects of your email program, too.
And now, here’s the good news: You can get the jump on your competitors who haven’t gotten the message yet, just by making a few changes.
The following list can help you get started, beginning today.
Five top tips
1. Find out how many of your readers are viewing messages on their mobiles right now.
You might not be able to pinpoint the exact number, but you can come close:
– Ask your readers. Link to a survey in your next regular mailing, or send a stand-alone message. Ask if the reader views email on a mobile, on a desktop/laptop, some other device such as an iPod Touch (like the iPhone minus the phone), Blackberry or a combination of these, how well the messages appear or what problems occur.
– Track your open and click rates across your last 10 mailings. Falling open rates combined with steady click or conversion rates can indicate many things, including more readers viewing email on mobiles that don’t render HMTL and thus don’t register opens.
– Create a mobile-only version (see Tips No. 2 and 4 below) and track how many people either click the link to investigate it or sign up for it.
Or, if you want to know more precisely, try a new service that reports on how many of your subscribers receive your emails via their BlackBerry or iPhone (as well as other browsers): http://www.fingerprintapp.com/.
2. Upgrade your design to display better across most major devices.
Every device displays email a little differently, so don’t worry about optimising a single message for each one (you’d go crazy!). Just go for the lowest common denominator:
– Drop the postcard-style single large image. It won’t show up on most common mobiles. Instead, put key copy in plain or HTML text, such as the offer or call to action.
– Strip your top menus out of the design. They can take up a page or two on a mobile, which the subscriber has to wade through to get to the good stuff.
– Use a complete URL (e.g. www.YourCompany.co.uk/specialoffer) instead of cloaking it behind an image or text like “click here.”
– Even on the iPhone and iPod Touch, which display HTML images by default, an HTML message can show up only thumbnail-size, rendering text illegible.
– Don’t expect the text version of multi-part messages (with both HTML and text versions in one) to appear automatically. HTML subscribers who view messages on a non-HTML-rendering mobile will still get the HTML in all its garbled glory.
– Avoid tracking code on URLS if possible, because it makes them overlong (or use a Service Provider who provides shorter tracking URLs).
3. Stand out in the mobile inbox with a recognisable sender line and accurate subject line.
The mobile inbox has room for only five to 10 messages on a screen. This can also include spam that would otherwise get filtered to the junk folder in a desktop email client.
So, leave no doubt in your subscriber’s mind about who you are and what you’re doing in the inbox:
– Put your company or brand name, or your newsletter name in the sender line. Never use a person’s name your readers might not recognise or trust. Avoid displaying an email address if possible. If you think the email address might show up anyway, use one that shows your company or brand name, not your email-sending service.
– Put the key information first in the subject line, such as call to action or the offer. That way, important information remains if the mobile inbox cuts off the subject line before the end.
4. Use and promote a mobile version.
If you decide that it is warranted, provide a mobile version and highlight the option on your opt-in page with a little salesmanship: “Mobile email readers choose this,” for example.
Promote it within your regular emails, too. A multi-prong approach using your opt-in page, your standard email message and your mailing list can pinpoint the issue:
Add your mobile version to your opt-in page with a note saying something like “Mobile users, choose this version.” Then, track the clicks.
Promote it in your email message, in either plain or HTML text, which will show up even if the images don’t: “Using a mobile to read this message? Click here for our custom mobile version” and link to your opt-in page.
5. Test, test, test.
Test both for rendering accuracy and to see if your mobile readers react differently to your messages:
– You should already test your email messages on different operating systems, different email clients and different browsers. Just add a mobile test to the mix. And not just your own BlackBerry or iPhone but your mum’s lower-end phone, too.
– Save time and use a third-party service that can do all this and much more for a relatively low cost. Vendors include Return Path (http://www.returnpath.net/), Pivotal Veracity (http://www.pivotalveracity.com/) and Litmusapp (http://www.litmusapp.com/).
– Track subscriber activity, too. Use strategic metrics rather than those that just measure deliverability or clicks. See if your mobile readers are clicking on your call to action link more or less than your desktop readers, or if order size, download rate, or what-have-you differ significantly.
6. Don’t forget the Web.
After you trim down your HTML email, consider doing the same for your Web site. No use sending your readers to a landing page that functions no better on their mobiles than your old email did. The World Wide Web Consortium (3WC for short) has a list of best practices here: www.w3.org/TR/mobile-bp.
Don’t overhaul overnight
Your first step is to assess how your email looks now on mobiles. What you see on your own screen will dictate your first moves. But do something, and soon. Come the revolution, you’ll be ready.
