Marketing and the Mobile Consumer in Australasia A Jericho White Paper

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1 Marketing and the Mobile Consumer in Australasia A Jericho White Paper

2 Introduction Mobile is changing everything how we research, how we find information, how we communicate, how we purchase and how we read and respond to s. It s growing so fast that it s predicted to soon be the predominant platform for consumption. This is a guide to the mobile consumer and how you can optimise your marketing with the mobile reader in mind. In this report How we re reading s on mobile devices P.1 How marketers are responding to mobile use P.3 Mobile design examples P.3 4 Sending simple s for mobile customers 4 Linking to a Mobile Version of your 4 Mobile first design What you can do right now to make your mobile-friendly P.6 Top tips for creating mobile-friendly s P.6 References P.8

3 How we re reading s on mobile devices As an overworked and multitasking marketer, it s likely that you re regularly triaging your inbox on your smartphone and, where necessary, actually reading and responding to s on the go. You ve no doubt experienced the frustration of clicking a link from your smartphone s inbox and being taken to your browser, only to find the page that opens is not the link you intended to hit. Or maybe you stab at an image and find it simply isn t linked. Worse still, have you been faced with an that simply can t be navigated on mobile? You re not alone! More people have smartphones today than they did yesterday; the same will be true of tomorrow. A key thing to keep in mind is this: The actual % of NZ or AU penetration is irrelevant. The important figure is what percentage of our target markets are significantly driven by smartphone decisions year olds with above average income in metropolitan areas is probably in the 60+% range, and growing. Andrew Malcolm, Applacarte When you search Google or Bing for terms like mobile use or statistics for marketing and mobile or any way you write it, you will see a plethora of results all pointing to the same thing: more and more people are using mobile - out and about - on any given day. We have had a rolling post ( on the Jericho blog ( examining smartphone penetration in Australia and New Zealand. We say rolling because we update it every time we uncover something concrete and relevant to marketers like us. What we ve found most remarkable is that in the 8 or so months the blog s been rolling the reported smartphone penetration has gone from 20% to 44%. That s incredible. Smartphone Penetration Sep-11 May-12 New Zealand 20% 44% Australia 37% 52% The Our Mobile Planet report from Google and Ipsos released in May 2012 asked 1,000 smartphone users in Australia, and 1,000 in New Zealand, why they accessed the internet from their mobiles. Their responses are illustrated in the chart below. The top three answers are the key reasons why you need to take these mobile viewers into account. They access the internet on their mobile primarily to: Pass the time Access information while away from their computer Seek relevant information 1

4 Reasons for using internet on smartphone Australia Base: Smartphone owners Provides relevant information Get information when away from computer Answer questions quickly Costs less than on computer New Zealand Use without being seen easily Pass time while waiting Avoid missing out on things when on mobile No Internet access at home As an accessory % With consumers using their Smartphones to pass the time, you have even more chance than you used to, to engage them with . Your customers have their phones with them while they wait at the school gate, and as they commute to work on the train. When your is relevant and targeted to them they may read it right through, and add your sales date to their calendar and your brand to top of mind. Using the mobile for what it s best at means you can help your customer access information the second most popular use of a smartphone. When your is linked to your webstore they can click through and shop right from their phone. When you have share links on your content they can Like and Share to social networks. When you have a link to your locations they can use Maps to find you. Both browser and device usage stats have been reported by testing experts Litmus for some time. Litmus noted that while they saw a 150% increase in reading s on mobile, readership via Outlook is still ahead by a long way. They also state that we re not likely to see a decrease in desktop numbers, as we rely on them so much in our day-to-day lives and that the increase in mobile activity isn t replacing the desktop environment it s supporting it. Litmus produced a great infographic in September 2011 to show where s are being read. You can read and download it here: 2

5 How marketers are responding to mobile use We ve been watching the way that marketers worldwide have responded to this change. Many are relying on updating design standards, such as the width of the template and larger fonts. Making sure images are linked to the right place on your website is essential. As is having links large enough or spaced well enough to enable them to be tapped with a finger on the go. In the example below from retailer GAP, you can see their first and very recent mobile specific . This was sent on a Saturday and we assume they did it very deliberately in order to catch weekend shoppers while they re out and about. Mobile design examples 4 Sending simple s for mobile customers Very simple for mobile weekend consumers As a point of comparison, GAP usually style their s like this. 3

6 4 Linking to a Mobile Version of your In this recent example below, Jeanswest provided a mobile version link in their , which is simply the standard view online link. However it s more clearly labelled to instruct mobile readers. When you link to the Mobile Version consider carefully if you want to link that to the Online Version of your as per above or to a page on your website that holds the content, or to a mobile version of your website itself. It s important to always think about your audience. Who are they? What is the likelihood that they are on mobile when they read your ? Are they in the demographic that has a smartphone? That will help you decide what to link from in your and you may even decide that link that might resolve at a different page for different campaign types. 4

7 4 Mobile first design In this from VroomVroomVroom, the design is kept simple to ensure it will render clearly on smartphones. This Mobile first design means that your online development, including your website, s, shopping cart and apps are all designed first and foremost to look and work well on mobile devices all other considerations come second. 5

8 What you can do right now to make your mobile-friendly Don t panic. While mobile usage is rising rapidly, the most important thing is to continue to produce marketing that adheres to the three golden rules: make it personal, relevant and anticipated. That way, your customers will continue to look forward to receiving your s wherever they are and whatever device they read your s on. Top tips for creating mobile-friendly s Further to those 3 golden rules, here are some of our top tips for creating mobile friendly s. Mobile First Design If you believe your audience is skewed toward mainly reading s on mobile (for example if your target audience is white collar B2B), then consider changing your design approach both for your website and your marketing to mobile first design. Yes, phones automatically shrink the to fit on your smartphone screen, but this can create miniaturised fonts, images and links, making it very difficult for people to read on mobile. Make it brief. If people are reading the s on a mobile they don t have a 1024x768 screen of pixels to read long complex s they ll appreciate you getting to the point. Ideally you want to optimise the design for mobile by creating the template to a maximum of 640 pixels wide. There are some smartphones that render as low as 320 pixels wide, but they re a minority and will continue to decrease as technology improves. In your s pre-header and footer, consider changing the View this online link to read Mobile View/Online Version, which can instantly take readers to a mobile customised version. Touch Screen Optimised Links Avoid the fat finger syndrome and make sure your links are not too close together. You want people to be able to connect their fingertip with the link they want not the one next to it. So make sure you give elements with links plenty of space. How much space? Apple recommends coding all links and buttons with a target area of 44x44 pixels minimum. Link Images Make sure images are always linked, make sure those links go to a page that is mobile-optimised, and make sure the pages make it easy to act on from a mobile. 6

9 Succinct Subject Line Mobile devices cut subject lines to characters, so be sure to make your point quickly. Customised Pre header text This really is essential real estate and even more so on mobile, because that s all people can see initially. Use the available characters to clearly state what the is about, who it s from and any other key details. Keep it fresh - change this for each . Optimising beyond the Ensure that if people click a link in an they come to a landing page which is optimised for mobile as well. Sign-ups, forms and opt in boxes need to be reconsidered Some marketers ask for a lot of demographic information and that can be difficult to fulfil on a mobile device. Instead, B2B marketers should consider reducing the number of fields they require filled out. The key to getting through the cull is sending engaging, valuable s. Studies have shown that people will re-open an on their desktop or laptop as little as 10% of the time, so you really only have one chance to make a good first impression. 7

10 References Jericho s GetSmart Blog ( Litmus Client Infographic ( Reasons I use the internet on my smartphone ( ILS&topic=DETAILS_REAS&stat=REAS01&stat=REAS02&stat=REAS03&stat=REAS 04&stat=REAS05&stat=REAS06&stat=REAS07&stat=REAS08&stat=REAS09&wave =wave2&age=all&gender=all&active=country) Appcelerator Whitepaper 4 steps to creating a mobile strategy ( strategy.pdf) Delivra how to make your marketing mobile friendly ( &srctype=detail&refno=158&category=landing%20pages) Knotice mobile opens report ( Our Mobile Planet (Google & Ipsos) Report May 2012 ( Return Path Report Where are we viewing now ( The McGill Report Mobile will be king by years end ( Examples GAP Mobile Version (Refer to image included in report as this did not have an online version.) GAP Regular Version ( 746&vid=3&ee=cm9hbm5lQGplcmljaG8uY28ubno_&si=&mv=H&bv=H&oc=H&sc=&k =1pIa5X) Jeanswest ( OpLP-hgspgLEkhHggLFqLkpJohDJhDgS) VroomVroomVroom (Refer to image included in report as this did not have an online version.) 8