a white paper Email Marketing in a Mobile World

a white paper Email Marketing in a Mobile World

Table of Contents Email Marketing in a Mobile World...1 Analytics and You... 2 Mobile Friendly Design Strategies... 3-5 Conclusion...6 About Informz Revolutionizing the Way You Do Business Informz professional suite of integrated emarketing solutions empowers organizations of all sizes by harnessing the strength of email to supercharge your return on investment. Email is a Science Web-based technologies from Informz enable personalized, highly targeted communications coupled with real-time reporting features designed to reach the inbox and drive results. Sending the right message to the right people at the right time is achieved through email relevancy and your organization s ability to leverage its database. Your successful marketing and communications depends on reaching the inbox and engaging subscribers. Simply stated, targeted email communications improve your response rates, and better response rates increase your message s impact. The Informz Difference In addition to on-demand product support, you deserve one-on-one, up-to-date email marketing guidance relevant to your unique need, built upon strong relationships and reliable collaboration. In order to maximize your success, your exclusive emarketing Advisor is always ready to assist throughout the development, publishing, and measurement of your email campaigns. Devoted to your professional success, Informz combines state-of-the-art technology with our trusted emarketing Advisors to bring you products and services that fi t with your marketing goals. With an established global presence in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, Informz specializes in a variety of industries, including: Associations and Not-For-Profi ts Higher Education Travel and Tourism Publishing and Trade Through dynamic targeting, intelligent deliverability, precision reporting, seamless integration, and expert Advisors, Informz truly is the way to know email marketing. Informz is one of the most reputable email marketing service providers that I know. They would be an excellent choice for permission marketers seeking the best in service and delivery rates. ~ Ann Mitchell, Esq. President Institute for Spam and Internet Public Policy Informz, Inc. 92 Congress Street, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 888.371.1842 www.informz.com

1 - Email Marketing in a Mobile World 1Email Marketing in a Mobile World In today s on-the-go world it seems like mobile is everywhere. Mobile websites, mobile apps but have you considered the impact mobile has on your email marketing programs? If not, it s certainly time to start. The Nielsen Company reports that 29.7 percent of U.S. mobile phone subscribers are now using smartphones, and a recent study of Informz clients found that mobile readership of email has more than doubled in the past 12 months. Why is mobile such a pain point for email marketers? Email renders quite differently on a mobile device than it does on a PC and to add to the challenge, all mobile phones differ in how they render email. This leaves marketers without a one-size-fits all solution. In order to keep subscribers interested and engaged in your emails it is imperative that you understand how your audience is using mobile and then create a plan to match. Designing for mobile may seem overwhelming at first, but with a few minor changes to your current template, you can master a mobile-friendly design that helps you better connect with your readers.

2 Analytics and You Understand your audience first, then create the optimal plan of action. Much like the challenges of traditional web-based and desktop email clients, mobile devices vary in how they render email and therefore vary in the strategy for how to optimize email for them. Therefore, it is best to start by understanding how your subscribers are reading your emails, because then you can ensure you are designing with the right devices in mind. Start by understanding your audience then create the optimal plan of action. Depending on the types of reporting available to you, here are some options for how you can use analytics to help you determine the proper course of action: Text vs. HTML One option is to look into the delivery format of your emails to see how many HTML versions versus text versions are sent. The individuals who are receiving a text version of your emails are either those who indicated they preferred the text version when subscribing to your mailings or those who have a smartphone that only receives the text version of an email. Ask Them Plain and simple! Go straight to the source and ask your email subscribers what they prefer and what their email reading habits are. Include an option for a mobile-friendly or text version of your regular emails when they fi rst sign up and routinely survey your subscribers over time. Someone who is reading your email on their desktop email client today could be a die-hard smartphone user tomorrow. Email Client Report If you have reporting tools available to you that show you what email clients and devices your subscribers are viewing your emails on, then this can be the easiest option. From here, you will be able to see exactly what your audience is using the most, from desktop, web-based or mobile, to what operating system or email program. Informz analytics can show you what your audience uses to read your emails. Everything from the specifi c email client they use to the mobile device they read your email on. Also, with the click of a button you can segment out your mobile audience for targeted email campaigns. Informz, Inc. 92 Congress Street, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 888.371.1842 www.informz.com

3 - Email Marketing in a Mobile World 3 Mobile-friendly design strategies Now that you know how your audience views your emails, it s time to use that insight to optimize them for the best results. There are three routes you can take for optimizing your email for a mobile device; create a web version, create a mobile-only version or create a combination design that will render correctly on both a PC and mobile device. Let s take a look at the specifi cs when designing each one. WEB VERSION With this option you will include a link to an online version of your email. It is recommended that you include a link to the web version at the top of your email so that readers can immediately connect to a version that will render properly on their mobile device. Creating a web version is ideal for those who: 1. Have very limited staff. 2. Do not have a way to fi nd out how their subscribers are reading their emails. When creating the web version, you must keep a few items in mind to ensure proper rendering. Size Width = 100% Many emails are designed to be an average of 600-650 pixels wide. When creating the web version, you will want to size the width by percentages as opposed to pixel size. In this case, choose 100 percent and avoid placing a height dimension on it. When the web page is opened, it will automatically size itself to the width of the screen it is rendering on. If you used pixel size, the email would be forced to maintain its size and when appearing on a 3x2 screen, the reader would have to scroll left to right, making it diffi cult to read the email. Images Image Size <480 pixels In all of your email communications you should be aware of how large and how many images are included. Reason being, images don t always render correctly, causing the story being told through the images useless. In addition, if images are any larger in size, it will force the body copy of your email further down on the screen. On a mobile device it is acceptable for your email to span below the fold since only about 12-15 lines can fi t on a screen, but you don t want to go too far down. Try and keep your number of scrolls to a maximum of 5. Fonts and Spacing Font Size >12 pixels Every mobile device s software does things a little differently when rendering an email on the screen. Sometimes it will zoom in for the reader and sometimes it won t. Keeping your font size to 12 pixels, or better yet even larger, will ensure that your copy will be legible on all devices.

Link Spacing Make sure there is plenty of white space around your any links included in your email. Your PC users have the benefi t of using a mouse to pinpoint the link they want to click on, but mobile users have their fi nger and the precision tends to be off sometimes. The key is not to make your readers work harder to reach the information they want by mistakenly clicking on the wrong link. MOBILE ONLY LAYOUT A mobile-only layout is when a second version of an email is created and designed specifi - cally with mobile users in mind. This should be a simpler layout than you typically would use for emails read on a PC, but does not need to be text only version. If you follow simple spacing and layout guidelines, your email will render nicely on every device. Many devices show images and font color, making it easier to deliver your message with eye-appeal. Creating a mobile-only version is ideal for those who: 1. Know which subscribers are viewing their emails on a mobile device. 2. Have subscribers who have identifi ed that they would like to receive a mobilefriendly version of the email. Similar to the web version, when creating a mobile-only version, you must follow these styling tips: Size Top Banner <125 pixels high Like with the web version, you must design the width of the entire email at 100 percent. Additionally, if you choose to include a banner, the width should also be set 100 percent with a height on the banner to maintain control of how it renders on the mobile device. The height of banner should be no larger than 125 pixels high. Images Use alt tags In addition to keeping your images smaller than 480 pixels, make sure your images have alt tags associated with them. In doing so, when images are turned off by the user, they will still be able to read what the image was supposed to be, lending itself to help keep the story going in the email. Without alt tags, your image may come across as 123.jpg, instead of Conference hotel deals. Layout Copy Keep it brief. When looking at what can fi t on a mobile device, you need to take a good look at the length of your subject line, body copy and links. On average you can fi t 12-15 lines on a screen. If you try to send an email that is signifi cantly longer than this, add on an image or two, the mobile device reader may choose not to download the whole image before receiving permission from the reader. Don t expect your readers to take this extra step. Shorten your body copy and get straight to the point. Subject lines are limited as well. A maximum of 30 characters will show on many mobile devices. Keep your subject line short in order for the reader to see it fully; this will keep your open rates at par and result increase your deliverability rate. Informz, Inc. 92 Congress Street, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 888.371.1842 www.informz.com

5 - Email Marketing in a Mobile World Tables One column is best Best rule of thumb when designing for a mobile device, keep the email to one column. Sidebars add to the eye-appealing nature of the email, but if you are sending to only those who have requested a mobile-version of the email, don t do it. When the email renders, the sidebars have a tendency to reformat themselves and can end up above or below your body copy, taking away their effectiveness. COMBINATION DESIGN This is the marriage of two important readers, your PC readers and your mobile readers. Many of us view emails both ways depending on where we are at the moment. Taking this approach can signifi cantly increase your statistics and eventually increase the loyalty of your subscribers. Creating a combination version is ideal for those who: 1. Know that there are individuals who are reading the email on a mobile device. 2. Do not want to do extra work each time around designing an email. The Informz Virtual Inbox allows you to test how your email will render on 28 popular email clients and mobile devices allowing you to easily see how your email will render and uncover any issues before your email is sent. Size Width = 600 650 pixels Unlike the other two options, because you are designing for a PC in addition to a mobile device, you must put some structure around the body copy. If you choose 100%, it will expand to 100% of the screen it is showing on. This will make your email look signifi cantly different on a mobile screen than a 20 inch PC monitor. One column is recommended but if you must include a sidebar, keep the size in mind. Sidebars add to the overall fl ow and design of the email, but as stated earlier, could cause your body copy to be moved around if it doesn t render correctly. This is where reviewing your analytics can help you avoid this. Once you fi gure out how many of your readers are using certain devices, you can test the rendering of your email on each device to ensure the majority of your readers will be able to view it clearly. Set alignment to left Left is best. Setting everything to align left will help keep everything in the email on the left side of a mobile device. Doing this will ensure that the copy doesn t get pushed to the center or right of the phone, forcing the reader to have to scroll horizontally in order to read your email. Images Alt tags and Size Like with the web and mobile-only layouts, images need to stay smaller than 480 pixels and have relatable alt tags associated with them. Your image may appear great on a PC monitor but take up half of the mobile screen, or not show up at all. You can t control how someone is reading your email but you can design it in a way that will appeal to them. Manage your images for greater results.

Conclusion Mobile device usage is growing and there are no sign of slowing down in sight. Even if you don t have many mobile readers now, chances are you will soon. Don t wait for them to jump on the bandwagon; start creating designs that stand the test of digital devices and you won t be left behind. Informz, Inc. 92 Congress Street, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 888.371.1842 www.informz.com