Today, more than ever, emails are being opened on mobile devices. We generally have our smartphone or tablet within reach at all times, so it stands to reason we’d prefer checking them for messages rather than log onto a desktop. This presents marketers with a great opportunity for increasing open rates and ultimately boosting the success of their campaigns. Especially given that research from the Email Marketing Industry Census 2015 found that just 34 percent of companies just have the ‘basics for mobile optimisation in place’. If you’re not optimising your campaigns for mobile devices, then you could be seriously falling behind the pack.
With that in mind, here are five top tips which should help you optimise your email campaigns for mobile devices:
1) Find out what devices your target market are using
To optimise a campaign effectively, you need to know which devices your target market is accessing their emails on. There’s loads of data out there for you to capture via reporting tools, providing you with insight into who’s opened what, when they opened it, and how. This will allow you to segment your database and design emails which are more physically appropriate to the device. Plus you can monitor progress of the campaign and make changes as you see fit.2) It’s not one-size fits all
Following on from the point above, you need to get out of the mind-set that one email campaign suits every technological device – it doesn’t. You’ll need to make tweaks and changes if you want to encourage your recipients to even scroll through, let alone follow a call to action.Factors to bear in mind are the width of your email (scalable so it fits the screen), layout (best to use a single column) and the size of the images incorporated (keep them small so they have a greater chance of loading on the device). It’s also worth knowing that some mobile devices will only be able to open certain fonts (including the usual Arial, Times New Roman and Tahoma), so stick to those.
It’s worth doing – 69 percent of users will delete an email that doesn’t render properly on their mobile device, according to Hubspot.
3) Get personal
You need to tempt your readers to open your email and getting personal is the way forward. The first tool in your armoury is a succinct but inviting subject line. Words such as ‘win’, ‘sale’ or ‘discount’ are always blanket winners, but if you’ve segmented your data, you’ll have a good idea what interests are relevant to your market and can incorporate these for more effective targeting. This might be gender, Location, age specific information or could simply refer to the kind of product/service you know an individual likes.The body of the email should contain the recipient’s name (spelled correctly) and should clearly demonstrate to them the benefits of reading your email – possibly in the subject line. Everyone wants to feel like they are special to a company and treated as an individual rather than one of the masses, so get personal.
4) Use a template
Using a specially-designed email template, one which has been tried and tested, and that works on the right devices is essential. A good template should be responsive, enabling your email to display in both a correct and appealing way.Don’t worry if you don’t have access to in-house designers or email experts; you’re not alone. That’s why there are tonnes of email marketing solutions available. Typically, you’ll be offered a choice of templates into which you can input your branding, text and images. Your emails will be presented in a professional way and you won’t need to spend hours learning to code.
5) Time it right
You know what it’s like to be swamped with emails – whether you subscribed to a mailing list or not, being bombarded on a daily basis can just as easily prompt recipients to unsubscribe as it does to click open.Much research has been commissioned by marketers to determine when the optimal email sending times are and although the claims vary, a few are consistent. Forget weekends and Mondays when people are rushing about or busy doing other things. The general consensus is that mid-day, mid-week is the best time for your mobile-device-designed email blast.
One email marketing firm suggests 2pm is a good option – so try and catch those people who are just coming back to the office after lunch. Timing it right really could make a significant difference to your open rates.
Key Hacks to Make Your Email Mobile-Friendly
Infographic courtesy of: Salesforce.
Next time you launch an email marketing campaign for mobile devices, bear these points in mind; you could see some huge improvements. After all, with more than 7.2 billion mobile devices in operation around the world, can you really afford not to optimise?
