Put email first
in mobile strategy

Businesswomen prefer to access
email via their smartphones

29 May’12

Mobile is quickly becoming the go-to place to check email, sometimes even more than desktop. Therefore, it is critical that marketers not only optimize emails but also weave the channel into every aspect of a mobile campaign.

With this high usage from handsets, email marketing is becoming a mobile-first strategy. However, with a smaller screen and consumers' shorter attention spans on their devices, marketers have to remember to keep mobile email initiatives simple, straight-forward and punchy.

“Based on what we’ve seen over the past several years, email has legitimately become a mobile tactic unto itself – the important point is that this is happening, no matter if you acknowledge it or not,” said Dave Lawson, director of mobile and digital unification at Knotice, Akron, OH.

“How you choose to address this is where you can capture the existing behavior and turn it into an asset to establish better relationships with your customers, engage your prospects more deeply and drive mobile-optimized business results,” he said.

“If you are a brand that aspires to have great relationships with your consumer pool, how you choose to address something like mobile behavior can be a huge difference-maker.”

Mobile check-up

According to Lawson, there are three tiers of strategies that brands are using with mobile email.

The most basic thinking is to include a link that directs users to optimized content. Although it is smart to realize that the traffic is coming from a handset, the email itself is not planned with a mobile-first mentality.

“Unfortunately, this is pretty much a 'checking the box' kind of treatment, and in most cases that I have seen, the destination after the click is not a great mobile experience nor is it on-message for why the person clicked on it in the first place,” Lawson said.

A second-tier strategy includes a design that works well on both desktop and mobile, such as simple copy and links that take users to optimized, relevant content.

At the highest level, a mobile email campaign not only includes copy that is mobile-friendly but is also sent in a device-specific format.

For example, an email that is optimized for iPhones should not include flash because the technology does not support the iOS operating system.

Additionally, email can be a great way for companies to increase app downloads. However, the emails need to be targeted at users who are accessing email on the specific platform that the app is available on.