Simple tips for top mobile e-mail marketing

Considering the use of tablets and smartphones accounted for 25% of total web use in 2014, optimising email marketing for mobile is an incredibly powerful tool for business. In fact, 41% of commercial emails are now viewed through mobile devices.

Here, Laura England, provides five top tips to follow to ensure your email marketing is fit for the mobile market:

1. Convince them to click

The first thing you see when scanning your inbox is the ‘from name’. I bet that most of the time, if you don’t recognise the sender, you’re unlikely to open the message. Many marketers are so wrapped up in the content of the email, they forget that the simple ‘from name’ forms the entire foundation of trust for the recipient and can often be the difference between an open or ignore.

2. Tone down the cheese

The subject line is equally as important and, while this line needs to be creative and compelling, it’s essential to avoid sales terminology such as ‘free’, ‘promotion’ or ‘discount’, because such words can trigger spam filters. Capital letters, exclamation marks or over-promotional phrases are also a no-go and are likely to send your email straight to the trash can.

As an alternative, opt for a no-nonsense subject line. Simple lines fare much better than cheesy click-bait and are much less likely to damage your company brand.

3. Don’t beat around the bush

Mobile users are often multitasking and on the move, in meetings, commuting, or picking up the kids from school. For these busy professionals it’s important to keep your message short and sweet.
When it comes to email marketing, mystery and obscurity does not work. The average mobile email recipient will delete an email in as little as two seconds. Ensure that within those vital few seconds these three questions are answered:

– Who are you?
– What are you offering?
– What is the call-to-action (CTA)?

4. Getting touchy

Without doubt, one of the top benefits of email marketing is its measurability. Subscribers should not be forced to enlarge the screen or move things around in order click on links. Simple formatting and finger-friendly buttons can be used to avoid these frustrating tap errors. Complicated and cluttered design work is not essential for email marketing; what’s more important is to encourage click-throughs and ultimately, to convert sales.

5. Time to test

Despite the huge usage of mobile devices, just 11% of email templates are optimised for mobile viewing. Considering that 69% of mobile users will delete emails that aren’t optimised, it’s likely that a large amount of mail-outs are going to waste.

To avoid squandering your hard work, compatibility testing across a number of mobile devices is vital. As an example, iPhone and Android devices will render emails differently, so it’s important to triple check that images load quickly, links work, and the formatting is correct across all devices before the email is finalised.

And once you’ve finished testing, test again.

Without a doubt, email marketing is here to stay. Don’t alienate your audience – optimise for use on mobile devices.