Whether your business is emailing discounts, purchase recommendations or promotional content on a new line of products, email promotions can be very persuasive and very lucrative. That is, if they get read and not deleted. All across the world, business are seeing emails deleted, abandoned mid-read or closed during an attempt to complete a call to action. The problem may not be the content quality, but that the content is not mobile friendly.
The number of mobile readers has exploded and the trend only shows signs of increase. The number of businesses with mobile-ready sites has not exploded in response, however.
If you business is among those only ready to entertain online customers who use large screen laptops and desktops, you’re missing out on an abundance of sales. Keep in mind that 75 percent of people own smartphones and they use them for checking their email throughout the day, giving businesses multiple chances for marketing email to seen. Don’t expect that customers will wait until they get to a desktop to open messages they can’t read comfortably on their smartphones. Forty-percent of readers open promotions on their phones and 80 percent of those will ignore the business and its messages if the company’s mail and linked websites are not optimized for mobile.
Businesses who don’t impress on the small screen, generally commit one of the following faux pas.
1. Promotions are too wordy.
Mobile users are people on the go – and they want to read quickly. Long sales messages that require zooming or scrolling in order to appear legible are off-putting. Aim for quality of text, not quantity. Use colors, images and HTML features.
2. Content with images that are too big or too small.
If they load fast and look good, pictures are a great way to sell to mobile readers. Don’t add text to images; it will likely be unreadable. Keep the size between 360 and 480 pixels.
3. No planned strategy.
Companies need to sit down and brainstorm the best way to make use of mobile traffic. Sending out email, even if optimized, without a plan won’t be profitable. Consider how people use the internet by phone or tablet: they visit social media, they seek entertainment, they compare prices while shopping in brick-and-mortar stores, they look for coupon codes and so much more. If a business can anticipate their audience’s most popular uses of mobile phones, they can shape marketing messages to dovetail with those interests.
4. Targeting one mobile platform only.
The ever-popular iPhone is used by nearly half of people viewing emails from businesses online. It’s a mistake to design marketing copy to only appeal to that band of followers, however. People may read your email and visit your website via Android phones, Android tablets, iPads and even Kindles. Create content that looks appealing to readers on all mobile devices.
5. Optimizing email but not web stores or sites.
While email marketing might bring mobile readers to your online storefront or product landing pages, those readers will get frustrated if the site itself isn’t designed for mobile use. It’s best to make sure all online properties can be easily accessed and perused by mobile devices – but especially those pages referenced in emails to customers. Make sure calls to action on those pages are prominent and not hidden; try to make them viewable without scrolling. By all means, optimize the checkout section so mobile users can complete transactions smoothly and without excess clicking or waiting for several screens to load.
6. Sending email at the wrong time.
Don’t send email at night or early in the morning. You might be up, but mobile users will be otherwise engaged. Most mobile users read email at 10 a.m. and in the two hours following. The next most opportune time for sending mobile messages would be after 4p.m. and until 6 p.m.
7. General promotions sent to everyone.
Segment email lists and customize messages to appeal to different demographics. Mobile users like personalized deals – not generic ones.
Making changes that make your content easy to read on mobile devices will allow you to make the best impression on your audience. You will stop unsatisfied mobile users from running to mobile-ready competitors. To read more about mobile email campaigns and why they fail check out this Infographic from Reachmail.
Matthew Zajechowski is an outreach manager for Digital Third Coast. Connect with him on Google + and Twitter.
Photo Credits
Buzzfarmers | epSos .de | Courtesy of the author
