How to Take Mobile Email Marketing to the Next Level

Remember the old marketing naysayers who claimed years ago email marketing was dead?
 
Yeah, about that . . . 
 
According to the Radicati Group, the total number of email accounts across the globe is expected to reach over 4.3 billion by the end of 2016.
 
Further, the Direct Marketing Association finds email marketing yields a 4,300 percent return on investment (ROI) for brands in 2015.

It's obvious the email skeptics of the past never considered how mobile devices would impact the email channel. The benefit of optimizing your emails for mobile can't be stressed enough.

To find out how optimizing your email for mobile can help your brand, contact us by clicking here!

​Consumer time is limited, and distractions are everywhere. If your brand is going to prosper from mobile email marketing, you’re going to have to learn to craft relevant emails that provide your customers with value on the go.
 
So what are some ways you can get started?
 
Today’s emails MUST be mobile-friendly
 
This used to be an option. Now it isn’t. Remember back in 2010 when smartphones were still catching on? According to Statista, the number of smartphone users in the U.S. that year was 62.6 million. That number is expected to reach 207.2 million by the end of 2016.
 
To put THAT in perspective, there are over 323 million people living in the United States. In other words, roughly two out of every three Americans own a smartphone.
 
What’s more is the number of Americans who check their emails on their smartphones.  A Pew Research study states that 88 percent of smartphone users check their email on mobile devices, putting email above social media, videos, music, and navigation.
 
Marketing Land also states two-thirds of emails are opened on mobile devices. If you’re not optimizing your emails for mobile, then you’re essentially ostracizing two out of every three prospective customers.
 
Ouch.
 
How can you ensure your emails are mobile friendly?
 
Keep subject lines under 50 characters. Think about the last time you checked your email on a mobile device: where were you, exactly? Were you sitting on a train or waiting for cab? Maybe you had five minutes to kill between meetings, or just a brief moment to check your inbox before an appointment. You don’t have time to read through lengthy subject lines, and neither do your customers. Keep those subject lines short and sweet.  

A single column is your best friend. This has everything to do with readability. Using a two-column email template only adds to the clutter and confusion of an email. Combine that with a small mobile device screen and you’ve got a recipe for deletion. Mobile users rarely hassle with expanding email text; easy one-finger scrolling is where it’s at. When it comes to using an email template, make sure it’s one column.  

Make sure they can see–and feel–your call to action. We all know seeing a call to action is important, but what does feeling it mean? Think about how you use a mobile device for a moment: you don’t carry a mouse around with you, right? (If you do, well . . . that’s just weird). Your thumb is your mouse, and it’s a little clumsier than its desktop counterpart. Not only must your customers see your call to action (CTA), they need to be able to click on it, too. When creating a CTA image for your email, make sure it’s at least 44 pixels squared.    

In closing
 
There are literally BILLIONS of potential ways to engage and prosper from an effective mobile email marketing strategy. Now, more than ever, mobile devices are making customers around the globe that much more accessible.
 
What are you doing to up your email-marketing game on mobile devices?