Email mobile-tablets-mastering-the-device-revolution-us

Email + Mobile + Tablets: Mastering the Device Revolution

Marketing Guide

Marketing Guide


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Welcome to the device revolution: the explosion of the platform market spurred by the demand for anytime, anywhere access to any and all content.

Consider these latest usage statistics:

Mobile:• 96% of the U.S. market is on a mobile phone*

Smartphones:• 44% of the U.S. market is on a smartphone*• In 2011, there were 90.1 million smartphone

users; by 2015, that number is expected to increase to 148.6 million, representing 58% of mobile phone users**

Tablets:• 29% U.S. tablet penetration*• In 2011, there were 33.7 million tablet users;

by 2014, that number is estimated to reach 89.5 million**

eReaders:• In 2011, 33.3 million U.S. adults used eReaders

at least once per month, and that number is expected to rise to 53.9 million by 2014**

What’s driving the device revolution is change:

Consumers are changing how they engage with media. Technology is changing by enabling new forms of engagement, and there are natural changes as a result of this revolution. The email marketing industry is changing in how it serves the market as a whole through its reaction to consumer and technical changes. And marketers are changing the ways in which they adapt to successfully connect with customers.

What it All Means for Email Marketing

The mobile market represents a tremendous opportunity to extend the reach of email campaigns, target customers and prospects more effectively, and increase return on investment. Developing a multi-platform strategy is no longer an option – it’s a necessity.

Here are a few insights that make the case for extending email campaigns across platforms:

• 56% of smartphone users say email marketing is now more relevant †

• 45% of Web mobile use is spent checking email††

• 23% of all email is read on a mobile device‡

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None of this is lost on marketing leaders, as this chart from MarketingSherpa illustrates: Mobile smartphone and tablet adoption ranks second in trends they believe are impacting the email market. Also note that location-based marketing comes in as the fourth-ranked trend. We’ll talk more about this later.

The implications of all this research are clear:

First, people are flocking to new technologies, and the more they become comfortable with them, the more they want to use every available platform and expect the experience to be consistent.

Marketers who will get the most out of this new reality are those who understand the context of these platforms for delivering the best possible experience.

Marketing ‘In the Moment’

The key is to remember that the mobile medium is “in the moment.” Unlike other communications vehicles that are stationary and heavily presentation-oriented, the mobile medium is actionable, time sensitive, on the go, and always on. It delivers short-burst information that is scanable, consumable and digestible for an audience whose attention span declines in direct proportion to the size of the screen on which they view it.

That’s the power and influence of marketing in the moment.

Design Strategies for the Small ScreenWith all these mobile usage insights in mind, design for the small screen! Let’s review some high-level mobile design tenets, then review some key design tactics.

Mobile Design Tenets

Single columns: HTML is fairly inflexible when it comes to re-ordering columns and content blocks. Make it easy on yourself and on your subscribers by sticking to a single column that will display appropriately on a mobile screen.

Big buttons: Fingers are much less precise than mouse pointers. Make it easier for your mobile subscribers to open and click by making buttons large enough to be finger-friendly.

Space between clickable elements: Another problem that arises when you’re using a finger instead of a mouse is clickable elements placed too close together. This results in the inevitable “miss-click”. By adding additional white space between clickable elements, you can reduce having users wait for the wrong page to load.

Sources: * Pew - Jan. 2012, ** eMarketer - Nov. 2011, † e-Dialog - 2011, †† Nielsen - 2011, ‡ eMarketer - 2012

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Important information visible without scrolling or enlarging: When you have dozens of emails to catch up on, it’s important that you are able to grasp the main idea quickly. Test your email messages on a mobile device to ensure that font sizes are readable and that the user doesn’t have to scroll either vertically or horizontally to see your main message and call-to-action.

Hide unnecessary content: It’s great to include social sharing buttons, links to your social media pages, and other secondary content in your email messages. But on a mobile device, all that extra content makes it more difficult for your subscribers to get the main message. Make mobile emails easier to scan and read by hiding images, text and other content that isn’t strictly necessary.

Mobile Design Tactics

Keep mobile email subject lines concise: As little as 15 characters of your subject line may be visible on a mobile device, so be concise.

Adjust to space limitations: Assume that many mobile phones can only read text and ensure that text is formatted for the small screen.

Use MIME HTML: When sending HTML to devices that can accommodate it, be sure to send emails in multi-part MIME format. This will ensure that your email message will be deciphered in the most complex format, rendering the email to its best advantage.

Provide a text-based version: This is a requirement for many mobile readers.

Mobile Email Myths

1. Only teenagers read emails on mobile devices: 23% of all email read today is

read on a mobile device. Chances are

your audience is checking email via a

smartphone.

2. I don’t need to design emails for mobile users: Unfortunately, emails

designed for a laptop or PC screen just

don’t translate well to the small screen.

3. If I don’t have a mobile website, I don’t need mobile email: In a

perfect world, your email, website and

social media are linked, mobile and

measurable. Crafting mobile emails is

a great place to start even if you don’t

have a mobile site yet.

4. Mobile is only for big companies: Big

companies may already be there – they

have more resources, but mobile email

is no longer a choice. Every company

today needs properly designed

mobile emails.

5. I only need to worry about iPhone users: You should worry first about

iPhone users, since iPhone and iPad add

up to 85% of mobile opens. However,

Android made up nearly 47% of the U.S.

smartphone market share by the end of

2011, so you should design and test for

all mobile as well as tablet formats.

6. I can’t track results for mobile users: Most mobile email opens are trackable.

Many smartphones use a mobile email

client, like MailDroid, Apple Mail or

Gmail, that track open rates and

click-throughs.

7. Mobile email preparedness is too costly: Updating your email templates

so they’re mobile-friendly is a one-time,

low cost investment. Losing customers,

being unable to communicate with

users and tarnishing your brand — those

are long-term costly mistakes.

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Optimize pre-headers for mobile: When designing for mobile, optimize the valuable top text space with appropriate pre-headers, the text lines on the top of your message that show up first. The first header should always be a mobile-friendly link that says something like, “Having trouble reading this email? View our mobile- friendly version.”

Design for image-free mobile versions of your emails: While images can enhance the visual appeal of an email on a computer monitor, they can lead to longer load times on mobile devices. Place your emphasis on quickly getting your core message to your mobile subscriber.

Keep mobile copy short: Email recipients spend an average of only 15 - 20 seconds looking at your email, if they open it at all. So it’s imperative to keep your messages short and employ the pyramid style of writing by including the most important information first.

Perform platform tests: The most successful email marketers know that testing how emails render on different email platforms is an important part of email marketing success – and mobile platforms are no exception. Ensure that you have access to the mobile device formats most likely to be used by your subscribers and then test each email on each platform.

As a minimum, view your email on a standard cell phone, an iPhone, an iPad, a Blackberry and an Android-powered device.

Landing Pages that Convert Mobile Users

There’s a notion that people are reading emails on mobile devices and going back to the desktop for a second look. Data clearly shows that that’s not happening.

Marketers need to consider the fact that the full purchase process is now often taking place on a mobile device. Mobile-friendly Web pages allow you to tailor your content for the mobile user – and are vital for successful email campaigns.

This requires more than just shrinking down your standard landing page for a mobile screen. Mobile email marketing has caught up with audience requirements and demand – now it’s imperative to take the post-click experience to the next level.

Start by checking out what your site experience is like on mobile by accessing your site on your own phone. Or, you can use an application like Litmus to provide cross-browser page testing in addition to email previews.

Many of the rules for creating mobile versions of emails also apply to creating mobile-friendly Web pages:

• Test your call-to-action across a variety of mobile devices and make sure it’s user-friendly from the email through the conversion goal.

• Test all of your mobile pages for potential issues with accuracy, rendering and navigation on mobile devices.

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Responsive Design Technology for Creating Mobile-friendly Web Pages

There are some exciting new technologies

that take into account that the Internet is

now regularly viewed on laptops, phones and

tablets. Digital content design should take

the multi-platform world into account and be

optimized for the many different resolutions

of screens.

This new technology is called “responsive

design,” and it’s becoming more and more

common. Responsive design utilizes simple

but elegant animation to respond to users’

behavior and environment based on screen

size, platform and orientation.

The practice consists of a mix of flexible grids

and layouts that use what’s called Cascading

Style Sheet, or CSS and media queries. The use

of media queries allows the desktop screen to

morph into a laptop screen, then a tablet and

finally a smartphone as the browser window

gets smaller.

If you make it taller than it is wide, the tablet

or smartphone graphic rotates from landscape

to portrait view. Responsive design means the

website responds to you, rather than making

you deal with it by scrolling or magnifying in

order to view it comfortably.

Elements to Test to Drive Mobile ResultsWhen it comes to learning from your mobile audience, here are a few elements you’ll want to test:

• Subject lines. Test shorter subject lines for mobile, with the important information up front.

• Send times and frequency. Try evenings, mornings and weekends to learn what timing generates the highest conversions.

• Preference centers. Ask subscribers to update their preferences and determine their format of choice – desktop, mobile, smartphone, tablet or all-of-the-above. Target mobile-only users with tailored offers.

• Offer tests. Test simple offers, like free shipping or 10% off. Or try a clicks-to-bricks strategy with offers that drive customers to your nearest retail location.

• Format tests.Test two versions of a mobile email – one in multi-part MIME format with simple images and one text-only version to see which generates better results.

• Mobile-only content. Reach mobile users with “on-the-go” offers, like a “Happy Hour” offer sent at 4:00pm.

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Implementing a Cross-channel Approach Across Email, Mobile and Social

Here are some tactics for leveraging your brand across multiple channels:

Embed social media links into your emails – the simplest and easiest place to start. Make it quick and easy for subscribers to share a promotional opportunity across social networks.

Include email opt-in links on your social pages. This makes it easy for people to opt in for email right from their Facebook page, for example.

Offer mobile coupons on social sites that can be presented in stores via phones, with no need to print the coupons before heading to the store.

Consider location-based marketing. One of the primary differentiators of the mobile medium is location awareness. This enables brands to interact with customers instantly, with location-based relevance, through their intensely personal mobile device that is always within arm’s reach.

When and How to Leverage SMS SMS stands for Short Message Service but it’s more commonly known as text messaging. SMS is a mobile messaging force to be reckoned with, for three compelling reasons:

• More than eight trillion SMS messages were sent worldwide in 2011*.

• SMS delivers the highest open rate among all messaging platforms.

• SMS functionality exists on 100% of mobile phones.

SMS programs range from novice to advanced in terms of mobile marketing expertise. Basic programs are more “push” in nature, pushing out information about events and product updates or enabling opt-ins to receive specific information or alerts. As SMS programs become more interactive, they become more sophisticated: surveys, quizzes and polls offer mobile users a high level of interaction and engagement with brands.

Benefits of Cross-channel Integration

Increased relevancy and immediacy by communicating on subscribers’ terms: Drive engagement at multiple touch points,

during times and on devices that are most

relevant to recipients and in keeping with

their preferences.

Deeper brand awareness: The more places

and times you can share your brand in a way

that resonates, the more you can rise to top-

of-mind with targets.

Extended reach: Develop mobile opt-in lists

to reach new targets and expand your overall

subscriber base. A bigger pool of qualified,

engaged subscribers equals more

revenue opportunities.

“The most successful marketing messages will combine relevance and location with the right timing.”

- Google’s Matt Cutts

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To that end, mobile SMS can be used in campaigns for several different purposes:

• To increase traffic: send SMS reminders about upcoming events and promotions

• To boost brand engagement: send SMS alerts about special offers and activities

• To enhance events: send SMS notices of mobile-only benefits and special offers

• For mobile couponing: send text messages to customers that they can then use by coming into your place of business and showing the phone message when paying their bill

Text messaging is short, to the point and immediate, and is best suited to messages that have a deadline or those where information is needed by your company.

• Update email addresses. Put processes in place to trigger an SMS message when an email has bounced three times, for example, as part of a continuous data cleansing exercise.

• Build your house file. Remember subscribers pay to receive text messages, so get their permission and deliver valuable, time-sensitive information.

• Support branding. Use strong copywriting to keep your messages short and on target.

• Assess the growth and health of your text file list in terms of size and churn rate. Track responses and conversions or sales.

Trends and Tactics for Tapping into Tablet UsersTablet computers are one of the fastest growing new technologies ever introduced. In fact, between mid-December 2011 and the beginning of January 2012, the number of tablet owners in the U.S. almost doubled from 10% to 19%. Combine that with eReaders and 29% of Americans report owning some type of tablet device.

Usage statistics are also compelling:

• 77% of tablet owners report using their tablet every day, spending an average of one hour and 35 minutes on the device

• 54% of tablet users report using their devices for email, slightly surpassing getting the news and far out-distancing other activities like social networking and gaming*

Here are some other trends:

User demographics: 2011 tablet sales were concentrated in households making more than $75,000 a year, 36% of whom now own a tablet. Sales were also strong among people with college degrees or higher, 31% of whom are now tablet owners.

Work vs. personal usage: The assumption that people use tablets for work is incorrect; 91% of time spent on tablets is for personal rather than work related activities – most often checking email, playing games or social networking.

*Source: Portico, 2012

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Concurrent activities: When people check their email on a tablet, they’re likely to also be either watching TV, eating or drinking.

Location usage: Tablets were made to be an easily portable device, but most people actually leave their tablets at home, with the exception of business trips and vacations. Most people use their tablets on the couch, in bed or in the kitchen. They love to check email in bed, and search just about anywhere.

Additional research indicates that more tablets in the hands of consumers are good news for marketers, and especially for business-to-consumer (B2C) marketers:

• Tablet users spend 54% more per purchase than smartphone users, with an average order total of $123**

• 56% of consumers rate tablets as useful for shopping, compared to 38% for smartphones †

• Customers tend to spend 20 - 30% more when purchasing on tablets versus other devices††

To tap into the tablet user market, marketers must come to terms with this new tablet reality. Tablet usage is on the rise and is facilitating changes in user behavior – from what sort of content users consume to how those users interact with that content.

Here are some tips for designing email targeted to tablet users:

Interactions on touch-based interfaces are performed with fingers or thumbs. It’s important to keep in mind that a finger sweep scroll is quite different than a mouse wheel scroll, so optimize your email content for scanability.

The size of a touchable target, whether it is a clickable image or call-to-action button, needs to be large enough to see and touch, and be positioned for accessibility:

• Make sure links and call-to-action buttons are large enough – at least 30 pixels large with 10 - 15 pixels of padding so they can be accurately tapped.

• Avoid putting text links below one another because users don’t have the accuracy of a mouse to work with.

• Also, buttons positioned in the horizontal middle of an HTML email are more difficult to touch when holding a tablet with two hands. It forces the user to change their grip on the device, which may lead to fewer clicks and conversions. Try positioning call-to-action buttons on the right side of your email within reach of a user’s thumb.

Flash capability:

• Lack of flash compatibility in tablets means you definitely shouldn’t use flash in your emails.

• Also make sure not to use flash on your landing pages since tablet users won’t be able to open them.

Larger, portrait-mode viewing:

• Portrait view pushes the fold of your email down so the above-the-fold area is more present.

• Make sure you have something interesting below the standard fold line.

Images:

• Most tablets use wifi connections that are able to handle load times for images, so make sure to include compelling images in an attractive design that gets users to read and click on your content.

• And make sure images can be “pinched and zoomed.”

Subject lines and pre-headers:

• Particularly in business-to-business, or B2B, email marketing, where capturing a busy audience’s attention is especially tricky, subject lines must be as short and sweet as possible – ideally, five words or less.

• For pre-headers, take into account horizontal vs. vertical viewing options: when held horizontally, tablets display email previews; when held vertically, they don’t.

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Number of columns:

• Given that tablets are controlled by users’ left or right hand – heightening the risk that a column or call-to-action may be covered up simply by operating the device – opt for one-column design instead.

The timing of your email delivery is another thing to consider with tablets. Many B2B marketers are ingrained to send email first thing in the morning so that they reach people when they get to their desks. But tablet users are likely going to be checking their email at all times of the day and night, so feel free to adjust send times accordingly.

The Smartphone App RevolutionStatistics confirm the explosive growth and usage of mobile applications over the past few years:

• 62% of smartphone owners have downloaded apps on their devices in the past 30 days*

• The number of downloaded apps is expected to increase to 77 billion worldwide in 2014, at which point mobile app revenues will surpass $35 billion**

• In terms of downloads, Apple is the leader in the app store arena. The App Store boasts over 500,000 apps, and those apps are downloaded more than 100 million times each month. By comparison, the Android Market claims roughly 400,000 apps, and Microsoft’s Windows Marketplace for Mobile offers approximately 1,000 apps. †

Here’s the important takeaway for marketers: If mobile applications are where people are spending their time and the business rule holds true that 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers, you need to consider creating app experiences to engage your most valuable customers:

Sources: * Pew - Jan. 2012, ** Adobe Digital Marketing Insights Report - Jan. 2012, † Sapient/Nitro - Jan. 2012, †† American Express - Jan. 2012

New Content Curation Platform: Pinterest

Pinterest is an online pinboard for sharing

interesting images you find online. Pinterest

has seen spectacular growth in the last six

months. In fact, Pinterest reached 10 million

unique visitors faster than any other stand

alone site in history. And Time magazine

called Pinterest one of the top five social

networking sites.

Pinning is pretty easy. You can link to a

website or upload an image. Or you can

install the Pin It button from Pinterest. You

can also pin images with your smartphone.

Its significance to marketers is that it taps

into a shift in consumer behavior from

search to discovery, which could lead to a

revolution in how consumers purchase items.

Right now we are trained to go to Amazon or

Google to find what we want. Pinterest starts

before that search, before we even think we

want to buy a particular product.

For example, if you were in the market for a

sound system for your laptop, you could go

to Pinterest, browse a category devoted to

sound systems and then land on a product.

Within that discovery phase, you may never

end up at Amazon since Pinterest drives

traffic back to a retailer’s site.

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• Mobile apps give you the perfect opportunity to have deeper interactions and gain more knowledge on users’ behaviors, and provides the ability to push products and offers in a more seamless and meaningful way.

• The ability to push notifications to your users, and specifically to the top 20%, is the other great attraction for mobile applications. While more traditional opportunities exist to prompt users while on our websites or send follow-up emails to re-engage subscribers, those opportunities are not as seamless as the mobile app space.

Conclusion

Given the explosion of available devices, platforms and channels for making connections and building businesses, digital marketers can no longer rely solely on email to achieve the levels of engagement that extend reach, brand awareness and ROI. Developing strategies that include mobile and social along with email is no longer an option – it’s a necessity.

With new mobile technologies come new challenges and opportunities, but one thing is clear: Mobile users – whether tied to a cell phone, smartphone or tablet, or utilizing SMS, Pinterest or app downloads – are rapidly becoming comfortable with access-ing and interacting with brands whenever and however they want to, and expect to have a seamless experience doing it.

Learning how to design for mobile devices is the first step to success, but ensuring that mobile users have a positive experience once they’ve followed the email call-to-action onto your mobile landing page is equally important.

The device revolution is upon us. To the marketers who embrace and leverage mobile technologies go the spoils!

Mobile Email Campaign Management: Lyris HQ Mobile

At Lyris, our customers made us aware that

marketers are increasingly working remotely

or on-the-go. They require constant access

to online marketing tools to stay connected

to their email campaigns, regardless of

geographical location or time zone. So we

created Lyris HQ Mobile.

Lyris HQ Mobile for iPhone, iPad and iPod has

all the critical features and functionality that

you use from your desktop, including list,

campaign and report management; campaign

deployment and real-time stats; and results

and reporting.

Sources: * Nielsen - Oct. 2011, ** International Data Corporation - 2010 - 2014 Forecasts

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ResourcesLearn more about Lyris:

> www.Lyris.com

> go.lyris.com/facebook

> go.lyris.com/twitter

> go.lyris.com/youtube

> go.lyris.com/linkedinNorth America

United States, Corporate HQ6401 Hollis Street, Suite 125 Emeryville CA 94608 USA

Silicon Valley4 North 2nd Street, Suite 1100San Jose, California 95113

Toll-free: +1800.768.2929 Intl.: +1510.844.1600 Fax: +1510.844.1598

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Main: +54 (11) 4777 2557Brazil: +55 (11) 3711 5698Mexico: +52 (55) 4169-1779

Europe EMEA

United Kingdom232-242 Vauxhall Bridge RdLondon, SW1V 1AU Main: +020 7630 2960France: +33 176 66 00 23Sales: +020 7630 2961Support: +020 7630 2962

Asia Pacific

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Phone: +61 2 8071 5900Fax: +61 2 8071 5901

Contact

About Lyris, Inc.Lyris, Inc. is the global digital marketing expert, delivering the right blend of technology and industry knowledge to help businesses achieve value with their email marketing campaigns. Through its in-the-cloud integrated marketing suite, Lyris HQ, and reliable on-premises solutions, including Lyris ListManager (Lyris LM), Lyris provides customers the right tools to optimise their online and mobile marketing initiatives and deliver quantifiable ROI.

Copyright © 2012 Lyris, Inc. All rights reserved. February/2012

Email mobile-tablets-mastering-the-device-revolution-us

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