SimplyCast: Interactive Marketing Blog

How often do you check your email on your BlackBerry or iPhone instead of your desktop computer?

If you are like me, probably quite often.

Does that ever make you wonder how many of your subscribers or potential customers check their email on a mobile device? It really should.

Did you know that users who open your email with a mobile device cannot be tracked in your open rate metrics? Keep that in mind if you happen to see a dip in your totals.

By focusing on how your email marketing campaigns relate to mobile users, you can drastically increase opt-ins and grow your business in a hurry.

Different things could impact your email campaigns in different ways. If they are complex in code, they could easily trigger many items to not show up on a cell phone.

Now you do not have to change your entire campaign strategy but there are a few simple tweaks you can do in order for mobile viewers to be able to read your emails easier.

Deliver brief, interesting messages

Long sentences in long paragraphs force more and more scrolling. This also can be a barrier for converting or another source of frustration for readers.

Include a text version

Provide a link at the top of the message that sends mobile users to a text-only page. This will help out anyone who is having problems viewing a HTML email that contains images.

SimplyCast’s email marketing software will automatically generate a text version of your email when it is sent out.

Don’t put links to images at the very beginning of your email

Depending on the device’s settings, the recipient may only see a bunch of links. Then they either have to scroll down forever or more likely, they will just delete your email.

Image heavy email campaigns or newsletters have the most difficulty to be viewed correctly. Try to have more text and less graphics in order to increase the chances of the email being read when someone is on the go.

That doesn’t mean that you want to sacrifice your companies branding but it is important to keep any eye for what type of graphics you are planning on applying to your email campaigns.

Revise the goal of the message

Since Executives using a mobile device are usually skimming and not clicking on links, you have to make sure the message is concise, clear and uncluttered.

Enticing the reader to review the email in greater detail when they return to their desk should be the goal.

Test on your own mobile phone

This is the easiest way to make sure you are taking advantage of the ever-growing technology. Send a test email to yourself or a friend and see how it looks on different mobile devices.

Does the subject line get cut off before it tells you what the email is about?

Do you have to scroll down or go to a second page? If you do, then it is a good idea to teak the message until everything can be read quickly and easily.

Keep in mind that mobile email users don’t generally click on links from their BlackBerry or PDA, again saving it for later when they are at a computer.

Also consider that users may not want to make online purchases or sign up for your service via these devices either.

The mobile world is only going to continue to grow, meaning the sooner you start utilizing it, the sooner your own business will expand even more.