mobile email: strategies and how-tos for the small screen
TRANSCRIPT
E-mail • Direct Mail • Digital Marketing • Sales ToolsFunding Data • Creative Services
Mobile email: Strategies and how-tos
for the small screen
Mobile e-mail: Strategies and how-tos for the small screen
Welcome!
Mobile e-mail: Strategies and how-tos for the small screen
Sponsored by:
Learn more about Agile at www.agile-ed.com.
Justine Jordan
Director of Marketing, Litmus
Justine leads content marketing, customer
education and research initiatives for Litmus’
suite of email tracking and testing tools. Prior to
joining Litmus, Justine lead the creative services
team at ExactTarget and was responsible for
designing, building and managing email
campaigns for SMB through Fortune 500
customers. Read her rants and raves by
following @meladorri.
Presenter Introduction
Got screens?
Mobile Email: WhyMobile is big, but how big?
Email Opens: July 2013
Mobile: Smartphones (iPhone, Android) and tablets
Desktop:Installed email programs (Outlook, Apple Mail)
Webmail:Email accessed through a web browser (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo!)
Desktop34%
Webmail22%
Mobile44%
Source: Litmus Email Analytics
Q1 2011
Q2 2011
Q3 2011
Q4 2011
Q1 2012
Q2 2012
Q3 2012
Q4 2012
Q1 2013
Q2 201320%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Desktop Webmail Mobile
Email Opens: 2011-now
44%33%
10%
Know Your Audience
Copy, paste& send
some of our major retail brands are seeing 60% of their subscribers
viewing on a mobile device
“
—Cara Olson, Digital Evolution Group
”
Small Medium Large
iPhone2.3” wide
Galaxy Note II3.2” wide
Nexus 77.3” wide
BB Bold2.6” wide
iPad Mini5.3” wide
Excite 138.5” wide
Screensize-apalooza
The unifying characteristic?
TOUCH.
Experience MattersIt’s more than just metrics
One chance to make an impression
Delete it
Unsubscribe
View on computer
Don't know
Read anyway
File it
70%
18%
18%
9%
8%
4%
BlueHornet Study: Consumer Views of Email Marketing
Neutral24.60%
Slightly Negative51.30%
Strongly Negative24.10%
How does a poorly designed email affect your perception of the brand?
If you get a mobile email that doesn’t look good, what do you do?
Mobile Triage Myth
3% reopen on another
client
97% view in a single
environment
Consider the experience
• The mobile experience is different than the desktop experience
• Landing pages are part of that experience
????
Page/Site
Tap
Preview/Open
Preheader
Subject Line
From Name
Focus on ‘from name’ and subject line
Focus on ‘from name’ and subject line
From Name~25 characters
Subject Line ~35 characters
Preheader~85 characters
17
Preheaders = tertiary inbox content
Preheaders = tertiary inbox content
iPhone Windows Phone
Blackberry
iPhone:Scales to width;
320 x 460
Android:No scaling; dimensions
vary;top-left corner
displayed
Inconsistent rendering across devices and operating systems
22
Provide click/tap opportunities
What makes the email on the left different?
NO:crowded grids
NO:impossible form fields
24
YES:easy to navigate
YES:finger friendly
Strategies & ApproachesHow to tackle mobile email
As with most things with email, there’s not a one-size-fits-all approach
(sorry to disappoint you)
Mobile First
Considers the mobile user as a priority
|-------------------460px -------------------|
|---------------------600px ---------------------|
Mobile First / Friendly
• One layout for all screen sizes• Single column design
– 320-500px
• Large text & buttons • Generous white space• Clear calls to action • Short, concise body copy
Agnostic / Aware / Scalable
Fluid
Email width changes to fit within the window
|--------------------------------------------------------1166px---------------------------------------------------|
|-----------------------------525px --------------------------|
Fluid layout
• Percentage-based widths
• Adapts to fill the screen it’s viewed on; text wraps automatically
ResponsiveDesign
Uses media queries to detect screen size and alter content accordingly
|-----------320px ------------||---------------------------------------600px------------------------------------------|
Responsive Design
• More than a “line of code”• Set of conditional statement that enables specific styles
– If the screen size is x, then display y– If the screen size is x, then increase headline size to y– If screen size is x, then show image at 100%
• Detects screen size, not device type
Taking ActionTry to avoid analysis paralysis
iPhone native yes
iPad native yes
Android 2.1 native
no
Android 2.2 native
yes
Android 2.3 native
yes
Android 4.x native
yes
Gmail mobile apps
no
Mailbox iOS app yes
@media support
http://stylecampaign.com/blog/2012/10/responsive-email-support/
Yahoo! mobile apps
no
Windows Mobile 7
no
Windows Mobile 7.5
yes
Windows Mobile 8
no
BlackBerry OS 6 yes
BlackBerry OS 7 yes
BlackBerry Z10 yes
Kindle Fire native yes
Email is an *application*
Email is an *application*
Device ≠ email client
Plan on data, not your gut
Your audience is the most important one
Brand/Industry A: 55% Brand/Industry B: 18%
Responsive isn’t always the answer
1. Resources
2. Data
3. Company type
4. User expectations
Company A
1. Resources: coders, designers, writer
2. Data: 55% mobile
3. Company type: Tech
4. User expectations: B2B Tech audience
ResponsiveCompany B
1. Resources: marketing manager, intern
2. Data: 18% mobile
3. Company type: Non-Profit/Education
4. User expectations: low sophistication
Aware
Android Observations
• Blocks images by default; supports ALT text
• Two apps with opposing support for media queries
• Primary content focus on left-hand side
• Various screen sizes and sometimes automatic scaling
Blackberry Observations
• Media query support• Blocks images; supports styled ALT
text• Does not scale/auto-zoom• No separate app; email joins social,
SMS and voice in the “hub”
Windows Phone Observations
• Mixed media query support• Does weird things to fonts• Blocks images; no ALT text• No one has them!
iPhone Observations
• Automatically scales messages to fit the screen
• Excellent support for CSS3 and media queries
• Images on by default• Resizes fonts under 13px
Mobile Email Design Principles“Best practices,” if you will…
Preheader tips
• Support the subject line with a creative, useful or helpful preheader.– Call-to-action– Special offer– Reminder– Clickable/measurable– NOT “having trouble…?”
Bigger is Better
• Body copy: 16px+• Headlines: 22px+
– Or else face auto-resizing
• Buttons: 44px by 44px• Space: 10px+
Dial up the contrast
Bright screens kill batteries
Lots of links create friction
Don’t give users a reason NOT to click by making text or other calls-to-action impossible to tap.
• Tappable touch targets• ‘Bulletproof’ buttons don’t rely on
an image• Left-hand side
Create touch targets
Buttons can be traditional text buttons or image-based touch targets that link back to content.
Test, test, test!
Mobile email testing with Litmus
ResultsTest and share for the common good!
• Rewards Network: CTR increased by more than 25% • Deckers: 10% increase in CTR; 9% increase in mobile opens• Crocs: 7.66% lift in CTOR; 15.63% lift in iPhone ‘read’
engagement; 8.82% lift in mobile ‘read’ engagement • SavvyMom: 3x lift in CTOR. 12% of those who opened on
mobile clicked vs. 6% who opened on desktop
More coming all the time: litmus.com/blog
ResourcesInfo + tools
Market Share Stats
http://emailclientmarketshare.com
Antwort: Responsive Layouts for Email
http://internations.github.io/antwort/
Zurb: Responsive
Email Templateshttp://www.zurb.com/
article/1119/create-emails-for-any-device-introducing-
*not compatible with Outlook 2007+
Responsive Email Tutorial
http://www.netmagazine.com/tutorials/build-responsive-emails
Campaign Monitor
RED Guidehttp://www.campaignmonitor.com/
guides/mobile/
Resourceslitmus.com/blog
stylecampaign.com/blog
campaignmonitor.com/blog
mailchimp.com/blog
emaildesignreview.com
mobileawesomeness.com
mediaqueri.es
Media Post Email Insider columns
A List Apart / A Book Apart
Ethan Marcotte
Luke Wroblewski
Twitter community
Get in touch
Justine Jordan@meladorri @[email protected]