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Social & Mobile in Email Design
Presented by:
Matthew Caldwell
Sr. Creative Director
Yesmail
Confidential Not to be shared with third parties

Topics Covered
How to bring Social to email
Linking, Sharing & Dispatches
Dispatches – graphical cues for that social look
Mobile email Design
Changing behaviors call for Scalable Layouts
Narrow pages + Big Scale
Grid Systems

SOCIAL IN EMAIL 3 different ways to bring social into your email

SOCIAL in Email
3 ways to in use Social networking in email:
Linking
Sharing
Dispatches

SOCIAL LINKING Simply linking to your companies social page GOOD INTERESTING / CHALLENGING BORING / EASY

SOCIAL SHARING sharing specific parts of your email BETTER INTERESTING / CHALLENGING BORING / EASY

SOCIAL SHARING sharing specific parts of your email BORING / EASY

SOCIAL SHARING SHARING = Liking, Sharing or Tweeting 1. Liking to Facebook 2. Posting to Facebook 3. Tweeting

SOCIAL SHARING No Javascript in email so how to implement? 1. Liking to Facebook 2. Post to Facebook 3. Tweeting http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u= http://www.yourlinkhere.com http://twitter.com/share?url= http://www.yourlinkhere.com &text= check this out http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href= http://www.yourlinkhere.com/ &layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=450&action=like

SOCIAL SHARING TIP “ It’s not really sharing if it takes more than 2 clicks. Sharing must be • instantaneous • pre-populated

SOCIAL DISPATCHES inserting excerpts from social into email BEST INTERESTING / CHALLENGING BORING / EASY

SOCIAL DISPATCHES Social Dispatches is the act of taking snippets from social networks and reinserting them into email to creating relevant, interesting email content. Social media = constantly changing Email = regularly scheduled

SOCIAL DISPATCHES Graphical Social Cues

GRAPHICAL SOCIAL CUES THE FORMULA FOR THE SOCIAL LOOK Talk bubbles

GRAPHICAL SOCIAL CUES THE FORMULA FOR THE SOCIAL LOOK Avatars

GRAPHICAL SOCIAL CUES THE FORMULA FOR THE SOCIAL LOOK Author Photos

GRAPHICAL SOCIAL CUES THE FORMULA FOR THE SOCIAL LOOK Social Network Icons

GRAPHICAL SOCIAL CUES THE FORMULA FOR THE SOCIAL LOOK Big Quote Marks

GRAPHICAL SOCIAL CUES THE FORMULA FOR THE SOCIAL LOOK Big Chunky Type, with 140 Chars or less

GRAPHICAL SOCIAL CUES THE FORMULA FOR THE SOCIAL LOOK Delineation – strong horizontal rules

SOCIAL DISPATCHES example one – HP Tech at Work

SOCIAL DISPATCHES example two – HP Shopping Consumer Reviews

SOCIAL DISPATCHES example three – My Coke Rewards

SOCIAL DISPATCHESS example four – VooDoo Gaming

SOCIAL DISPATCHES example five – HP Newsgram

SOCIAL DISPATCHES example six – Sephora

Why include Social Dispatches?
Looks fresh, timely and new
Displays a “community” angle to your content
When done properly can be very relevant
Can be a great source of content

SOCIAL DISPATCHES How to produce them
You are the editor / curator
Search Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, YouTube for posts that apply to your content.
Ideally, information posted in the last 60 days

SOCIAL DISPATCHES or… Create your own
Call on your audience to respond
Tweet to #hashtag,
Post on Facebook
Reply by Email
Collect the best and fill out a Social Dispatches section
Users see their own inputs, create interactivity

SOCIAL DISPATCHES Create your own - Overstock

EMAIL DESIGN: MOBILE

It’s Happening… fast More and more users are opening your email on their phones OPENS ON A MOBILE DEVICE JAN 2008 JAN 2009 JAN 2010 JAN 2011 .25% 1-3% 4% 12-15% SOURCE: YESMAIL 2010 “USER AGENT” TESTING PREDICTION : By the end of 2011, one third of your list may be reading your email on their phones.

It’s Happening… fast 28% of all phones in the US are now a smart phone SOURCE The Nielsen Company – 3 rd Quarter 2010 Smartphones: cellphones with operating systems resembling those of computers.

It’s Happening… fast Margaret Caldwell, the authors mother, checking her email on a droid (Samsung Galaxy S)

QUESTION: What percentage of your list opens on a mobile device? Analyze your USER AGENT STRING to find out

The Good news: HTML email on smart phones is getting better SOURCE The Nielsen Company – 3 rd Quarter 2010 HTML EMAIL ON PHONE? YES - iPhone – the gold standard, resizes to fit YES - Android – but does not resize, requires side scrolling YES - Window mobile – but images off by default, no resizing YES – Palm – yes, some odd formatting, does not scale NO - Blackberry – still poor, even with new OS6 NO - Symbian – your html copy will display, looks poor

Mobile is here – What should I do?
3 OPTIONS FOR MOBILE OPENS :
Link to your TXT version (snore)
Create dedicated mobile versions (pricey)
Redesign your layouts to be Scalable (best & easiest)
Let’s look at the pros and cons of each…

3 MOBILE OPTIONS – Link to TXT version • Easy • Boring • Requires extra click

3 MOBILE OPTIONS – Link to dedicated mobile version • Looks great, designed for mobile • Expensive, another custom version • Requires extra click

3 MOBILE OPTIONS – Design your emails to SCALE down cleanly • One version • Looks great on desktop and handheld • Largely only applies to iPhone at this time but does seem to be the future trend.

Scalable eMail Designs: A layout reduces in size still looks the good and is usable / readable.

Scalable email Designs: Approximate message widths ratio of reduction

HOW TO CREATE Scalable email Designs:
Grid system
Single column
Grouping Sections
Big Scale on a narrow page
Meta Tag

Start with a Grid System
A Grid System is an alignment tool for layouts. A system of measurement in pixels that breaks down a layout into a series of columns, gutters and margins.

Grid Systems

Why use a grid system?
Orderly alignment
Consistent spacing between sections
Provides the ability to quickly create new sections based on that grid system

Why use a grid system?
Grid-aligned layouts scale down cleanly
Grid-aligned layout Non Grid-aligned layout

HOW TO CREATE Scalable email Designs: 2. Single Column yes no

3. Grouping sections
Distinct sections
Rounded corners
Contrasting colors
Space between sections
Background color as divider

“ Grouping Sections” use the background color as the divider.
Typically sections are created by horizontal rules
Traditional sections horizontal rules “ Grouping Sections” Background color divides

HOW TO CREATE Scalable email Designs: 3. Grouping sections What works in mobile works in email design

HOW TO CREATE Scalable email Designs: 4. Big Scale on a narrow page First consider a less wide page: Then = 600 pixels wide Now = reduce to 450, 500, 525 600 pixels wide 480-550 pixels wide

HOW TO CREATE Scalable email Designs: 4. Big Scale on a narrow page increase the size of your copy and buttons Minimum font size = 14 points Title case font size = 30+ Go big and chunky! It’s easier to read, but means less words

HOW TO CREATE Scalable email Designs: 4. Big Scale on a narrow page Warning: You will need to go on a WORD DIET. Scalable layouts depend on character counts Too many words and the large type becomes overpowering.

HOW TO CREATE Scalable email Designs: 4. Big Scale on a narrow page 34 points 520 pixels wide

HOW TO CREATE Scalable email Designs: 5. Viewport Meta Tag <meta name = "viewport" content = "width = 320"> Viewport : Changes the logical window size used when displaying a page on iOS.

HOW TO CREATE Scalable email Designs: 5. Viewport Meta Tag with Meta Tag without Meta Tag

EXAMPLES Scalable email Designs:

Wait, I’m not a designer what should I do?
Insist that your designs are on a GRID – ask ‘em “ can I see the grid?”
Tell your designer you want a single column layout
Tell your designer to view their designs on the phone and big screen while designing, this will influence the outcome

Doesn’t that make very tall / long layouts?
Yes. People scroll now, it’s 2011.
It’s better to present one thing at a time for clarity & focus
If twitter or facebook were screen captured it would be 9 feet tall on average

DEVELOPING / WORTH EXPLORING CSS3 Media Queries
What is it?
Media queries was introduced in CSS3 to allow a document’s styles to change depending on what it’s viewed on.
For example: An HTML document can be rendered differently for
“ screen” (computer)
“ handheld” (phones)
“ print”, “braille” and more.

WORTH EXPLORING CSS3 Media Queries What does it look like? (simplified) <style @media type=“handheld”; width=“320”>

In Summary: Bring Social media to your email not just by buttons but through “dispatches” and / or engagement with results displayed. Create scalable layouts for iPhone and as more smart phones with “scaling email” functionality enter the market.

Thank you Matt Caldwell Yesmail / Infogroup Interactive Sr. Creative Director Email: [email_address] Web : http://www.yesmail.com Twitter : matty_caldwell

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