This document summarizes research into how well email campaigns render and perform on mobile devices. It reviewed emails from 19 major brands on iPhone, Android, and Blackberry. Most programs scored poorly, with only 31% of emails rendering properly on Blackberry. Readability and usability were also issues across devices. The report provides recommendations for marketers to optimize emails for mobile, such as previewing emails on devices and designing for smaller screens that require less scrolling.

1. Hitting the Mobile Mark: Getting
Your Mobile Email Right
Skip Fidura, Client Service Director
dotMailer
Wednesday 27th June 2012
Hitting the Mobile Mark: Getting Your Mobile Email Right
Skip Fidura, Client Service Director

2. Hitting the Mobile Mark: Getting Your Mobile Email Right
Skip Fidura, Client Service Director

3. Why Should You Care
Mobile presents a number of
40% 67%
challenges for email marketers
• Usability for readers
completing the journey on
the phone
of the UK population of these used their
• Clarity for readers triaging
owned a smartphone in smartphone to access
their inbox
December 2011 their email in June 2011
(YouGov) (comScore) • You never know when a
reader will use mobile
Hitting the Mobile Mark: Getting Your Mobile Email Right
Skip Fidura, Client Service Director

4. Methodology
We started with some consumer research to Amazon.co.uk M&S
quantify the attitudes of consumers
Apple New Look
We reviewed the emails of 19 leading high
street brands ASOS Next
Across 3 different devices: B&Q Play.com
iPhone Debenhams River Island
Android EasyJet Tesco
Blackberry
Expedia Tesco Direct
Figleaves Thomson
Homebase TopShop
John Lewis
Hitting the Mobile Mark: Getting Your Mobile Email Right
Skip Fidura, Client Service Director

5. What Did We Review?
Design and Usability Criteria Technical Criteria
• Does the email render properly on the • link? Is the correct code used to design the
test devices? email?
• Is the email easy to read? • Is there a mobile-only CSS style sheet?
• Is the most relevant content available • Are ALT tags used on images?
without scrolling?
• Are landing pages easy to read and quick
• Are the CTAs visible without scrolling? to load?
• Are the CTAs big enough to tap without • Is there a ‘view in browser’ link?
zooming?
• Is there a ‘view on mobile’
• Are the landing pages mobile friendly?
Hitting the Mobile Mark: Getting Your Mobile Email Right
Skip Fidura, Client Service Director

6. Consumer Research
The Time of Day myth busted:
3:1 66%
• 41% check their email first
thing in the morning while
27% check before going to
sleep and on average they
Ratio consumers prefer of all consumers check a further 4 times in
offers and vouchers to check their email on between
news and tips their phone.
• For B2B marketers, 21% said
they check work emails out of
hours
64% Personal only
2% Business only
25% Both
Hitting the Mobile Mark: Getting Your Mobile Email Right
Skip Fidura, Client Service Director

7. Benchmarking Report Overall Findings
iPhone
53% is getting the greatest
The average score focus scoring above
across the 19 64% across all
review criteria
9
email programs
reviewed
Brands have cracked
rendering, readability, and
clickability on Android but
of these programs are struggling across the
reviewed scored board on BlackBerries
below 50%
Hitting the Mobile Mark: Getting Your Mobile Email Right
Skip Fidura, Client Service Director

8. Did Your Email Render?
High Flyer Issues Included
The only email to render effectively on the Images not displaying properly
BlackBerry came from Apple Incorrect alignment of elements
Only M&S included a link to a mobile version Text and images overlapping
Best Practice Advice
Preview the email
Make sure you know which devices your readers
are using
Results by Device
iPhone = 94%
Android = 89%
BlackBerry = 31%
Hitting the Mobile Mark: Getting Your Mobile Email Right
Skip Fidura, Client Service Director

9. Is Your Email Easy to Read?
High Flyer Issues Included
Thomson scored top marks for Messages too large
readability on all The text too small
platforms, especially Android
Best Practice Advice
Don’t make your readers work hard to get your
message
Send multi-part emails in case your HTML does not
render AND purposely copywrite the plain text
version
Results by Device
iPhone = 81%
Android = 64%
BlackBerry = 41%
Hitting the Mobile Mark: Getting Your Mobile Email Right
Skip Fidura, Client Service Director

10. Do Your Readers Need to Zoom and Scroll?
High Flyer Issues Included
Apple was the only email where BlackBerry Only sender details and Headline were typically
readers did not need to scroll… much visible on BlackBerry
Templates designed for PCs did not ‘degrade
gracefully’
Best Practice Advice
Identify the mobile penetration of your list –
Blackberry = Kids and Business Users
Take the time to write short copy
Preview your email before sending
Results by Device
iPhone = 78% - Half got full marks
Android = 17%
BlackBerry = 5%
Hitting the Mobile Mark: Getting Your Mobile Email Right
Skip Fidura, Client Service Director

11. Have You Designed for the Finger?
High Flyer Issues Included
Expedia had a clear call to action that enticed CTAs falling below the fold
mobile readers to click CTAs that were not finger friendly
CTAs only in images which did not work on
BlackBerries
Best Practice Advice
Design for the finger
Use buttons, images and text links
Keep above the fold
Consider the whole mobile journey
Results by Device
iPhone = 78%
Android = 91%
BlackBerry = 63%
Photo courtesy of Time.com
Hitting the Mobile Mark: Getting Your Mobile Email Right
Skip Fidura, Client Service Director

12. Is Your code Correct?
High Flyer Issues Included
There was no clear standout in this are but Lack of a mobile style sheet
Play.com did the best across all of the criteria Not fixing the font size so it becomes to small to read
on the mobile screen
Best Practice Advice
Simple straightforward code to maximise cross
mobile compatibility
Clean code
Use media queries to set the screen resolution
Fix the font size
Use Alt-tags
Avoid large image files
Results by Device
iPhone = 94%
Android = 89%
BlackBerry = 31%
Hitting the Mobile Mark: Getting Your Mobile Email Right
Skip Fidura, Client Service Director

13. Your Landing Page is the Other Half of the Battle?
High Flyer Issues Included
ASOS regularly Issues Included
have clear and Pages not mobile specific
easy to read Too often the need to zoom and scroll
mobile landing Complex pages that took too long to load
pages
Best Practice Advice
If possible design a mobile version of your
landing page
At the very least preview the landing page and all
other pages that make up the user journey
Hitting the Mobile Mark: Getting Your Mobile Email Right
Skip Fidura, Client Service Director

14. Conclusion
Some will be In either case
triaging their emails you need to keep
Your readers are
others will complete your emails:
increasingly reading
the whole journey on SIMPLE
your emails on their
their phone depending
smart phones. CLEAR
on the situation of
the moment. ACCESSIBLE
Hitting the Mobile Mark: Getting Your Mobile Email Right
Skip Fidura, Client Service Director