Mobile email marketing is growing in importance as smartphone usage increases. While over 80% of smartphone users check their email on their devices, only about 30% of marketers see mobile optimization as important. To succeed at mobile email marketing, marketers must design emails that are readable on various small screens through careful use of formatting, images, and content prioritization. They should also encourage opens and clicks through best practices for subject lines, preheaders, and calls to action tailored for mobile. Growing a mobile audience requires SMS/text and QR codes along with a fully optimized website and applications.

1. BLUE SKY FACTORY WEBINAR SERIES
Mobile Email Marketing 101
May 20, 2011
2:00 to 2:45 ET
#MobileEmail
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2. WHO ARE WE?
Blue Sky Factory Wood Street, Inc.
Become a better marketer through Bringing your ideas about the
effective email marketing web and mobile into focus
BlueSkyFactory.com WoodStreet.com
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3. LET’S TALK ABOUT MOBILE
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4. SOME STATS ON MOBILE
• Mobile is growing EVERY DAY!
• Of the 4 billion mobile phones in use, 1.08 billion are smartphones.
• Smartphones showed the strongest growth in 2010; this continues in 2011.
• Most popular activities on the mobile web are search, reading news and sports
information, downloading music and videos, and email and instant messages.
- Think Marketing: Mobile Marketing and Usage: Statistics and Facts for 2011
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5. EMAIL DOMINATES WEB TIME
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6. MOBILE IN EMAIL
• 85% of smartphone users check their email on their smartphones (e.g., read the
subject line and from address), and 82% actually read their email on their
smartphone. - ExactTarget (2009)
• 43% of mobile email users check email four or more times per day, compared to 29%
of those who do not use mobile email. - Merkle "View From the Digital Inbox 2011” (2011)
• 13.36% of emails are opened by a mobile operating system or device. - Knotice (2011)
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7. BUT…
Only 31.6% of US marketers said having an
optimized mobile marketing experience for
customers is important.
- eROI "The Current State of Social, Mobile, & Email Integration" (2010)
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8. WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
IT MEANS…
PEOPLE READ EMAIL ON MOBILE -
ACT ACCORDINGLY!
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9. ARE YOUR EMAILS GETTING READ ON MOBILE DEVICES?
Use Google Analytics or another tool to find out.
Get instructions and learn more in
“How to Measure Your Mobile Email Marketing Strategy.”
http://blog.blueskyfactory.com/creativeanddesign/how-to-measure-your-mobile-email-marketing-strategy/
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10. TWEETAWAY
Mobile email usage is growing; adoption by marketers lags.
#MobileEmail
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11. DESIGNING EMAILS FOR MOBILE
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12. GETTING INTO THE INBOX
• Inbox = eMarketing gatekeeper
• Your crucial first impression
• Take this moment seriously!
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13. DON’T BE THAT GUY!
Source: http://daveatherall.blogspot.com/
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14. THE EMAIL MARKETING TRIFECTA
From Name
Subject Line
Preheader
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15. FROM NAME
From Name
• Subscribers scan for familiarity
• Use a company or brand name they know
• People trust names they know, and they will
click on those names
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16. SUBJECT LINE
Subject Line
• 15 characters or less is ideal
• Make it eye-catching AND relevant
• Make it irresistible!
• Consistency helps
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17. PREHEADER
Preheader
• This is preview text for the email
• Usually “View in Your Browser" or similar
• Use this as a way to hook them
 “Special Offer Inside”
 “Great Marketing Tips in This Email”
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18. 5 THINGS TO CONSIDER
1. Think about thumbs
2. Space things with touch screens in mind
3. How much is enough content?
4. How much is too much?
5. Keep it scannable
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19. AN ANATOMY LESSON
Note: A minimum of 44px by 44px is the average finger tap on an iPhone
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20. MOBILE EMAIL MARKETING BEST PRACTICES
• Place important content on the left • Try your color palette in different lighting
environments
• Maintain visual consistency with
your existing website (if you have • Keep the main navigation to three or four
one) links
• Reduce the amount of text • Think about fluid (liquid) designs for best
adaptation (minimum width of 320px)
• Use legible fonts on every screen;
don’t rely on the resolution • Use lists rather than tables
• Use background colors to separate • Reduce load time by using CSS3 instead of
sections images for gradients, rounded corners,
shadows, etc.
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21. TWEETAWAY
When designing emails for mobile, user experience is
most important. #MobileEmail
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22. CREATING A MOBILE VERSION
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23. SCREEN SIZE AND OTHER HEADACHES
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24. SCREEN SIZE
Mobile is a vast array of shapes and sizes.
Rank Phone Type Resolution
#1 Nexus One 800 x 480
#2 Droid Incredible 480 x 800
#3 Apple iPhone 3 GS (32 GB) 480 x 800
#4 HTC Evo 480 x 800
#5 Blackberry Bold 9650 480 x 360
#6 HTC HD2 480 x 800
#7 Motorola Droid 480 x 854
#8 Palm Pre 320 x 480
Design for minimum of 320 px wide
OR
Place most important information within a 340 px-wide area.
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25. TWEETAWAY
Email displays differently on different mobile
screens; account for your target devices.
#MobileEmail
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26. 4 WAYS TO ENSURE CROSS DEVICE COMPATIBILITY
1. Use a tool to test
 http://litmus.com/
 http://www.returnpath.net/commercialsender/monitoring/gold/
2. Design for lowest common denominator
 480 px wide
 Design for legibility at 50% size of original (for feature phones)
3. Use Meta tags and CSS to allow for proper rendering in devices
 CSS3 for setting up styles, etc.
 Meta tags can alert the device to render certain ways:
• <meta name="“viewport”" content="“width=320”"> for rendering properly
on an iPhone for example
4. Design with a grid format using color and areas of content that can adjust variably
- StrongMail Blog (2011)
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27. DIFFERENT DEVICES, DIFFERENT RESULTS
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28. TWEETAWAY
Mobile email conversion = encouraging the open &
designing for conversion. #MobileEmail
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29. GETTING MOBILE SUBSCRIBERS TO CONVERT
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30. ENCOURAGE THE OPEN
• Keep best practices in mind
 Send time
 Frequency
 From name
 Subject line
• Make sure your subject line & preheader
work together
• Build relationships
• Provide value
Read more on Wood Street’s blog, “4 Ways to Get Your Emails Opened.”
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31. DESIGN FOR CONVERSIONS
• K.I.S.S. (Keep it Simple, Silly!)
• Refine your call-to-action
 Mother-in-law test
 Arm’s length test
• Above the fold
 Main call-to-action
 Share links
Flickr: quinn.anya
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32. GROWING YOUR AUDIENCE
• SMS/text messaging
 In-person events
 Signage
 Traditional media
• QR Codes
• Mobile application (such as Blue Sky Factory's
Publicaster)
• Optimize for mobile
 Clear contact information
 Include share links
Read more on mobile on the Blue Sky Factory blog.
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33. WE WRITE USEFUL STUFF ALL THE TIME!
Visit the Wood Street blog for more on web & mobile.
Latest posts:
• 3 Reasons Design Matters on a Web Site
• 3 Reasons Your Web Site is Still Important
• Why Your Web Site Needs Email Marketing
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34. FREE EMAIL MARKETING EBOOK
Download “50 Ways to Build Your Email Marketing List”:
BlueSkyFactory.com/mobilewebinar
http://www.blueskyfactory.com/mobilewebinar
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35. THANK YOU!
Amy Garland Jon-Mikel Bailey
Client Services Manager Founder & President
Blue Sky Factory Wood Street, Inc.
@amygarland @jonmikelbailey
BlueSkyFactory.com WoodStreet.com
@blueskyfactory @woodstreetweb
Blog.BlueSkyFactory.com Wood Street Blog
866.216.BLUE 301.668.5006
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