I clearly remember the first day I ever saw an iPad ‘in the wild’. It’s not hard really, it was only in 2010. One of the techie guys brought his brand new, 1st generation iPad into an email marketing results meeting on the first week they were commercially available and we all took a moment to sit and admire it. After a few ooooh’s and aaaah’s, someone asked “what are you going to use it for” to which the techie replied “I’m not really sure” and we all laughed and joked that he had just spent the best part of a grand on an incredibly technologically-advanced doorstop.
Just 2 ½ years on and the rise of the tablet has been meteoric. No-one dismisses them as a fad anymore. Apple have been joined by Google and Windows in a market that is now served with an almost bewildering choice of smaller, lighter, faster and cheaper options than the original Apple offering. In fact, tablets dominance has led many to suspect that we are witnessing the end of the laptop for home computing and that website visits on tablet devices will surpass those on smartphones (despite their 3 year head start) early this year.
That’s not to say that the proliferation of the smartphone has been any less impressive, with worldwide sales topping the 1bn mark in 2012 and internet visits rising steeply over the past 5 years. Faster processors, higher resolution screens and improving functionality have made the smartphone a viable tool for internet shopping on the move.
The impact of the evolution of smartphones and tablets on marketers is immense. Whereas using PC’s, even laptops, can be a singularly consuming act, smartphone and tablet use is complementary to the completion of other tasks and the consumption of other media. Their use has become woven into our day rather than for a specific purpose and opens up huge new marketing opportunities through apps, social media and gaming. But what about a channel that existed before these devices entered the arena? Recent reports suggest that as many as 30% of some marketing emails are now being opened on smartphones and tablets. So how will email marketing need to adapt to stay relevant in this new mobile world?
Email design
Marketers have seen an increasing number of emails opened on phones for some time and adjusted their email marketing designs accordingly. This is now increasingly important. The standard 600 pixel width for marketing emails works great when being opened on desktops, but on a phone or tablet the viewable area can vary from a perfectly scaled mini-version to a few legal mandatories and the unsubscribe link at the top.
In addition, the size of desktop emails can make them slow-loading and unwieldy to navigate, CTA buttons and other links can be small and not thumb or finger-friendly, especially the navigation. So how can they be optimised for mobile openers?
Media queries
Used successfully already in website development, media queries are added to the page code and cleverly recognise the type of device that is being used to open it. Once this has been established, either a desktop or mobile optimised webpage will reveal itself.
These queries can be easily included in email code too and so many have looked into using it in their email marketing as a response to the increasing importance of mobile devices.
However, there are problems to overcome, one of which is file size. In simple terms, media queries tell content to either reveal itself or not based on the device that’s opening it. However, all the content has to be available in the first place for the code to kick in. Even if the media queries only tell the email to reveal a small and important section to mobile devices, the rest of the code is still there, hiding but contributing to the file size. As we all know, the bigger the email, the longer it takes to load, especially on mobile. If this process takes too long, the email will be closed and the opportunity lost. This means that to create an email using media queries, the desktop version shouldn’t be too long or complex, a sacrifice that many are not willing to make.
Another big problem with media queries is that there are certain compromises that have to be made with the email design. To make the mobile version a truly optimised single column email, the desktop version can end up being boxy and linear, which we know can have a detrimental effect on scrolling and overall performance.
When considering these factors and the added complications of building and testing, I believe that media queries are currently the least appealing option of those currently available in email marketing.
Create two versions
Email design works hardest when we have a free hand to design them how we want. Creating visual diagonals, introducing irregular shapes, using eye contact and direction of gaze are just a few of the email marketing tricks we use to keep people scrolling. In addition there are several format specific traits that we would add to mobile emails if we had a free hand to design them separately, such as a shorter navigation bar, single column layout, less copy, bigger buttons etc.
The best way to ensure that both the desktop and mobile versions are completely optimised in their design is to produce two separate versions, employing best practice in both. A simple link to ‘view on a mobile’ can be added to the top left of the desktop version and anyone opening on a mobile touches this and is immediately served a masterpiece of mobile email design.
Again there are several drawbacks to this approach, first of which is the cost. Creating a mobile version in its own right takes more time and effort leading to a larger cost. How much more depends on the complexity of the messaging, but the cost expenditure needs to justify the reward. How many incremental clicks are you going to generate and are they worth the additional outlay?
Of course, when you do click from the mobile email, you’ll land on a perfectly optimised mobile webpage won’t you? If not, you’ve got poor customer experience issues to contend with. But if yes, well why not take them straight there when they click the ‘view on mobile’ link? It’ll save money and provides a guaranteed website visit.
Tracking opener behaviour and sending the mobile version to those who always/usually open on a mobile device would be a smarter solution but the costs still need to be reconciled against the volume and incremental benefit. As mobile opening takes over from traditional desktop, this may become a popular approach but for now, this can prove to be too expensive an option for many companies.
Tweak your standard design
It’s not possible to make standard desktop emails fit every permutation of mobile display. However, we can do our best to ensure that the important content is in a place likely to be seen, and that call to action buttons are thumb and finger-friendly.
This is the easiest and most sensible solution at this time and the one that most are adopting. Different mobile browsers display emails in different ways but by aggregating this information we can make our emails as optimised as they possibly can be, without the need for additional complexity or investment.
Time and a place
Email marketers also need to account for the fact that emails can be opened on mobile devices on the move and possibly in a different frame of mind to those opened on desktop computers. When sat or stood on a commuter cattle-train, desperately trying not to make eye-contact with fellow travellers, engaging email marketing can be a welcome distraction. This also applies to waiting rooms, bus stops, long journeys in the passenger seat of cars and in my case, waiting for The X Factor to finish. Idly thumbing through your inbox can so easily transcend into casual browsing of emails and websites. Where previously, emails would be sent out during the day to catch people during their lunch hour, now email marketing goes out to catch the morning commute or an evening sat in front of woefully below-par TV.
Tablet use is almost exclusively an evening activity, with usage statistics showing a spike from 6pm until after midnight. ‘Checking emails’ is the most popular pursuit, while browsing and purchasing from retail sites is the third most popular. This presents email marketers with a fantastic opportunity to engage with their audience and sell their wares at all hours of the day.
2012 was supposed to be the year of the mobile but it will be 2013 when this truly explodes. Making sure your email marketing is optimised for mobile devices will stop being desirable and start being essential.