Email Marketing Insights

Earlier this year, StrongMail commissioned a mobile marketing survey with Forrester Consulting that was designed to find out how consumers are interacting and reacting to mobile marketing. Not surprisingly, consumers with smart phones were much more receptive to mobile marketing messages than the users of so-called dumb "feature-phones." With smart phone adoption sailing past 50% with no signs of stopping anytime soon, this is good news for marketers. It also turns out that email is the preferred method to view promotional messages on mobile phones – and a third of smart phone users have made a purchase after viewing a promotional email message on their phone.

The following infographic outlines some of the key findings, or check out the press release here.

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Falling prices have made smart phones extremely common.  According to the Pew Research Center, 46% of US adults owned a smart phone as of February 2012. With those kind of numbers, widespread smart phone and tablet adoption is undeniable. Unsurprisingly, smart phone ownership remains more common among young adults and those with high income, higher education.  However, smartphone adoption does not have a gender bias, which is unusual for technology adoption.  The smartphone adoption has been primarily on Android and Apple iOS devices, with 80% of the audience using those operating systems.
 
So, what are people actually doing with their mobile phones?  Text messaging and taking pictures are still the most common uses.  However sending and receiving email is also being done commonly.  And when people do engage with email on mobile, they engage at a much higher rate than people who engage with email on desktop.
 
So, what does this mean if you’re trying to reach people via email?  First, people are on the run.  Consumers don’t read emails the same way on phones as they do on desktops.  Understanding these differences will inform your design.  For example, mobile email users don’t scan email, they prioritize it.  They categorize their email into "read now," "read later" or "delete."
 
So, how do you make the cut to help ensure that your emails are read now or at least saved for later?  First, start with the subject line and concentrate on the first 20 characters:  keep it short and keep it recognizable.  That means getting the offer in first and being mindful of the sender name.  Secondly, make sure that your key information is visible above the fold (duh) and make the call to action clear and conspicuous.
 
Now, given that many of you are likely working with limited resources, here are some tools and tricks for understanding your eligible audience and optimizing your email template.  Several engagement tools in the marketplace, including StrongDelivery Tools for those using StrongMail Message Studio and standalone solutions like Pivotal Veracity Mailbox IQ, allow for the marketer to get row-level detail on the email rendering device.  Knowing the size of your mobile audience will help you justify the budget to optimize your template for this on-the-go audience.  Getting the template right should be left to the professionals; people who have learned from months of trial and error.  If possible, you should consider outsourcing your first few templates and let somebody teach you the ropes.
 
Your current email template may be great for customers using Gmail, Yahoo or Outlook, but you're going to significant reduce the potential of your impact of your campaigns by serving up the same template on a 3" screen.  If you're going to ask them to pay attention to your message, you should make it easy for them to read, interact and respond to it.
 
Creating the right email experience based on the rendering device has always been a priority for the email marketer.  Focusing a larger proportion of effort on the smart phone experience is money well spent. And there is no excuse for getting started – smart phone adoption is only going to increase.

Today, there are over 5 billion mobile subscribers worldwide (70% of the world’s population) – making it clear that mobile device technology is here to stay.  In fact, it’s going to change the way we market forever, especially when it comes to email marketing.

A recent “Email on the Move: The Future of Mobile Messaging” study found “an explosive 81% growth in mobile email viewership.” 

So if marketers want to have success in the years to come, they need to jump on the mobile email train and get up to speed on how this channel will affect messaging and design.

It isn’t as easy as taking online email templates and assuming they’ll fit into mobile screens. Email messaging needs to be formatted for a variety of mobile devices.

Add to that the growth in touch technology, which promises to add another twist to email design and you’ve got a host of new challenges on the email marketing horizon.

So in order to keep up with the changes in email marketing, consider the following points:

Not All Mobile Viewers Are Created Equal  

According to a recent comScore study, approximately 20% of your email list will read your emails via their mobile devices. 

More importantly, Morgan Stanley analysts concluded in a 2010 report that by 2015 mobile web access will be larger than desktop Internet use.  But not all mobile subscribers view the same way.

Inherent in tablet design is the fact that users will have a more relaxed approach to viewing.  They’ll most likely be sitting down and spending longer amounts of time.  Contrast that to folks viewing their emails via smart phones while on the go. 

As mobile email designs become more targeted (i.e., tablet, mobile phone), they’ll need to take into account not just mobile vs. desktop but device user profiles as well.

Mobile Emails Must Fit The Medium

The task of designing for the variety of screens is a growing discipline of expertise.   You should incorporate these elements into your mobile email marketing design process:

• Use headers and subject lines to let subscribers know what’s in your email.  If they have trouble opening your message, they’ll at least get a clue of your content.
• Keep your clickable links clear of each other.  With varying mobile screen sizes, separating your links allows for cleaner clicks.

It’s clear that the answer to “if you should market via mobile,” is a resounding “YES”.  That train has already left the station.  Now it’s a matter of deciding how soon you will start. 

Want some more email marketing resources? Check out our white papers!