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’ll admit it: I haven’t logged into my personal email account on my laptop in more than four weeks. The truth is, as much as I love looking at the cute ninja theme that greets me every time I log into my Gmail account, I find myself checking and answering emails through my smartphone – it’s just easier.
It turns out I’m not alone: Go-Gulf.com published an infographic that detailed exactly how smartphone owners used their mobile phones in 2011. Behind text messages (92%) and internet browsing (84%), emails made up a whopping 76% of mobile phone usage, far exceeding even the use of social networking sites (59%).
With such a hefty amount of smartphones being used to check email, it’s important to remember that reading emails on a smartphone is a completely different experience than reading emails on a computer. Here are some quick and easy tips on how you can ensure that your marketing emails are smartphone-friendly:
- • Get to know your audience. Determine exactly how many of your recipients are viewing your emails in HTML format compared to plain text. Consider creating emails that are not heavily formatted, or consider including a “mobile-friendly” version of your emails that only features plain text. This email I received from ClickZ Academy is a great example of how to cater to the mobile crowd:
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• Pay attention to alignment and dimensions. If you want an email to display well on both smartphones and computers, a good rule of thumb is to set the alignment to the left. This way, your mobile readers won’t have to go through the annoying task of scrolling horizontally. As for dimensions, create a banner that has a maximum height of 125 pixels and limit all images to 480 pixels or less.
- • Make use of the medium. With all of the text-messaging and app-using that we perform on our mobile devices, it’s very easy to forget its original function: to call people! Be sure to include your phone number somewhere that stands out in the email to make it easy for the recipient to call you directly.
• Keep subject lines simple and sweet. Having short subject lines that are clear and actionable can actually be more effective than a header image that will most likely not show up in your mobile email client. The email I received a few days ago had a great subject line: “Leslie, Get 25% Off at CVS.” That was just enough text to fit completely on my mobile email screen, and it captured my attention (who doesn’t love discounts?).
Smartphones are constantly evolving, and this means that email marketing tactics will continue to evolve as well. For more information on how to make your emails smartphone-friendly, be sure to visit these sites: Internet Retailer, Anson-Alex.com, SamLogic and Bright+3.