4 DesignTips for Mobile Email Marketing

The mobile inbox is a powerful tool if used the right way. We know that smart phone penetration in the US has reached 55% and mobile email open rates are over 40%. Almost half of your database is opening email via their mobile phone. Are you designing your emails to display correctly?

You could be leaving money on the table by not designing effective mobile email. Actually, you ARE leaving money on the table. Here are four design tips to help you design for the mobile inbox. Need more tips?

1. Design for Your Audience

Know your audience—it’s the most basic of all marketing principles. If your brand’s mobile audience is at or above 10%, it’s time to start optimizing for mobile. Weigh the effort required against your content and production timeline, then choose an approach that makes sense for your brand— as it pertains to mobile aware design, responsive design, or a combination of the two.

2. Design for Touch

Do not focus solely on click-based interaction—instead, try to think in terms of swipes and taps? As with any good design, grid-based layouts ensure content is easy to read and digest. Your finger isn’t as precise as a cursor, so elements like buttons and text links need to be a large enough that the user doesn’t accidentally tap the wrong link—or miss entirely. To design a button that’s easy to press, shoot for a height of at least 0.33” (44px or more).

3. Design for Legibility

Consider these factors to ensure your message is legible:

§  Contrast: As we age, less light enters the eye, making it more difficult to see color contrast. Computers and mobile devices also allow users to alter contrast settings, so carefully consider your color choices to ensure the text and images stand out properly against the background. Avoid reversing out small text on a dark background.

§  Text size: We recommend using text of at least 13px for body copy. In order to avoid having to zoom in, try starting at 15-16px (depending on the actual font) and preview it on your mobile device. Be generous with margins and whitespace to ensure text is readable. When it comes to copy, remember that less is more.

§  Imagery: Bold, beautiful imagery is slowly taking over our inboxes, as we take cues from Pinterest and social hubs like Facebook and Twitter. Images help tell your brand’s story, so consider taking the time to choose artful shots that complement your message. For B2B emails, think outside the realm of traditional stock photography to make your messages are unique.

§  Layout: A one-column layout works best in both aware and responsive design. If you have a multi-column layout, carefully plan how elements shift or stack, using a grid to ensure the technical aspect is possible

4. Design for Reality

Circumstances affect accessibility and attention span, so your message may be viewed on a small screen out of consumer preference or sheer convenience. It could be competing with distractions of all kinds, like a small data plan, a business meeting, spotty Wi-Fi connections, or a long line at the grocery store. Tailor your messages accordingly:

§     Keep it simple with direct content.

§ Be incredibly clear the steps for a the call-to-action.

            §     Be brutal with your editing.  Keep the message short and concise.

Source:  Kyle Lacey

Marketing:  It does not have to be complicated.

I love the new AT&T television campaign with the cute guy talking to the group of first graders. If you've been living under a rock and missed them, the guy poses a simple question to the kids like, "What's better? Doing two things at once or just one?"

The kids pause for a moment, consider their options, and then all shout out "TWO! TWO!" with some thrusting two fingers into his face. "You sure?" he asks innocently to one little girl. "I am absolutely positive," she states decisively, flattening her hands on the table for emphasis.

Finally one little boy says "I can do two things ... I can wave my head ..." while he starts waggling it from side to side, "and wave my arm ..." It makes me dizzy just to watch him.

I always laugh out loud at these spots because it reminds me of so many of the focus groups I've witnessed over the years, and the commercial's message, "It doesn't have to be complicated," could be the lesson for many marketers these days.

There are plenty of large, complex brands out there that require lots of intricate strategies and tactics against many different audiences. But many smaller brands have yet to heed the old KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) message that we learned in marketing class many moons ago.

I recently received a direct mail package that directed me to a URL to download a whitepaper. Since I was interested in the topic, I visited the URL. But when I arrived, I couldn't find any mention of the whitepaper, even though I scoured the home page.

Yesterday I clicked on a link in an email to download another whitepaper and it took me to a dedicated registration page that asked four or five simple questions before I could download. So far, so good.

But after completing the form, I ended up on another, differently designed page, asking for most of the same information before I could complete the download. Huh?

Last week I got a phone call from a sales rep telling me he was following up on the package he sent me. When I told him I had no memory of receiving it, he mumbled something that sounded like "damn marketing people" and then said he'd have to call me back. Wha—?

As AT&T states, "It's not complicated"—so why are so many marketing efforts such a chocolate mess?

Here are the 2 marketing rules I always try to live by:

• Make It Easy: Think about your target and what you want them to do. Then make it easy for them to do it. That includes forms (I once challenged an insurance client on the # of questions required on an app for a quote and was able to reduce it from 26 to 6).
• Demand Quality: Always proof (don't get me started) and impose a rigid QC process. For example, test blast your emails and check all the links before you launch the program to your customer/prospect base. If I get one more email addressed to "Dear (Client)" or "Dear Marc," I'm going to scream.

If you make sure you incorporate those principles into your marketing workflow, you might be surprised at the difference it can make.

 

Postal Delivery:  Which will it be 5 day or 6 day delivery?

I just had a great exchange with my letter carrier (as I sometimes do) while at my mailbox today, and I wonder how many times a day my carrier is interrupted in her work, as I interrupted her, to politely chit-chat. Of course, I brought up the likelihood of five-day delivery come August, to which she gave a candid response, "Well, we've been losing money."

Most Americans—and maybe even some carriers—don't know the full story—or any story—about how the United States Postal Service endures pre-funding retirement benefit mandates from Congress, as well as other cost-drivers that have nothing to do with the digital age, electronic bill payments and multichannel communication trends. Nor do they know that both The White House and Congress spend these mandated monies on their own programs, even as the federal deficit spirals.

That's why it's easy to be indignant when some members of Congress, perhaps predictably, jumped onto the current appropriations bill (a continuing resolution to fund the government beyond March 27) with mandates for six-day delivery. Yet, one has to ask, where are the means for real relief from some of the costliest demands of the 2006 postal reform law? Making the Postal Service stick with Saturday delivery isn't the action we need Congress to take.

Is it really enough, or correct, to just counter USPS management efforts to cut costs and right-size the network? Why not delve deeper into the ills that Congress and the Administration—both parties involved here—have heaped onto the Postal Service's bottom line? Why not revisit real postal reform? How many more years must the Postal Service get squeezed, and default on payments, before Congress and the President take seriously its cause, its future, its sustainability?

How Does Collaborative B2B Decision-making Affect Personalization?

In the world of personalization, we rely on data on individual recipients to target and personalize content to be relevant and meaningful to them. But in the world of B2B, decision-making has been more collaborative. In fact, according to IDC, the number of stakeholders for each purchase decision has grown by 40% — from five in 2010 to seven in 2012.

From a digital printing and personalization perspective, the impact of the expanding number of stakeholders could be significant.

As the number of stakeholders in any B2B decision grows, this will impact the ability of marketers to use personalization to promote their products and services. But for the better or the worse?

On one hand, we could say that it makes personalization to the individual less relevant. Stakeholders can range from IT to product management to finance, all of whom have differing agendas and motivations. Even the best, most sophisticated personalization efforts cannot span them all. The higher the number of stakeholders grows, the more watered down the impact of any individual marketing effort to any individual person on that team becomes.

On the other hand, every project often has one individual champion within the organization who advocates for the decision and propels it forward. We never know which of those 5–7 stakeholders on the team it’s going to be. Sometimes all it takes is one. The recipient of that 1:1 marketing piece could be the person who makes the difference.

Source: Digital Nirvana