The EEC, or email marketing arm of the Direct Marketing Association, is a global professional organization that strives to enhance the image of email marketing and communications. Translation: It's a good idea to listen to what they have to say.
Here's your chance (and benefit)
EEC has some concise and helpful tips to help you keep your email marketing cohesive, attractive, and in terms of mobile connectivity, professional looking.
1. Concentrate on your content
With every email you create, mobile rendering should be a part of the process. This includes: subject lines, body content, graphics, testing, links, metrics (i.e. everything). Your "From" address, subject lines and headlines are perhaps the most important variables to consider. They're the first thing recipients see, so you'd better optimize the smaller space capacities to put your most effective, eye-catching and relevant foot forward first. Used to writing short subject lines? Cut it in half and get used to it. And while you're at it, eliminate more conceptual headlines that prompt viewers to ponder too long. You're dealing with an audience of shorter attention spans, and your competition in the mobile space is fierce.
Bottom line: Mobile simply doesn't offer the space to present a "says it all" graphic, so use your words wisely.
2. Respect fingers and hold the Flash
You'll have better results if you build landing pages optimized for mobile using HTML, CSS and smaller amounts of JAVA. Also remember how your recipients will be scanning through your emails. It's the power of the mighty finger - and unless they find your email communications easy to swipe, they could get fed up and flee before absorbing your message. Improve functionality after the fact, and they may still hesitate to click-through in the future for fear of the repeat experience. Buttons need to be a legible and usable size, as well.
3. Keep your forms brief
EEC recommends simply asking for an email address. While it's easier to submit information on an iPad or similar tablet, how far do you think recipients will go to fill in the tiny blanks on a smartphone?
One final bit of advice
This you already know: Test and then test again. And somewhere in the middle, revisit and tweak your content for the optimal experience. This little bit of sweat on the front end is well worth the desired result on the other side, not to mention the potential ROI you want to achieve in any email marketing campaign.
Get a jump start on testing by using JangoMail's Email Preview Rendering tool! As always, if you have any questions or comments on our blogs, give us a shout.
Until then, have a great week, everyone!
