MOBILE MARKETING CHECK LIST

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01

MOBILE EMAIL MARKETING

CHECK LIST

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No technology in the past has been able to record similar growth as mobile communication. By 2010 there will be more than 923 million mobile phone accounts in Europe and worldwide over 2.7 billion. In many European countries, such as Italy, Spain, the UK and Germany, the number of mobile phone accounts alreadz exceeds the number of inha-bitants. The mobile phone therefore beats the spread of any other type of information media.

The growing number of internet compatible mobile and smart phones, as well as decreasing mobile internet tariffs make email marketing more and more attractive in view of mobile target groups. The purely technical ability of sending emails to mobile end devices is only the precondition - not the uniqueness - of mobile email marketing. In practice, we can clearly distinguish between classical email marketing and the subdiscipline of mobile email marketing.

Firstly, because the special usage preferences of mobile re-cipients must be taken into account, and secondly, because technical restrictions in the display of emails and web

contents on mobile end devices complicate the practical execution. Email marketers always need to keep an overview in order to adapt email content and formatting to the requi-rements of the end devices and their browsers.

Important criteria are the number of displayable characters for email subject and readability of the content, the ability of displaying HTML, as well as the possibility to edit content. These parameters depend on the operating system of the mobile end device, as well as the email client and browser. And last but not least, they also depend on the settings of the individual recipients.

In a study, artegic has examined the presentability of emails on different end devices. You can download this study at www.mobile-email-studie.de.

In the present check list we have gathered the most im-portant do‘s and don‘ts for practical tasks in mobile email marketing.

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03 Previous to further plans, it should generally be

ana-lysed what percentage of the relevant target group uses email on the move. This may be done through a customer survey, voting via a website, or the analysis of the user agents within server protocols. Some email marketing solutions, such as ELAINE, directly offer the detection of mobile recipients.

Depending on the target group, it may be worth asking about mobile email use during the newsletter subscrip-tion and offering another format for mobiles and PDAs in addition to text and HTML. If the demand is suf-fi cient, a separate newsletter, which is optimised for mobile end devices, may subsequently be sent. In general, you should always offer an additional text version of the newsletter, as many mobile end devices only display HTML emails incompletely or not at all. In any case, there should be the option to access the HTML version as a „website“ via a link, as the device‘s own web browsers mostly come with more comprehen-sive HTML display capabilities than the email client. Especially in the context of existing corporate design (CD) requirements, it is recommended to test how a newsletter will be displayed on mobile end devices (Blackberry, Symbian OS, Windows Mobile) and com-mon browsers (Opera Mini).

Emails are often not read completely, but only browsed through. This is even more relevant to mobile emails, as the presentability is very limited due to the size of the display (mostly 240 x 320 pixels). When targeted emails are sent to mobile end devices, the text should not exceed more than two or three paragraphs.

Think of the special usage preferences of mobile users. Newsletters, for example, are rarely read on a mobile device. Up-to-date service mails or mails, which can be used for later reference (e.g. appointments or travel details) however, are adapted to the application envi-ronment. The same applies for compact notifi cations, which can serve as access to further information on the mobile web during waiting or idle times.

When texting subject line and sender name, special attention should be paid to the fi rst few characters. The displayable number of characters depends on the individual device and ranges from 6 to 93 characters. The objective is to capture the recipient’s interest with the fi rst words in the subject line. Therefore, start the subject line with important keywords and call-to-action elements. Avoid redundancies in sender names and at the beginning of the subject line, in order not to waste valuable characters.

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Offer mobile users an alternative back channel, as there is only limited access – if any – to the web on the road. It may be useful to place the telephone number in a prominent position in the email. Many mobile pho-nes offer the option to export a phone number from an email directly into the address book or immediately trigger an SMS.

It is useful to create landing pages suitable for mobile end devices. These should not contain any JavaScript, as many mobile browsers do not support it. Further more, for the layout, you should bear in mind the limi-ted display size (mostly 240 pixels). In cases, where the exact mobile model of the user is known, a browser sniffer can deliver differently formatted content, or even content coded in WAP or CHTML by means of CSS. Mobile landing pages or mobile-compatible websites should abstain from complex inputs, such as forms. These features are a high hurdle for many mobile phones and mobile users. If possible, work with simple selection inputs.

The number of characters for links should be kept to a minimum, so they display correctly, even on small displays. Unlike with HTML emails, in text emails, a link character string cannot be hidden in code and over-ﬂ ows the small mobile screen.

As always, the following applies: The most important information should be above the fold, i.e. the recipient should be able to read it without having to scroll down. In the mobile context this means: The fi rst two to three sentences should contain the most important informati-on, as on a mobile screen only the fi rst 100 characters or 20-25 words are visible.

Many newsletters start with a reference to an alter-native online display. In the text version, the reference texts and the mostly long technical link uses up a lot of valuable area, which then cannot be used otherwise. Try to keep the text and link brief and where applicable, refer directly to a mobile-compatible online version of the email. This can be linked separately, or chosen automatically via a browser sniffer, which identifi es the mobile access. Some email marketing solutions, such as ELAINE, come with this feature.

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05 Not all emails are read on a mobile device. (In fact, it is an art to achieve mobile reading of emails.) Newslet-ters or graphically large emails may be received on a mobile, but only read later on a PC. It is therefore not always necessary to design every email communication for mobiles. However, keep in mind: The relevance from the subject and the first visible content may decide whether your message will grab enough attention to be read on a PC later. As with emails which are fully opti-mised for mobile reading, use the sender, subject and the first lines (e.g. before the graphic email header) to tackle the interest, so the email will not be immediately deleted as irrelevant.

An interesting alternative to mobile emails are mobile RSS feeds. RSS accommodates the requirements of compact information even more than email. In addition, the individual messages come within the context of the corresponding feed and do not have to compete with a number of other incoming emails. Many mobile de-vices can now receive RSS, as it is independent from a platform.

Mobile users on the road usually have poor light condi-tions, no defined distance to the monitor and no mouse for input. In order to improve the convenience of mobile end devices, when creating HTML emails or landing pa-ges, you should bear in mind colour contrasts and large navigation elements.

Mobile data transfer is slower and more expensive. Limited band width and higher latency make wireless data transfer generally slower compared with the earth-bound version. The selection of photos, graphics or even videos should therefore be carefully consi-dered, since the transfer of this data uses additional valuable data volume included in the mobile phone plan. You should check whether the subscriber can unsub-scribe from the newsletter while on the road. If the user has to log into a website in order to unsubscribe, this would often not be possible. Unsubscribing via one-click unsubscribe on the other hand generally does work from a mobile.

The following also applies for mobile email marketing: The message must be welcome and relevant, as non-requested advertising on a blackberry is even more annoying than on a desktop PC.

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CONTACT

artegic supports you in successful dialogue marketing via email, RSS and mobile. Do not hesitate to contact us at

www.artegic.net or call Tel.: +49(0)228 22 77 97 0 or email [email protected]

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