When thinking about your eNewsletter don’t forget mobile devices.
Many eNewsletters are formatted in such a way that it is difficult to read on most mobile devices. Often times the eNewsletter is cluttered with links that are extremely long and difficult to look past, poorly rendered HTML code, and with graphics that appear as broken links.
With over 51m users (22% of 233m mobile users) using their mobile device to check their email in the US it is becoming increasingly important for marketers to consider the mobile space when developing their eNewsletter strategy and executing any program.
Frequency of Use:
- 13% (13mm) almost everyday
- 5% (12mm) at least once a week
- 4% (9mm) between 1 – 3 times a month
Personal & Work Email Use: (numbers are not exclusive from each other)
- 21% (48mm) use a mobile device to check personal email
- 11% (27mm) use a mobile device to check work email
BEST PRACTICES:
1. Provide Dual-MIME Encoding: This method, of embedding a text-only version of the content, drastically improves readability on many mobile (primarily Windows Mobile) devices and is easy to implement.
2. Provide Alternative View Links: At the top of the email provide a single link to an “Online /Mobile Optimized Version”. The link can than execute device detection and drive users to a version of the eNewsletter that is optimized for their viewing experience. If they are on a computer it can go to an online version and if they are on a mobile device it can go to a mobile web optimized version.
3. Simplify links to the online versions of the eNewsletter. Reduce the code and tracking links surrounding the “alternative view” and “having trouble reading this email?” links to a bare minimum. While removing the tracking links may reduce data captured from the email campaign, the benefit gained by reducing bad user experiences due to phones not being able to click the links is worth the sacrifice.
4. While this multi-faceted approach will not eliminate issues surrounding readability, on most phones—namely Blackberries, Treos and Windows Mobile devices—the readability should be drastically improved.
* All data 2009 ComScore
