Email Marketing - Adapting to Small Screens
You may know the basics of a good email marketing campaign. Get customer buy-in, write an effective subject line, make your point quickly, and so on. But have you ever thought about how your email marketing messages perform on a small screen? If not, you should. Here's why:
- The popularity of handheld devices, like PDAs and smart phones, has exploded over the past few years. Busy people often check their email on the go, deciding at a glance which messages to keep and which ones to discard.
- The preview pane, available in some email software, is often used to filter messages. If you don't get a reader's attention in that small pane, your message will likely end up in the trash bin.
If you use email marketing, you must consider the effects of small screens when designing your messages.
How Small Screens Can Affect Email Marketing
Email marketing and email newsletters are usually planned for a standard desktop screen and not for the tiny screens of a handheld device. To ensure your email marketing message succeeds on a small screen, you have to adapt your campaign.
- Identification - Email marketing campaigns, whether aimed at the small screen or not, must be clear about who the message is from and why it is being sent. Make sure it is your business name that appears in the From line and that your Subject line is clear and succinct.
- Images - The impact of images and ads will be lost on a handheld screen, which may not display the depth of color of a standard computer monitor. On a handheld or in a preview pane, graphics might be blocked, depending on the settings of the email software. Ensure that your email marketing service sends your message in both a text-only and HTML format, so that users get their message in the right format. If you must use graphics, keep them small. Lastly, do not depend on graphics to get your message across. An HTML message should convey its meaning even without images.
- Download Times - Large graphics can lead to increased download times, a source of frustration for users. Download times are another reason to minimize graphics or skip them altogether.
- Above the Fold - As with general email marketing campaigns, those adapted to handheld devices should ensure that all important information appears at the very top. Your call to action or special offer must appear "above the fold", to use newspaper lingo, in order to entice users to open your email. To ensure the most important part of your message gets through in a preview pane, place the critical information at the top and left of the message.
- Concise Content - Regardless of where your email marketing messages are being read, concise content is crucial. Do not waste people's time with lots of extraneous information. Make your point quickly by being direct about what you are offering and how it will help the reader.
- Testing - Always test your messages in a variety of environments. Ensure your copy is compelling, whether or not it is accompanied by images. There are many handheld devices out there, making it difficult to test the message for those applications, but try to run a few tests whenever possible. Some device manufacturers offer simulators for testing email. Check with the manufacturer or ask your email marketing service about testing for handheld devices.
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