Email Marketing News

What is new in the Email Marketing NZ world? Well probably the most exciting development is that of smartphones and the revolution of mobile email use.

Businesses are realizing that a lot of visits and clicks are coming from mobile devices, where six months ago or a year ago, it wasn’t as significant. So businesses need to make sure that their emails are “mobile-optimized.”

Top four mobile platforms in U.S.

Since many marketers do not have clear insight into the preferences of their mobile subscribers, it’s worth noting that Google and Apple dominate the U.S. market. Google has just over half of all mobile devices in the country.

Here are the market shares of the top mobile platform providers in the U.S., according to March 2012 data from comScore:

• 51.0% – Google (Android)
• 30.7% – Apple (iPhone, etc.)
• 12.3% – RIM (Blackberry)
• 3.9% – Microsoft (Windows Mobile)

Key features for smartphone email designs:

• Narrow, vertical format – The message is narrower than a regular email, which prevents readers from having to scroll sideways to read a line of text. Articles are listed one by one down the page, this makes it easy for mobile users to scroll the message with a flick of the finger.
• Above-fold content – An article within the email can be emphasized with a larger link and image at the top of the email. The image, description and link to view it are above the fold (visible without scrolling). This gives readers instant content without forcing them to scroll too much for it.
• Fast and adaptable – the email is designed to perform well across any number of devices, and it uses images sparingly to speed up load times.
• Large fonts – the smartphone email’s text is clear and larger than a traditional email – so readers do not have to zoom in to read.
• Room to click – links and buttons are large and clearly marked, which makes them easy to click with a finger.

If your business has not thought about the mobile market and the impact that effective emails have in this medium, then now is the time to consider it and look at putting in strategies to ensure that your email marketing campaigns reach every client and potential client.