Email + Mobile + Tablets:

Mastering The Device Revolution

Developing digital marketing strategies that include mobile and social along with email is no longer an option its a necessity.

Marketing Guide | August 2012

Email + Mobile + Tablets:

Mastering The Device Revolution

Welcome to the device revolution:

The explosion of the platform market spurred by the demand for anytime, anywhere access to any and all content.
Consider these latest usage statistics: Mobile 96% of the U.S. market is on a mobile phone* Smartphones 44% of the U.S. market is on a smartphone* In 2011, there were 90.1 million smartphone users; in 2012, that number is projected to reach 106.7 million; by 2015, that number is expected to increase to 148.6 million, representing 58% of mobile phone users** Tablets 29% U.S. tablet penetration* In 2011, there were 33.7 million tablet users; In 2012, that number will reach 54.8 million; by 2014, that number is estimated to reach 89.5 million** eReaders In 2011, 33.3 million U.S. adults used eReaders at least once per month; in 2012, that number will reach 46.5 million; that number is expected to rise to 53.9 million by 2014**

Whats driving the device revolution is change: Consumers are changing how they engage with media. Technology is changing by enabling new forms of engagement, and there are natural changes as a result of this revolution. The email marketing industry is changing in how it serves the market as a whole through its reaction to consumer and technical changes. And marketers are changing the ways in which they adapt to successfully connect with customers.

What it All Means for Email Marketing

The mobile market represents a tremendous opportunity to extend the reach of email campaigns, target customers and prospects more effectively, and increase return on investment. Developing a multi-platform strategy is no longer an option its a necessity. Here are a few insights that make the case for extending email campaigns across platforms: 76% of smartphone owners send or receive email via their mobile device* If all mobile Internet time was condensed into one hour, 25 minutes would be spent on email By the end of 2012, the majority of email messages will be read on mobile devices

Sources: * Pew Internet and American Life, Jan. 2012, ** eMarketer, U.S. Digital Usage Report, 2012 Return Path, 2012

Email + Mobile + Tablets:

Mastering The Device Revolution

None of this is lost on marketing leaders, as this chart from MarketingSherpa illustrates: Mobile smartphone and tablet adoption ranks second in trends they believe are impacting the email market. Also note that location-based marketing comes in as the fourth-ranked trend. Well talk more about this later. The implications of all this research are clear: First, people are flocking to new technologies, and the more they become comfortable with them, the more they want to use every available platform and expect the experience to be consistent. Marketers who will get the most out of this new reality are those who understand the context of these platforms for delivering the best possible experience.

CMO RANKING OF TRENDS IMPACTING EMAIL MARKETING

Social Media Mobile smartphone & tablet adoption Use of engagement metrics Location-based marketing New privacy policy regulations Gamification of marketing programs Cyber attacks on corporate & ESP databases New Canadian Anti-Spam Law 0% 50% 100%

Marketing In the Moment

The key is to remember that the mobile medium is in the moment. Unlike other communications vehicles that are stationary and heavily presentation-oriented, the mobile medium is actionable, time sensitive, on the go, and always on. It delivers short-burst information that is scanable, consumable, and digestible for an audience whose attention span declines in direct proportion to the size of the screen on which they view it. Thats the power and influence of marketing in the moment.

Design Strategies for the Small Screen

With all these mobile usage insights in mind, design for the small screen! Lets review some high-level mobile design tenets, then review some key design tactics.

Mobile Design Tenents

Single Columns HTML is fairly inflexible when it comes to re-ordering columns and content blocks. Make it easy on yourself and on your subscribers by sticking to a single column that will display appropriately on a mobile screen. Big Buttons Fingers are much less precise than mouse pointers. Make it easier for your mobile subscribers to open and click by making buttons large enough to be finger-friendly. Space Between Clickable Elements Another problem that arises when youre using a finger instead of a mouse is clickable elements placed too close together. This results in the inevitable miss-click. By adding additional white space between clickable elements, you can reduce having users wait for the wrong page to load.

Email + Mobile + Tablets:

Mastering The Device Revolution

Important Information Visible Without Scrolling or Enlarging When you have dozens of emails to catch up on, its important that you are able to grasp the main idea quickly. Test your email messages on a mobile device to ensure that font sizes are readable and that the user doesnt have to scroll either vertically or horizontally to see your main message and call-to-action. Hide Unnecessary Content Its great to include social sharing buttons, links to your social media pages, and other secondary content in your email messages. But on a mobile device, all that extra content makes it more difficult for your subscribers to get the main message. Make mobile emails easier to scan and read by hiding images, text, and other content that isnt strictly necessary.

Mobile Email Myths 1 O  nly teenagers read emails on mobile devices: By the end of 2012, the majority of email messages will be read on mobile devices. Chances are your audience is checking email via a smartphone. 2 I  dont need to design emails for mobile users: Unfortunately, emails designed for a laptop or PC screen just dont translate well to the small screen. 3 I  f I dont have a mobile website, I dont need mobile email: In a perfect world, your email, website, and social media are linked, mobile, and measurable. Crafting mobile emails is a great place to start even if you dont have a mobile site yet. 4 M  obile is only for big companies: Big companies may already be there they have more resources, but mobile email is no longer a choice. Every company today needs properly designed mobile emails. 5 I  only need to worry about iPhone users: Just over 61% of recent first-time smartphone buyers opted for an Android phone compared with 25% who bought iPhones*, so you should design and test for all mobile as well as tablet formats. 6 I  cant track results for mobile users: Most mobile email opens are trackable. Many smartphones use a mobile email client, like MailDroid, Apple Mail, or Gmail, that track open rates and click-throughs. 7 M  obile email preparedness is too costly: Updating your email templates so theyre mobilefriendly is a onetime, low cost investment. Losing customers, being unable to communicate with users and tarnishing your brand those are long-term costly mistakes.
*Source: comScore, July 2012

Mobile Design Tactics

Keep Mobile Email Subject Lines Concise As little as 15 characters of your subject line may be visible on a mobile device, so be concise. Adjust to Space Limitations Assume that many mobile phones can only read text and ensure that text is formatted for the small screen. Use MIME HTML When sending HTML to devices that can accommodate it, be sure to send emails in multi-part MIME format. This will ensure that your email message will be deciphered in the most complex format, rendering the email to its best advantage. Provide a Text-Based Version This is a requirement for many mobile readers.

Email + Mobile + Tablets:

Mastering The Device Revolution

Optimize Pre-Headers for Mobile When designing for mobile, optimize the valuable top text space with appropriate pre-headers, the text lines on the top of your message that show up first. The first header should always be a mobile-friendly link that says something like, Having trouble reading this email? View our mobilefriendly version. Design for Image-Free Mobile Versions of Your Emails While images can enhance the visual appeal of an email on a computer monitor, they can lead to longer load times on mobile devices. Place your emphasis on quickly getting your core message to your mobile subscriber. Keep Mobile Copy Short Email recipients spend an average of only 15 - 20 seconds looking at your email, if they open it at all. So its imperative to keep your messages short and employ the pyramid style of writing by including the most important information first. Perform Platform Tests The most successful email marketers know that testing how emails render on different email platforms is an important part of email marketing success and mobile platforms are no exception. Ensure that you have access to the mobile device formats most likely to be used by your subscribers and then test each email on each platform. As a minimum, view your email on a standard cell phone, an iPhone, an iPad, a Blackberry and an Androidpowered device.

Landing Pages that Convert Mobile Users

Theres a notion that people are reading emails on mobile devices and going back to the desktop for a second look. Data clearly shows that thats not happening. Marketers need to consider the fact that the full purchase process is now often taking place on a mobile device. Mobile-friendly Web pages allow you to tailor your content for the mobile user and are vital for successful email campaigns. This requires more than just shrinking down your standard landing page for a mobile screen. Mobile email marketing has caught up with audience requirements and demand now its imperative to take the post-click experience to the next level. Start by checking out what your site experience is like on mobile by accessing your site on your own phone. Or, you can use an application like Litmus to provide cross-browser page testing in addition to email previews. Many of the rules for creating mobile versions of emails also apply to creating mobile-friendly Web pages: Test your call-to-action across a variety of mobile devices and make sure its user-friendly from the email through the conversion goal. Test all of your mobile pages for potential issues with accuracy, rendering, and navigation on mobile devices. WHAT HAPPENS POST CLICK?
EMAIL SHOP BUY

Email + Mobile + Tablets:

Mastering The Device Revolution

Responsive Design Technology for Creating Mobile-Friendly Web Pages There are some exciting new technologies that take into account that the Internet is now regularly viewed on laptops, phones, and tablets. Digital content design should take the multi-platform world into account and be optimized for the many different resolutions of screens. This new technology is called responsive design, and its becoming more and more common. Responsive design utilizes simple but elegant animation to respond to users behavior and environment based on screen size, platform, and orientation. The practice consists of a mix of flexible grids and layouts that use whats called Cascading Style Sheet, or CSS, and media queries. The use of media queries allows the desktop screen to morph into a laptop screen, then a tablet, and finally a smartphone as the browser window gets smaller. If you make it taller than it is wide, the tablet or smartphone graphic rotates from landscape to portrait view. Responsive design means the website responds to you, rather than making you deal with it by scrolling or magnifying in order to view it comfortably.

Elements to Test to Drive Mobile Results

When it comes to learning from your mobile audience, here are a few elements youll want to test: Subject lines. Test shorter subject lines for mobile, with the important information up front. Send times and frequency. Try evenings, mornings, and weekends to learn what timing generates the highest conversions. Preference centers. Ask subscribers to update their preferences and determine their format of choice desktop, mobile, smartphone, tablet, or all-of-the-above. Target mobile-only users with tailored offers. Offer tests. Test simple offers, like free shipping or 10% off. Or try a clicks-to-bricks strategy with offers that drive customers to your nearest retail location. Format tests. Test two versions of a mobile email one in multi-part MIME format with simple images and one textonly version to see which generates better results. Mobile-only content. Reach mobile users with on-the-go offers, like a Happy Hour offer sent at 4:00pm.

Email + Mobile + Tablets:

Mastering The Device Revolution

Implementing a Cross-Channel Approach Across Email, Mobile, and Social

Here are some tactics for leveraging your brand across multiple channels: Embed Social Media Links into Your Emails, the simplest and easiest place to start. Make it quick and easy for subscribers to share a promotional opportunity across social networks. Include Email Opt-In Links on Your Social Pages This makes it easy for people to opt in for email right from their Facebook page, for example. Offer Mobile Coupons on Social Sites that can be presented in stores via phones, with no need to print the coupons before heading to the store. Consider Location-Based Marketing One of the primary differentiators of the mobile medium is location awareness. This enables brands to interact with customers instantly, with location-based relevance, through their intensely personal mobile device that is always within arms reach. Benefits of Cross-Channel Integration Increased relevancy and immediacy by communicating on subscribers terms: Drive engagement at multiple touch points, during times and on devices that are most relevant to recipients and in keeping with their preferences. Deeper brand awareness: The more places and times you can share your brand in a way that resonates, the more you can rise to top-of-mind with targets. Extended reach: Develop mobile opt-in lists to reach new targets and expand your overall subscriber base. A bigger pool of qualified, engaged subscribers equals more revenue opportunities.

The most successful marketing messages will combine relevance and location with the right timing.
- Googles Matt Cutts

When and How to Leverage SMS

SMS stands for Short Message Service but its more commonly known as text messaging. SMS is a mobile messaging force to be reckoned with, for three compelling reasons: More than eight trillion SMS messages were sent worldwide in 2011*. SMS delivers the highest open rate among all messaging platforms. SMS functionality exists on 100% of mobile phones. SMS programs range from novice to advanced in terms of mobile marketing expertise. Basic programs are more push in nature, pushing out information about events and product updates or enabling opt-ins to receive specific information or alerts. As SMS programs become more interactive, they become more sophisticated: surveys, quizzes, and polls offer mobile users a high level of interaction and engagement with brands.

Email + Mobile + Tablets:

Mastering The Device Revolution

To that end, mobile SMS can be used in campaigns for several different purposes: To increase traffic: send SMS reminders about upcoming events and promotions. To boost brand engagement: send SMS alerts about special offers and activities. To enhance events: send SMS notices of mobile-only benefits and special offers. For mobile couponing: send text messages to customers that they can then use by coming into your place of business and showing the phone message when paying their bill. Text messaging is short, to the point, and immediate, and is best suited to messages that have a deadline or those where information is needed by your company. Update email addresses. Put processes in place to trigger an SMS message when an email has bounced three times, for example, as part of a continuous data cleansing exercise. Build your house file. Remember subscribers pay to receive text messages, so get their permission and deliver valuable, time-sensitive information. Support branding. Use strong copywriting to keep your messages short and on target. Assess the growth and health of your text file list in terms of size and churn rate. Track responses and conversions or sales.

Trends and Tactics for Tapping into Tablet Users

Tablet computers are one of the fastest growing new technologies ever introduced. In fact, between mid-December 2011 and the beginning of January 2012, the number of tablet owners in the U.S. increased from 10% to 29%. And in May of this year, 26% of U.S. online consumers who did not already own one said they were likely to purchase a tablet before the end of the year; one in 10 said they would definitely purchase a tablet by year-end.* Usage statistics are also compelling: 77% of tablet owners report using their tablet every day, spending an average of one hour and 35 minutes on the device** 54% of tablet users report using their devices for email, slightly surpassing getting the news and far out-distancing other activities like social networking and gaming*** Here are some other trends: User Demographics Tablet sales are concentrated in households making more than $75,000 a year, 36% of whom own a tablet. Sales are also strong among people with college degrees or higher, 31% of whom are tablet owners. Work vs. Personal Usage The assumption that people use tablets for work is incorrect; 91% of time spent on tablets is for personal rather than work related activities most often checking email, playing games, or social networking. Concurrent Activities When people check their email on a tablet, theyre likely to also be either watching TV, eating, or drinking. Location Usage Tablets were made to be an easily portable device, but most people actually leave their tablets at home, with the exception of business trips and vacations. Most people use their tablets on the couch, in bed, or in the kitchen. They love to check email in bed, and search just about anywhere.
* Ipsos, May 2012 ** Pew Internet Report, Jan. 2012***Portico, 2012

Email + Mobile + Tablets:

Mastering The Device Revolution

Additional research indicates that more tablets in the hands of consumers are good news for marketers, and especially for business-to-consumer (B2C) marketers: Tablet users spend 54% more per purchase than smartphone users, with an average order total of $123** 56% of consumers rate tablets as useful for shopping, compared to 38% for smartphones Customers tend to spend 20 - 30% more when purchasing on tablets versus other devices To tap into the tablet user market, marketers must come to terms with this new tablet reality. Tablet usage is on the rise and is facilitating changes in user behavior from what sort of content users consume to how those users interact with that content. Here are some tips for designing email targeted to tablet users: Interactions on touch-based interfaces are performed with fingers or thumbs. Its important to keep in mind that a finger sweep scroll is quite different than a mouse wheel scroll, so optimize your email content for scanability. The size of a touchable target, whether its a clickable image or call-to-action button, needs to be large enough to see and touch, and be positioned for accessibility: Make sure links and call-to-action buttons are large enough at least 30 pixels large with 10 - 15 pixels of padding so they can be accurately tapped. Avoid putting text links below one another because users dont have the accuracy of a mouse to work with. Also, buttons positioned in the horizontal middle of an HTML email are more difficult to touch when holding a tablet with two hands. It forces users to change their grip on the device, which may lead to fewer clicks and conversions. Try positioning call-to-action buttons on the right side of your email within reach of a users thumb. Flash capability: Lack of flash compatibility in tablets means you definitely shouldnt use flash in your emails. Also make sure not to use flash on your landing pages since tablet users wont be able to open them. Larger, portrait-mode viewing: Portrait view pushes the fold of your email down so the above-the-fold area is more present. Make sure you have something interesting below the standard fold line. Images: Most tablets use wifi connections that are able to handle load times for images, so make sure to include compelling images in an attractive design that gets users to read and click on your content. And make sure images can be pinched and zoomed. Subject lines and pre-headers: Particularly in business-to-business, or B2B, email marketing, where capturing a busy audiences attention is especially tricky, subject lines must be as short and sweet as possible ideally, five words or less. For pre-headers, take into account horizontal vs. vertical viewing options: when held horizontally, tablets display email previews; when held vertically, they dont.

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Email + Mobile + Tablets:

Mastering The Device Revolution

Number of columns: Given that tablets are controlled by users left or right hand heightening the risk that a column or call-to-action may be covered up simply by operating the device opt for one-column design instead. The timing of your email delivery is another thing to consider with tablets. Many B2B marketers are ingrained to send email first thing in the morning so that they reach people when they get to their desks. But tablet users are likely going to be checking their email at all times of the day and night, so feel free to adjust send times accordingly.

New Content Curation Platform: Pinterest Pinterest is an online pinboard for sharing interesting images you find online. Pinterest has seen spectacular growth, reaching 10 million unique visitors faster than any other stand-alone site in history. And Time magazine called Pinterest one of the top five social networking sites. Pinning is pretty easy. You can link to a website or upload an image. Or you can install the Pin It button from Pinterest. You can also pin images with your smartphone. Its significance to marketers is that it taps into a shift in consumer behavior from search to discovery, which could lead to a revolution in how consumers purchase items. Right now we are trained to go to Amazon or Google to find what we want. Pinterest starts before that search, before we even think we want to buy a particular product. For example, if you were in the market for a sound system for your laptop, you could go to Pinterest, browse a category devoted to sound systems, and then land on a product. Within that discovery phase, you may never end up at Amazon since Pinterest drives traffic back to a retailers site.

The Smartphone App Revolution

Statistics confirm the explosive growth and usage of mobile applications over the past few years: 62% of smartphone owners have downloaded apps on their devices in the past 30 days* The number of downloaded apps is expected to increase to 77 billion worldwide in 2014, at which point mobile app revenues will surpass $35 billion** In terms of downloads, Apple is the leader in the app arena. The App Store boasts almost 700,000 apps. By comparison, the Android Market claims roughly 500,000 apps, and Microsofts Windows Marketplace for Mobile offers approximately 100,000 apps. Heres the Important Takeaway for Marketers If mobile applications are where people are spending their time and the business rule holds true that 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers, you need to consider creating app experiences to engage your most valuable customers:

Sources: * Pew Internet Report, Jan. 2012 ** Adobe Digital Marketing Insights Report, Jan. 2012

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Email + Mobile + Tablets:

Mastering The Device Revolution

Mobile apps give you the perfect opportunity to have deeper interactions and gain more knowledge on users behaviors, and provides the ability to push products and offers in a more seamless and meaningful way. The ability to push notifications to your users, and specifically to the top 20%, is the other great attraction for mobile applications. While more traditional opportunities exist to prompt users while on your websites or send follow-up emails to re-engage subscribers, those opportunities are not as seamless as the mobile app space.

APP REVOLUTION

600K + 100K

500K

Mobile Email Campaign Management: Lyris HQ Mobile At Lyris, our customers made us aware that marketers are increasingly working remotely or on-the-go. They require constant access to online marketing tools to stay connected to their email campaigns, regardless of geographical location or time zone. So we created Lyris HQ Mobile. Lyris HQ Mobile for iPhone, iPad, and iPod has all the critical features and functionality that you use from your desktop, including list, campaign, and report management; campaign deployment and real-time stats; and results and reporting.

Conclusion
Given the explosion of available devices, platforms, and channels for making connections and building businesses, digital marketers can no longer rely solely on email to achieve the levels of engagement that extend reach, brand awareness, and ROI. Developing strategies that include mobile and social along with email is no longer an option its a necessity. With new mobile technologies come new challenges and opportunities, but one thing is clear: Mobile users whether tied to a cell phone, smartphone, or tablet, or utilizing SMS, Pinterest, or app downloads are rapidly becoming comfortable with accessing and interacting with brands whenever and however they want to, and expect to have a seamless experience doing it. Learning how to design for mobile devices is the first step to success, but ensuring that mobile users have a positive experience once theyve followed the email call-to-action onto your mobile landing page is equally important.

The device revolution is upon us. To the marketers who embrace and leverage mobile technologies go the spoils!

Contact
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About Lyris, Inc.

Lyris, Inc. is a leading global provider of digital marketing solutions that help companies engage with their customers in more meaningful ways. Lyris products and services empower marketers to design, automate, and optimize data-driven interactive marketing campaigns that facilitate superior engagement, increase conversions, and deliver measurable business value. Lyris high-performance, secure, and flexible digital marketing platforms improve marketing efficiency by providing automated digital message delivery, robust segmentation, and real-time social, mobile, and interaction analytics. The Lyris solutions portfolio is comprised of both in-the-cloud and on-premises solutions Lyris ONE, Lyris HQ, and Lyris LM combined with customer-focused services and support. Learn more at www.lyris.com.

Copyright 2012 Lyris, Inc. All rights reserved.

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