Is Your Mobile-First Strategy Putting Your Customers Last?
by <QuerySet Jordan Cohen>
Two weeks ago I contributed an article here examining the pros and cons of three emerging approaches to
mobile email optimization: prefab content, responsive design, and live content. But I omitted a fourth, important approach that’s worthy of its own discussion: mobile-first email.
With mobile-first email, marketers create a single email template to send to their entire lists that are optimally designed for small screens. The template will contain fewer calls-to-action (often
only one, actually); large, fat-fingers-friendly buttons to take said action(s) with; and big pretty pictures to take up the length and width of the screen in a single, neatly laid out
column. For those who argue in favor of taking a mobile-first approach, the logic is simple: your email will look nice on a smartphone screen, and big buttons on a small screen will be
even bigger on a large one, so everybody wins! Right? Wrong. The mobile-first approach to email design puts desktops -- and the majority of your customers -- last. Here’s why
brands should give the strategy another look before making it their new email marketing mantra:
- Desktops still rule. As much as smartphone adoption
continues to surge, two-thirds of email opens today are still taking place on good, old-fashioned
desktops and laptops. There’s a long way to go before desktops disappear from the face of the earth -- a technological extinction event that is unlikely to ever happen.
- Larger screens allow for more selling opportunities. Dynamic wireframe templates rose to popularity over the last decade for a reason: They work. And showcasing multiple
relevant products and offers can turn what would otherwise have been a losing email campaign into a winner. Case in point: a leading retailer we work with had been sending emails to its list with one
large static image showcasing its “featured product of the day.” It decided to test the one-product-only email head-to-head against a multi-offer template featuring live deals taking place
on its website. Over the course of ten sends, the multi-offer, live email generated 10 times the revenue of the static, single-offer mailings.
- Mobile-first
isn’t even optimal for mobile devices. Last, but not least, mobile-first design is static design: marketers create one template and let it fly. But the email is frozen in time once the
marketer hits send. It can’t tell whether it’s being opened on an Android-based device, an iPhone, or an iPad -- let alone a desktop. It can’t direct you to the right app store, and
it can’t tell whether your company’s mobile app has already been downloaded and is ready to be launched. Mobile-first email is just one big, clumsy image, one column, and one offer. It may
be designed to fit into the small screen, but not into the consumer’s holistic mobile experience.
Mobile optimization is a critical priority, but it must take place within the
context of multiplatformoptimization, and marketers shouldn’t sacrifice one platform for the sake of another. The rise of our new multiplatform world of desktops, laptops,
smartphones and tablets has moved our cheese, and we have no choice but to adapt and move with it.Why (and How) to Make it Harder to Subscribe to Your Email List
by <QuerySet editor >
With the rise in importance of engagement metrics as a deliverability measure, email programs need to focus on subscribier quality over quantity. One way to achieve this is to add a little friction
into the signup process to pre-qualify new subscribers and help ensure they are more engaged with the brand.
25 Little Email Marketing Experiments That Deliver BIG Results
by <QuerySet editor >
A/B testing is one of the easiest and most productive ways to identify the email tactics that work best for your brand. Tests for Layout and Design, Timing and Frequency, Dynamic Content,
Call-to-Action, Sender and Copy can all fine-tune an email program.