• by April Mullen , Columnist, December 4, 2015

Both email and mobile delivered a staggering number of sales on Black Friday.  According to Custora, email drove the most online conversions out of all possible marketing channels, with a whopping 25.1% of online orders.  And mobile shopping drove 36.1% of all e-commerce conversions.

There are a few important points to emphasize about these numbers.  The first is that email continues to dominate the area of engaging and driving revenue among existing customers, likely because of its portability on mobile. The second is that mobile is no longer an element one can ignore.  It’s time that mobile is taken seriously when it comes to driving real revenue.  

Given all the success these two channels are having this holiday season and into the foreseeable future, here are some tips on how you can create valuable synergies between them:

1. Email sign-up in mobile app. Compared to six months ago, more brands are providing a simple email sign-up within their mobile apps. But I still see many brands neglecting this simple acquisition tactic.  If someone is interested enough to take up valuable storage space on his/her mobile device by downloading your app, then it stands to reason that they won’t mind also providing an email address. Sure, not everyone will opt in, but by not asking, you’re missing a monumental opportunity to give your customers another way to engage with your brand.

2. Deep-link emails to mobile app. One of the most frustrating experiences when clicking on an offer within an email is when you are interrupted with a chance to view the content on the app, and then dropped onto the app homepage. Clearly, you clicked on a specific product or offer, yet you’re left to search for what initially drew you to click in the first place.  

The good news is that it is now possible to link emails to specific product/detail pages within a mobile app, without this disruption.  Eliminating this poor user experience makes it that much easier for you to convert customers at that moment.

3. App-only content teased via email. Walmart implemented a smart strategy this holiday season.  Instead of releasing the Black Friday ad in November on its website, the retailer initially only made the ad available via mobile app.

This is a smart strategy that can be implemented when content is compelling enough to drive app downloads. By promoting the ad via email, Walmart encouraged customers to download its app and view the ad early. Most likely, Walmart experienced record app downloads and mobile app conversions this Black Friday. 

4. Responsive / mobile-friendly emails and website. Judging by my inbox, a good mobile experience is still a futuristic idea that hasn’t yet been embraced by all brands.  If this Black Friday enlightens us in any way, it’s that mobile should be taken seriously as a revenue-driving marketing channel. Brands that don’t embrace responsive formats for emails and websites will miss out on valuable revenue that could have been attained if the entire conversion funnel had been optimized for mobile.

What are you doing to embrace email and mobile marketing harmony for conversion success? Tell me more in the comments. And three cheers to surviving Black Friday and Cyber Monday!