 How2 design B2B eMails for the mobile phone |  |
| | |  | B2B eMail marketing on mobile phones has been hovering in the background for some time, but now it’s arrived! It’s either a threat or an opportunity, depending on how you view it. You may have embraced it already, because your market has adopted it early. Or maybe you’re putting off the idea as long as possible.
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| | | Only a few years ago, the mobile web was simply hovering on the fringes of cutting-edge technology. The BlackBerry, the Apple iPhone and other brands of smart phones have given millions of business people affordable mobile web access to corporate information.
The Pew Internet Project reports: "58% of adult Americans have used a mobile phone or personal digital assistant (PDA) to do at least one of ten mobile non-voice data activities such: as texting; eMailing; taking a picture; looking for maps or directions; or recording video."
The widespread adoption by business executives of accessing eMails via mobiles is forcing B2B marketers to make their marketing programmes customer-centric. This means designing campaigns and messages to make them as close as possible to what the customers want to receive; when they want to receive them; in which format they choose; and on their preferred platform.
Sending out all eMails in HTML because it lets you use a pretty graphical design can’t continue…
| Fact: 58% of adult Americans have used a mobile phone or personal digital assistant to do at least one of ten mobile
non-voice data activities | |
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| | | "widespread adoption by business executives of accessing eMails via mobiles is forcing B2B marketers to make their marketing programmes customer-centric" |  |
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| | Is your B2B market going Mobile? | Find out how many of your B2B customers and prospects read your eMails on their mobiles or PDAs. Create a text version of your HTML message and place it on a page at your website.
Put a link to this version at the top of your eMail message next to the link to your web version. Count the number of clicks the link pulls the first few times you send it out.
If fewer than 2% of your B2B readers click on it no action is required yet. If it's more than 10% it’s time to make changes.
| | Fact: Instead of a screen that measures 13 to 21 inches, you have maybe 2 to 4 inches – smaller than a PC eMail preview screen! | |
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| | | “smart phones have given millions of business people affordable mobile web access to corporate information” | |
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| | What’s different about B2B eMail on mobiles? | - The platform. Instead of a screen that measures 13 to 21 inches, you have maybe 2 to 4 inches – smaller than a PC eMail preview screen!
- Content rendering. Mobile devices vary enormously in how they render content. BlackBerry has stated that its software will in future show HTML content but this will take time to filter through. Text usually renders well on most devices but you'll need a rethink to optimise text for a small screen.
- Uses. Business people use their mobiles to triage or sort their inboxes when they're away from their PC while waiting for a flight, taking a train or watching TV at home. They scan through the inbox deciding quickly which eMails to open right away, which to trash and which to save.
| | Fact: Most text messages have 60 to 80 characters per line. Mobile platforms will only show 20 to 40 characters in 12 to 15 lines per screen | |
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| | | “Sending out all eMails in HTML because it lets you use a pretty graphical design can’t continue…“ | |
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| | How2 optimise eMail for B2B mobile users | If you’re already optimising your HTML eMail messages for blocked images and the use of the preview pane (default settings for most desktop and web eMail clients), your messages will show up reasonably on most mobile platforms.
However, there are a number of extra steps which will make your eMail messages even more friendly for B2B mobile users: | | TopTip #1 Reformat text | Always offer a text option as an alternative to HTML. Reformat the text to make it show up better on the smaller screen. Most text messages have 60 to 80 characters per line. Mobile platforms will show 20 to 40 characters in 12 to 15 lines per screen, depending on screen width and font style.
PC-friendly line lengths can create long paragraphs for the mobile reader. If you use typographic devices as paragraph returns, you'll lose valuable screen space. | | TopTip #2 Rethink URL links | | URL hyperlinks can also take up many lines in a small screen. Use a simpler URL even if it means sacrificing some tracking capability. Long URLs can result from automatically reformatting HTML copy into text, so your text version may need some tweaking to render better on mobiles. | | TopTip #3 Be as brief as possible | The message length must be reduced whether you send in text or HTML. Even messages as small as 12KB risk being shortened and it’s always annoying to open a message and find a "message truncated" alert. With many clients, the reader can choose to click to call up the rest of the message. But do you want to risk that not happening?
Another source of frustration for prospects is the alert: "This message contains a rich-text HTML portion. Consult your mail client's documentation for information on how to view it." Most prospects will hit the delete button at this point. Rethink the content itself - long sentences and long paragraphs force more and more scrolling.
Keep your message short but give your readers a reason to save it for later to view in their desktop clients. | | TopTip #4 Find out mobile preferences when B2B readers initially sign up | | When B2B users sign up to be on your list, or to receive your eNewsletter, provide a checkbox for them to select the "Mobile phone edition" of your eNewsletter. Track how many users check this option. | | TopTip #5 Don't include images | | Just a small version of your logo would be all you can get away with. The rest of the content should be easy-to-read text that they can get through fast. | | TopTip #6 Include a link to the "full" edition of your eNewsletter | | This way, they can peruse it at their leisure. The point is to get readers the information they want in the way they want it. The more you address their preferences the more effective your eMail campaigns and eNewsletters will become. | | TopTip #7 Rethink your website as well | Now consider your website - is your website mobile-friendly too? If you haven't had it redesigned specifically for mobile applications then it won’t be. It’s best to make sure it will also render well on mobiles. You can check it out by using a new validator developed by the World Wide Web Consortium:
http://validator.w3.org/mobile/ | | TopTip #8 Add a mobile reference | | Add a mobile reference in your message copy to your online-version link. | | TopTip #9 Provide links to lower-priority elements of the message | | For elements of secondary importance, such as the admin centre at the bottom, provide a link near the top of the message so that readers can click to download it. | | TopTip #10 Test before sending | | You should of course be doing this anyway but a mobile version adds another series of platforms to check. Don't assume that because it looks fine on your BlackBerry or iPhone it will look as good on all web-enabled phones. Make sure it looks good on the oldest mobile phone in the office, too. |
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| | | “Create a text version of your HTML message and place it on a page at your website“ | |
| | | | | “Text usually renders well on most devices, but you'll need a rethink to optimise text for a small screen” | |
| | | | | “If fewer than 2% of your readers click on it, no action is required yet. If it's more than 10%, it’s time to make changes” | |
| | | | | “Business people use their mobiles to triage or sort their inboxes when they're away from their PC” | |
| | | | | “Mobile devices vary enormously in how they render content” | |
| | | | | “Always offer a text option as an alternative to HTML. Reformat it to make it show up better on the smaller screen” | |
| | | | | “Only a few years ago, the mobile web was simply hovering on the fringes of cutting-edge technology” | |
| | | | | “When users sign up to be on your list, or to receive your eNewsletter, provide a checkbox for them to select the Mobile phone edition" | |
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