Over the holiday season, I used my mobile phone more often than usual for a variety of tasks: checking email and Facebook, shopping online, browsing the internet. Being stuck in a car for 10 hours and away from your office for over a week necessitates some creativity when it comes to staying connected. Because I was stuck using my mobile device almost exclusively for these tasks, I became more aware of the frustrations associated with email messages and websites not designed with the mobile user in mind. And while this subject has been discussed before, I think it’s worth revisiting, especially as we enter a new year and begin planning new email marketing campaigns. So, without further ado, here’s my list of the top five ways to keep your mobile users happy.

Big Buttons

Fingers are much less precise than mouse pointers. Make it easier for your mobile subscribers to open and click by making buttons fat finger friendly.

Space Between Clickable Elements

Another problem that arises when you’re using a finger instead of a mouse is clickable elements placed too close together, resulting in mis-clicks. By adding additional white space between clickable elements, you can reduce the likelihood that users will find themselves waiting for the wrong page to load.

Important Information Visible Without Scrolling or Enlarging

When you have dozens of emails to catch up on, it’s 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 doesn’t have to scroll either vertically or horizontally to see your main message and call to action.

Single Columns

HTML is much less flexible than CSS 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.

Hide Unnecessary Content

It’s 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 isn’t strictly necessary.

As you’re designing new email campaigns for 2012, eConnect Email offers flexible design options, image management, templates, and inbox previews to help ensure that each message displays exactly as intended. By catering to the unique needs of mobile users, you can ensure that an increasingly mobile audience will continue to read and interact with your messages.

Statistics show that approximately 10% of email recipients will check their email on a mobile device. Not too big a splash, right? Should you be worried about the experience those 10% have if it means completely rethinking your approach to email design? Before you write off this segment of viewers, let’s take a closer look at that 10% statistic. Your target audience most likely checks their inbox at multiple locations including their desktop and mobile phone, meaning that of your total audience, the percentage checking email using a mobile device at least some of the time may be closer to 40%. That’s a number that should cause you to pause and consider.

Achieving Mobile Friendly Design

If 40% of your subscribers check at least some of their emails on a mobile device, then it makes sense to give them an easy and readable experience. That used to mean creating a separate mobile version or trying to deal with inadequate HTML displays. But these days, most smartphones can display HTML coding without issues.  People without good HTML rendering capabilities generally only check urgent emails on their phones, saving other correspondence for the desktop.

Reading and Clicking

So then, what should take top priority when designing an email with mobile users in mind? The short answer: screen size and touch capabilities. Because your emails must display on small phone screens, you’ll need to increase the size of both your fonts and your clickable buttons. The goal should be for users to read every element of your email without increasing the overall size, thereby hiding certain elements from view.

Touch capabilities should also play a role in your design strategy. As more and more people click with their fingers instead of with a mouse, you’ll need to allow more room between clickable elements to accommodate clumsy digits. Small changes like these won’t greatly impact the design of your email as it appears on a desktop, but it will vastly improve the experience your mobile audience has.

With the custom email design capabilities of eConnect Email, you can create your own custom email templates that will display beautifully no matter how your audience receives them. Our experienced design team can help create mobile-friendly email campaigns and can also help you gauge their effectiveness using our detailed reporting functionality. No matter where email takes you in the future, eConnect Email will keep your campaigns running efficiently in order to deliver stellar results, every time… guaranteed!

The explosion of social media and mobile devices has proved to be a game-changer for email marketing. While email marketing is alive and thriving, strategies must change to capitalize on consumer behavior in order for companies to leverage their email marketing campaigns most effectively.  As we look back over 2010, we can note the shifts in online behavior and use those to project the coming trends for email marketing in 2011.

1. Consumers want real-time value.

The ability to post instant updates, tweets, and comments have trained consumers to expect those things from marketing campaigns as well.  You can begin incorporating real-time value into your email marketing by tracking customer behavior on social networks and using that data to create automated campaigns that deliver relevant messages based on triggers and auto-responders created with eConnect Email.

2. Mobile versions increase in popularity.

Some experts predict that 2011 will see mobile device sales outperforming PC sales for the first time in history.  Because people check email on mobile devices more frequently than ever before, you’ll need to make sure your email templates/ campaigns are designed to accommodate these users.  Curious how your email campaign will display within a specific email system or mobile devices?  We’ve got you covered, check out Inbox & Mobile Previews, a premium feature available within eConnect Email.

3.     Social media takes center stage.

2010 was the year social media came into its own, and 2011 will be the year that it takes center stage in a wide variety of marketing efforts, including email marketing. You can incorporate you social media efforts into your email marketing campaign by including links to Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites within your email campaigns. You can also include eConnect Email’s built in social sharing tools which will allow your subscribers to share your email campaigns via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Buzz (talk about expanding your reach).  Now also available is a feature that allows you to integrate a Facebook “Like” option into your email campaign, the whole process takes less than 10 seconds!

4.     Social media gives back.

Not only can you use email to help promote your social media efforts, but you can also begin using social media to increase email opt-ins. By placing opt-in opportunities on your Facebook fanpage and in your Twitter posts, you can increase the number of overall subscribers.

5.     Dynamic content becomes the norm.

As people share their opinions and product review information, they’ll become more likely to expect businesses to incorporate this data into their marketing campaigns. Using eConnect Email’s Dynamic Content tools will allow you to create a one-to-one email marketing experience which will keep your subscribers engaged!

As email marketing sets sail in 2011, businesses will need to embrace social media and look for tools that will enhance and engage your subscribers like never before.  eConnect Email can help you stay on course by giving you the tools you need to meet and exceed user expectations every time.

Mobile Previews have arrived, along with a long-awaited adjustment in the unsubscribe process.

Now see your email rendering in five popular devices in addition to 29 email clients

An exciting addition to eConnect Email launched over the weekend: Mobile Previews! This is an addition to our already awesome Inbox Previews, an add-on service inside eConnect Email’s core email marketing application.

As you send off your email to see how it renders across 29 different email clients, you also will see that same email rendering in five different devices: the iPhone 3GS, Blackberry Curve, Symbian S60, Windows Mobile 6.5 and the iPad.

Highlights

• See email renders in five different mobile devices
• Inbox Previews now features 29 different email clients

Try for yourself by running an Inbox Preview on your next email campaign! Not currently using Inbox/ Mobile Previews? Contact our sales team for more information, (866) 596-9997.

Unsubscribe by mistake? With a single click, re-subscribe!

With the single-click unsubscribe in eConnect Email, we understand that sometimes you or your clients accidentally unsubscribe and it’s somewhat of a process to re-subscribe them. No more!

Now anyone that unsubcribes will have the option to immediately re-subscribe with a single click. They won’t have to leave the page or go through any lengthy hassle. One click and they’re back on the list…just like that.

If you have any questions let us know!