As marketing approaches continue to evolve in the ways we deliver messages -- as well as in how consumers choose to receive them -- we must continue to create the stories that will get noticed, spur a response, and generate a sale.
One of these evolving, although not emerging, areas is in email marketing. While at the DMA this week, I attended a session on email best practices. As marketers, we need to be certain that we keep pace with the ways our message is being consumed – and in the case of emails, that is shifting to mobile devices. Now, more than 50% of email readers read email on their mobile device first.
This isn’t surprising news for us at Hacker Group. Throughout 2012, we’ve been pioneering responsive email designs that render an optimally-sized email depending on the screen size of the window. This process can be relatively simple by nature or as complicated as rendering an entirely new email for a mobile device.
We’ve focused on a standard mobile phone size (300 pixels) and a standard desktop size (600 pixels). But the options are truly as limitless as your time and budget. We can add in more size options -– especially as tablets continue to become a more important player in the space. We can render different messages/offers based on operating system or device. Perhaps an iPhone user has different preferences from a Blackberry user, and with that knowledge the message could become more relevant.
There was one area within the email approach that I will be shifting my focus toward next –- even though it may seem like the least interesting part of the email itself – is what to do when the images are turned off. Surprisingly, this is the case the majority of the time. We’ve always utilized the alt tags to ensure that the message still comes across. However, you can also add style to the alt tag -– bigger font, different colors. That way you can still deliver an interesting email even with the images turned off.
Simple solutions for a truly elegant design.