We have all seen the numbers climbing and know consumers are using mobile devices more and more and we are developing mobile strategies around this point. We have texting, social media, mobile banner ads, mobile videos and mobile app strategies. But one thing we may be missing and shouldn’t is a mobile email strategy.
Movable Ink’s US Consumer Device Preference Report for 4th Quarter, 2013, shows 65% of emails were opened on a mobile device. The largest portion of that was on Smartphones at 48.23% with Tablets at 16.25%. Desktop accounted for only 35% of email opens which is a decline from 39% in the previous quarter. According to Movable Ink, these findings reveal that consumers are quickly moving from desktops to mobile devices when it comes to opening and interacting with brand marketing emails. Smartphones and tablets aren’t just dominating over desktops in email opens but have shown consistent quarter-over-quarter growth.
Mobile email opens are even greater during holidays with 75.19% opens compared to 24.81% desktop opens on Thanksgiving and 76.1% opens compared to 23.9% desktop opens on Christmas.
In a guest post for VentureBeat in September of 2013, Cezary Pietrzak,the Director of Marketing at Appboy, encouraged readers to adopt a mobile first mentality stating “When done right, mobile email has several strategic advantages.” He goes on to include some suggestions on how to maximize email in a mobile marketing program. Those suggestions include:
- Optimize email for small screen.
- Create bite-size content
- Make your subject line snappier
- Rethink your link strategy
- Consider mobile usage patterns
I would encourage you to follow the link to Mr. Pietrzak’s post and read more about how and why to implement his suggestions.
