by Wikus Engelbrecht
8. febbraio 2011 20:27
Smart phones have hit South Africa in a big way – my local Vodacom store tells me I need to be on an eight month waiting list for an iPhone 4! – but mobile has always been a popular communication medium among South Africans, mainly because it’s cheap, accessible and far-reaching.
With high mobile sales there’s also hope that internet usage in SA will expand, also for those who to whom mobile phones are more accessible than PCs. In 2009 Mike Kujawski reported South Africa’s mobile penetration rate to be 84% - www.budde.com.au reported last year (2010) that it’s now closer to 100%. Bizcommunity also reported mobile growth as one of their trend predictions for South African marketing for 2011.
The question is: Has your email marketing campaign grown into mobile?
There are differences, some obvious and some not so obvious, in reading an email on a mobile device and reading it on a laptop or PC.
1) Mobile screens are much smaller.
• Although some smartphones (like iPhones) automatically fit HTML newsletters to their screensize, not all mobile phones do this. Those phones that don’t will basically leave your recipient with an elephant-sized email on a mouse-sized screen – they’ll frantically be scrolling horizontally from one end of your email to the other.
• While all mobile devices have different specifications, designing for a 350px x 380px screen is your best bet.
• Try to make your brand name, logo and call to action as obvious and easy to find as possible, i.e. right at the top of your email.
2) Not all phones render HTML
• Make sure you have a text version of our email as well. (You can always include a link to an online mobile version of the email.) This also means that you should include alt text for your images, so that those users viewing the text version can follow the email.
3) Subscribers are more easily distracted while reading their emails.
• No-one has enough time, much less so when you’re on the run. Maximize on the real estate provided by the subject line and preheader to punt your call to action. You can even include a link. That way, even if they don’t have time to read your full newsletter, they can quickly and easily get straight to the point – by clicking through immediately.
• Ensure that the most important things, like your logo, brand name and call to action, are placed as close to the top of your email as possible. Subscribers will appreciate being able to recognize your email and what it’s about as quickly as possible. The less scrolling they have to do to get to these points, the better.
The easiest way for your email to be compatible with a range of devices is to keep your design as simple as possible. However, we will be rolling out new mobile tools soon that will help you run your email campaigns as smoothly on mobile phones as you have on PCs and Laptops… We’ll keep you posted!
