Tweet

How To Design Your Email Messages For Mobile Devices

Written by: Karen Scharf

Article Overview: According to a 2007 study, 64% of key decision makers are reading your email messages on their Blackberries or PDAs. It is important to grab their attention.

How To Design Your Email Messages For Mobile Devices

According to a 2007 study, 64% of key decision makers are reading your email messages on their Blackberries or PDAs. To grab their attention, and make sure your mail gets read, it's important to follow these guidelines:

Front load your subject line. The first 15 characters are key. On many PDAs, the subject line is truncated and your reader will only see the first 15-20 characters, so be sure to put the most important information at the beginning.

If your message is urgent, say so. Many people will use Blackberries as a supplemental email device. When they're out in the field, they'll scan through their inbox on their Blackberries, but they'll wait until they're back in the office to really delve into reading their email.

If it's critical that your message get read and acted upon immediately, add the words "Urgent" or "Due Today" to the beginning of your subject line. But, be considerate of your readers and only use this tactic when the message really is urgent. If you cry wolf too often, soon your messages won't be read at all.

Because you never know how your emails will be read, always compose your messages using multi-part MIME. Make sure the important text is at the beginning of the message. Current Blackberry devices have 320px wide displays - keep this in mind when designing your message.

Snub the prevailing advice - do not include your company name in the subject line. I've read more and more marketing experts suggesting that you include your company name at the very beginning of your subject line to aid in "branding". I must say, I totally disagree with this logic. If your "from" line is formatted properly, there is no need to waste the limited space in your subject line. Your subject line is too precious to include duplicated information.

If you're a B-to-B marketer, give readers the option to subscribe to the PDA version of your email, in addition to text-only or html options. Then design your email accordingly.

Remember, mobile users don't read, they scan. When checking their messages in their Blackberries, they'll be looking at cluttered rows of from fields and subject lines, and they'll make a quick decision as to which message is relevant. Anything you can do to ethically make your message stand out will improve your open and click-through rates. Try adding symbols like * or ^ but use sparingly to avoid spam filters. And use keywords that will stand out as your reader is scanning the inbox.

And, finally, be sure to test your message across multiple platforms.

Related Articles
  SEO Measures for Mobile Search
  Better Email Newsletters for Busy Mobile Users
  Mobile Internet Security
  Most intimate marketing channel – the smartphone
  Process of Mobile Application Development

Article Tags: email campaign, email marketing, mobile marketing



Related Forum Posts
Re: The Mobile Marketing - Mobile Marketing involves communicating with the consumer via cellular (or mobile) device, either to send a simple marketing message, to introduce them to a new audience participation-based campaign or to allow them to visit a mobile website. Some of the tools of the trade and a few of the concepts that will be featured in this Mobile Marketing 101 series are: Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) Bluetooth, Wireless and Infrared Mobile Internet and Social Media Mobile Applications Mobile connectivity not only enables people to connect to the Internet via a cellular telephone, PDA or other gadget, but also consolidates the different communication channels in a simple, yet effective, medium. Cheaper than traditional means for both the consumer and the marketer - and easy enough for almost any age group to understand and engage with - Mobile Marketing really is a streamlined version of traditional eMarketing.
Re: What is your Business? - We are running a Online Marketing Firm and we have some good clients to which we are offering a complete Digital Marketing strategy like Search, Mobile Marketing, Branding and Design. I think in Online Marketing company online presence can be a wining factor for the success of the company.
Re: Mobile Marketing - Top 10 trends in the mobile application in 2012 What is most interesting to us mobile marketers is what lands at # 2 and # 3 spots on his list. "Mobile Search", "location-based services," and also, the place n. # 8 is our favorite of my "mobile advertising." last round after this morning's location based on 1020 funding Placecast poster supports the thesis that when it comes to phones, people expect to be able to discover things around them. That makes sense - after all, what good is a mobile device if you can not access the information you need right now? Gartner reports that location services will be "one of the most disturbing in the coming years." Gartner predicts that the LBS user base of 96 million global growth in 2009 to more than 526 million by 2012. "His value to the user high is the result of its ability to meet a variety of needs, ranging from productivity and fullfillment target social networking and entertainment." Mobile Search, which Gartner says is a fundamental purpose "to drive sales and marketing opportunities in the mobile phone," now just need the user experience. Once "the industry improves the user experience of mobile search to get people back again," Gartner predicts it will be the third most popular application in 2012. Getting to # 8, mobile advertising is no joke. Total spending on mobile advertising in 2008 was $ 530.2 million, which Gartner expects to grow to $ 7.5 billion in 2012. "Mobile advertising is an important way to monetize the mobile Internet content, applications and offering free services to end users. The mobile channel will be used as part of the largest advertising campaigns in various media, including television, radio, print and outdoor, "says Gartner. Here's the full top 10 types of future mobile applications, according to Gartner: 1. Money transfer 2. Location Based Services 3. Mobile Search 4. Mobile Browsing 5. Mobile health monitoring 6. Mobile Payment 7. Near field communication services 8. Mobile Advertising 9. Mobile Instant Messaging
Re: Top Banner Help - [quote:35xjo6uq]Good job on the banners BennyBoy![/quote:35xjo6uq] No probs:) I agree Online Marketing and Publicity Search Engine Optimization - Web Design and Programming Blogging also may be... Web Design Tutorials Looking to Hire - jobs section Interesting Articles / websites
Web magazine publisher - My duties 1) Research the articles that goes into each of my webzines - science fiction in all media, various sports (Yay, Lady Vols, 8th championship in 2008, by the way!) 2) Write the articles 3) Format and upload them to the web 4) Email and network various contacts to get out the word that new articles are available. 5) Email authors, actors, etc. etc. to see if they want to do interviews. 6) Advertise for more contributors - and then edit and upload their material!


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Working Across Borders

Steps For Starting A Small Business

How to Develop Your Powers of Thought.

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.