Weekly Email Marketing News Digest

We are taking a look at the relationship between optimizing for mobile and responsive design this week with the key challenge being the smaller screen size. Designing for the mobile age has become a particularly important topic due to studies that reveal statistics such as 69% of email opens on the mobile.

We’ve also snuck in Chris Penn’s take on the confirmation opt-in debate for readers who are still following that news thread.

Mobile Marketing And Email: 4 Ways To Use Them Together

Here are 4 ways to ensure the integration of mobile and email marketing.

  • Mobile Email: Make sure messages are readable on a smaller screen.
  • Mobile Sites and Apps: Ensure that you either have a mobile site or app that is easily accessible for visitors reading off smaller screens.
  • Location-Based Check-Ins: Tie email campaigns to check-in deals.
  • Geo-Targeted Ads: Consider sponsored search with keywords related to your brand.

iphonecomparisonmobilefriendlybrands

Responsive Email Design: The Ins And Outs (article removed from original site)

Here are some mobile design best practices:

  • Design using large fonts (14px for body copy and 22px for headlines)
  • Clear call to action
  • Consider a single column
  • De-clutter the screen and provide minimal options for links
  • Have mobile-friendly landing pages

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Optimizing for mobile? Don’t forget your subject line.

While you may be busy coding a new email template that is mobile-friendly, it’s important to keep subject line lengths in mind. Due to the smaller screen size, it’s best to keep your subject lines to 20-30 characters. Here are a couple of examples.

mobilesubjectlines

Mailbag: Single or Double Opt-In For Email?

Christopher Penn outlines the three different types of opt-ins used for email lists and gives his take on which works best for him. The choices?

  1. Single opt-in: Fill in a form and you’re subscribed to the list.
  2. Notified single opt-in: Fill in the form, you’re subscribed to the list and you get an email confirmation with an opt-out link.
  3. Double opt-in: Fill in the form, you get an email requesting confirmation by clicking on a link

For more information on the list confirmation debate, do check out The Debate on Confirmation Opt-Ins: Are they always necessary?

Responsive Web Design Infographic

Here’s a great infographic that explains the key features of responsive design.

responsive-web-design-infographic

Interested in finding out more about engaging your customers through mobile? Check out The New Communications Standard!

The New Communications Standard whitepaper