The current issue of Direct Marketing News had the following to say about email and mobile marketing challenges:
Marketers continue to struggle to ensure their e-mail marketing messages, images in particular, display accurately on mobile devices. As consumers worldwide rely on their mobile devices more and more each day, it's a challenge that shouldn't be ignored.
According to November 2010 research from The Relevancy Group, an e-mail consultancy firm, 39% of consumers currently access one or more of their personal e-mail accounts on a mobile device.
“Mobile is becoming a bigger channel for customers to come through,” says Neha Parikh, director of global customer marketing for Hotels.com. “We are seeing more people opening up their Hotels.com e-mail reservations on their phones when they are on the go. A customer may be at the airport and wanting to open their hotel reservation on their iPhone.”
Hotels.com, which works with ExactTarget, is revamping its e-mail program to account for consumers reading by mobile. For example, it includes important marketing messages as text, rather than image files, in order to ensure customers don't miss the call-to-action.
Hotels.com has begun render testing, in which it will test how its e-mails appear in different e-mail servers and on different mobile phones. For example, images in a Hotels.com e-mail opened on an iPhone in Hotmail did not show up but the text did. In January 2011, it will add a link in each e-mail to view a “mobile-friendly version.”
Cosmetic retailer Kiehl's also recently began optimizing its e-mails for mobile. WhenDirect Marketing News viewed a Kiehl's e-mail in Hotmail from an iPhone, empty boxes appeared in place of images. Clicking a ‘View All' button at the top of the e-mail did solve the problem but this requires the customer to take that additional action. They now ensure that every mobile version of our communication to our customers is accompanied by a text version.”
Miles Media, a tourism publisher in Florida that sends e-mail marketing messages for state tourism boards and travel associations within the state of Florida, takes a text approach to ensure their e-mails render properly. Users can click to view a full version of an e-mail, which will include images, on a website. Miles Media also designs e-mail subject lines and layouts that will show up well on a 3-inch to 4-inch screen.
