#MobileEmailLiberationFront: What's still stopping you from switching your emails to responsive?

With 54% of email opens performed on mobile (Litmus, March 2017), with only 50% of mobile-friendly emails worldwide (again according to Litmus in 2016), with 23% of ecommerce purchases made on mobile during the 2017 winter sales (B2Bill 2017), with an 89% increase in purchases from mobile between 2015 and 2016 (Withapps 2017), with so many reasons... why haven't some people still turned the corner (you're wondering too huh?).

Email customer market share as of May 2017 by Litmus

Actually, there are a lot of reasons. The in-house agency doesn't have time to learn new skills (they tried to apply the same recipes as for the responsive web, and it didn't work). Your boss is a maniac, emails have to display exactly the same way in all environments, and that doesn't always work, so big images are better. You've done the test, but frankly, your conversion rate hasn't changed. It takes more time, so it takes more money, and that's I.M.P.O.S.S.I.B.L.E! Every six months (at least) you have to review the templates because things have changed. You've been told to use a master template, but you can't keep up with it. Your site is not responsive. You don't even know what percentage of your users are mobile. Apparently, this is not good for your deliverability (huhu). Your target doesn't have a smartphone (again)

Well, you know what? These are all excellent reasons (well, almost)! But as you might expect, I'm not going to be satisfied with them.

Customer Experience

If there is a buzzword (or buzz expression) that I like, it's customer experience (the other buzzwords, in general, I do not like). Because customer experience shouldn't be a buzzword, it's INTEMPORAL! And for years, your customers have been living in a world in which mobile is becoming increasingly important. If your goal is to remove all the barriers between your customers and their needs (which you can meet), why post an inadequate email?

Need help?

Reading content isn't everything. The best way is to talk to us.


But let's review the objections raised

  1. The internal agency does not have the skills : see the point on email master templates
  2. Your boss is a maniac : good luck (if it is not a hopeless case, we can recommend you to read this old article)
  3. You have tested : In this case, you will need a little perseverance! If you have accustomed your contacts to unsuitable emails on mobile, it will take a little time for them to realize the change. It's a classic case, we do an AB responsive vs non-responsive test, and at the first shoot, we don't see much difference. But with time (there Thomas would put a gif of Léo Ferré 😀 ) you will see the mobile consultation rate of your emails increase!
  4. It's expensive : see the point on email master templates
  5. Review the code every six months : see the point on email master templates
  6. Master template email Today, for most advertisers with significant email production needs (we are talking about at least one emailing per week), the use of a master template has become inevitable. It allows to structure the need in terms of email content, not to take risks in the systematic redevelopment of emails from scratch, to reduce the financial impact of the transition to responsive, to be able to hand over to non-technicians (especially if there is the implementation of a email builder) and save a lot of time.
  7. Site not responsive : So what? Is that why you should reject 50% from your readers? Maybe we should just imagine a mechanism to invite them to connect later from their computer. For example with the creation of an alert.
  8. You have no data on your mobile users : There are plenty of trackers that allow you to calculate the percentage of opens on mobile/desktop/webmail. If you want, we can make something available to you 🙂 It takes a few minutes to set up, and 24 hours after sending your next newsletter you'll have all the info.
  9. Fear for your deliverability Mhmmm, maybe you should be thinking the other way around. What's good for your readers' responsiveness is good for your deliverability.
  10. You think your target does not have a smartphone : You must be wrong, read point 8 again 🙂

Methodology

But clearly, launching into the adventure of responsive requires a minimum of reflection, and therefore a little methodology. Here are a few lines on what you should do when you consider a project to switch your emails and newsletters to responsive:

  • Objectivez Use a tracker to measure the share of openers on mobile, desktop and webmail. This way, you will also have a precise vision of the email clients used by your target, which will be essential information for the html integrator who will work on your emails.
  • Analyze Do an analysis of the emails, newsletters and other content you send. Visualize the different types of content, work on the organization of this content. The objective is to define the types of "blocks" that will be needed to design your master template. Do you have 5 blocks to create 80% of your email communications? Do you need more? Can the "original" creations you use be standardized technically without losing their originality?
  • Structure Design wireframes to validate the layout of the content of the different blocks to be designed. Validate these elements with your team, but also with a specialist in responsive email who can already warn you if some elements are problematic.
  • Design No need for a revolution, but going from wireframes to design is an opportunity to stick as close as possible to the latest version of your website's graphic charter... some emails tend to deviate from it over time (without sacrificing the basic principles of email ergonomics).
  • Join Trust a specialist to integrate your emails! If you go to a web developer who has never worked on email, you risk big disasters. We can't say it enough, but web development and html for email are very very different.
  • Test There are now very powerful tools to automatically test emails in all email/webmail clients available on the market. This is an essential step. Don't forget to test in real conditions, on real terminals, real software, it often allows to find some residual bugs.
  • Form Whether you use an email builder or integrate by hand to produce your emails based on your template, it is important to train. Training on the blocks available, the need to standardize, the constraints inherent to email and of course the use of templates and the code produced.
  • Don't forget maintenance Every six months or so (but sometimes more often due to current events), it is important to retest your email master templates. Even very small webmail updates can sometimes cause big damage in the display of your emails. So you have to stay alert.

Use this article as an argument!

If you are one of the 50% who don't fully adapt your emails to mobile constraints, feel free to use this article as an argument (and if you want a helping hand, feel free to contact BadsenderWe will organize a secret mission to convince your structure to move forward).

Need for help for the design of your emails? Discover the services of our emailing agency. We propose you to realize the design of your emails and your master templates as well as thehtml integration of your emails.

Share
The author

Laisser un commentaire

Your email address will not be published. Les champs obligatoires sont indiqués avec *