Florist Marketing Tip of the Week:
Design Your E-Messages for the Small Screen
Email today is primarily read on mobile devices—not computer screens. Sounds incredible, doesn’t it? Wasn’t it just a few years ago that only uber geeks and high-powered (and high-paid) CEOs had the fancy phones? But today, just about all of us (and all of your customers) rely on high-tech, hand-held devices for their everyday communication needs. And research by email security and deliverability firm Return Path showed that, by the end of last year, email readership on mobile devices was the predominant platform for email consumption.
So, if that’s the case, you’d better make darn sure that when you send an email to your clients, you have created it for easy reading on those small screens. Because chances are, once they open your email there, they are not going to open it again on their PC or laptop. So you’ve got one chance to get their attention and keep it.
So what are the tips for designing your emails for best consumption by your on-the-go customers? CoreMotives.com offers these tips in a white paper, “7 Ridiculously Stupid Ways Email Marketers Leave Money on the Table”:
Design for the thumb. In other words, make sure the email links in your messages are easy for recipients to click on with their big, fat, unwieldy thumbs. Buttons should be big with space around them so that if the viewer is “off” a little bit, they’ll still be able to hit enough of the link to make it go through.
Only use one column. Did you notice that, not too long ago, the FlowerChat newsletter switched to a one-column format? There’s a reason for that. One column makes it easy for the reader to navigate fluidly through the message from top to bottom. We removed the sidebars, and you should do the same.
Keep offers simple. Don’t offer 10 or 20 different special deals. One or maybe two is plenty for a message that needs to be simple and easy to communicate.
Connect to a page that counts. If you manage to convince your customers to click through your message to your website, fantastic! But don’t then simply connect them to you home page. Instead, make sure you send them to a page where they can complete the sale.
Focus on the main message. The “subject” line and the “from” line are the first most-critical aspects of your email message. The second-most critical? Those top few inches that show up on their screen. So make that area count. Marketing guru Ken Magill says, “If you’re doing it right, those three things combined will translate in the recipient’s mind to: ‘Hi, it’s me. You love hearing from me, remember? Here’s what I have for you today.’” He reminds us that while, in the past, you might have included everything you could fit into an email message, today you have to refocus on “simple, straightforward and user-friendly” messages.
Have some tips of your own that have made your email messages more effective? SHARE THEM! Reply to this thread with your comments!
Design Your E-Messages for the Small Screen
Email today is primarily read on mobile devices—not computer screens. Sounds incredible, doesn’t it? Wasn’t it just a few years ago that only uber geeks and high-powered (and high-paid) CEOs had the fancy phones? But today, just about all of us (and all of your customers) rely on high-tech, hand-held devices for their everyday communication needs. And research by email security and deliverability firm Return Path showed that, by the end of last year, email readership on mobile devices was the predominant platform for email consumption.
So, if that’s the case, you’d better make darn sure that when you send an email to your clients, you have created it for easy reading on those small screens. Because chances are, once they open your email there, they are not going to open it again on their PC or laptop. So you’ve got one chance to get their attention and keep it.
So what are the tips for designing your emails for best consumption by your on-the-go customers? CoreMotives.com offers these tips in a white paper, “7 Ridiculously Stupid Ways Email Marketers Leave Money on the Table”:
Design for the thumb. In other words, make sure the email links in your messages are easy for recipients to click on with their big, fat, unwieldy thumbs. Buttons should be big with space around them so that if the viewer is “off” a little bit, they’ll still be able to hit enough of the link to make it go through.
Only use one column. Did you notice that, not too long ago, the FlowerChat newsletter switched to a one-column format? There’s a reason for that. One column makes it easy for the reader to navigate fluidly through the message from top to bottom. We removed the sidebars, and you should do the same.
Keep offers simple. Don’t offer 10 or 20 different special deals. One or maybe two is plenty for a message that needs to be simple and easy to communicate.
Connect to a page that counts. If you manage to convince your customers to click through your message to your website, fantastic! But don’t then simply connect them to you home page. Instead, make sure you send them to a page where they can complete the sale.
Focus on the main message. The “subject” line and the “from” line are the first most-critical aspects of your email message. The second-most critical? Those top few inches that show up on their screen. So make that area count. Marketing guru Ken Magill says, “If you’re doing it right, those three things combined will translate in the recipient’s mind to: ‘Hi, it’s me. You love hearing from me, remember? Here’s what I have for you today.’” He reminds us that while, in the past, you might have included everything you could fit into an email message, today you have to refocus on “simple, straightforward and user-friendly” messages.
Have some tips of your own that have made your email messages more effective? SHARE THEM! Reply to this thread with your comments!
