1. I have social share logos at the top of my emails.
  2. I don’t have mobile optimised email.
  3. Location based campaigns are not part of my plan.
  4. I’m not tracking device type as a demographic.

So how many did you agree with?

4. You are a chronic dad dancer. Read the rest of this post and implement the suggestions now!
2. So you’ve probably got the basics down, shall we take it to the next level?
1. Just one more job to do, it should be easy for a supreme marketer like you.
0. Fancy a job @pure360?

I have social share links at the top of my email 

Social share links have become background noise, every page on every site has the links, and so does every email. The problem with using social share links within email is that you have limited real estate to promote your message, and having social links that aren’t call to actions are a waste.

So less like this:

Or this one which wastes a lot of space:

More like this, a social link for each area of the content allows for social sharing to be tailored to the recipient’s interests:

 

Having a simple on brand call to action is also very effective:

 

This great example from the RSPCA gives clear instructions and is effective even before the images are loaded (useful for slow mobile connections):

Key takeaway: Give your recipients a reason to share your email.

I don’t have mobile optimised email 

You aren’t alone. Check this example from PayPal where you can’t see a call to action. Compare that with the MoneySupermarket example which has a very clear call to action with plenty of content if you want to scroll. 

Open and engagement rates are nearly always higher on mobile devices.

This is due to two factors.  

Emails opened on iOS devices download images as standard, as this is the way that ESPs track opens you get without a huge amount of effort.

The other is due to the way we interact with our phones; checking email is a very popular activity on phones, so much so it’s the media which interrupts meetings the most.

It is often a filler for those slack movements in the day. Essentially people are looking for entertainment, so give them easily digestible content and they’ll spend plenty of time on it.

We are seeing only 50% of some campaigns being opened on desktops nowadays; if budget is an issue there are tonnes of resources online for your designer to repurpose your emails, or of course your ESP will be happy to help.

Location based campaigns are not part of my plan 

Location based campaigns are the perfect opportunity to steal a march on your competitors, and is a much underused area of mobile marketing.

I’m not talking about campaigns which are based on where people are according to your database. It is an opportunity to use email to get your recipients to store a passbook/wallet entry.  

An example of location based campaigns at their best is ticket sales. A mobile coupon being unlocked when the recipient enters the venue, or receiving a push notification saying “enjoy the gig”. I like the idea of outdoors brands doing coupons which are unlocked by climbing particular mountains (or more likely in the UK, hills).

The opportunity to anchor your brand to the experiences of your recipients while out and about are huge, you’re a smart marketer, how could you tie location to your campaigns?

It won’t be long before consumers move from “isn’t this cool” to “this is marketing”. So get on it now..

I’m not tracking device type as a demographic

Take a look around your office/train/park/meeting and see what phones people have. Do you think there is a connection between the phones and people’s personality? Do you think you could match the two together?

A really simple way to discover if there is a correlation between your customers and their mobile devices is to take a look at your device reporting and identify which is most popular, and then send a campaign out to your prospects that have that specific device.

This will enable you to fully optimise for your most popular device.  

Breakdown by device 

A great client example is Company Magazine, which simply identifies iPhone users who receive their emails, then SMS these users with a link through to their digital edition – simple yet very effective.

Different devices attract different users and you as a brand attract different groups as well. There will be correlations, all you have to do is find them.

Good luck banishing dad dancing from your emails, the results can be ugly if you don’t.