Each Thursday at 11 a.m. EST, marketers from around the world join the ExactTarget user community on Twitter for a conversation about trends and campaign ideas across the interactive marketing industry. We call the virtual coffee chat the Nexus Café.
Here's the recap from the chat from the marketers that joined us.
ETNexus Q1 Do you think about mobile when sending emails?
lindsaylee13 A1: Yes. Even if you don't have a big mobile audience yet, it's important to think about ways to optimize content/code/design
briandshelton A1 - Yes. A growing percentage of customers access email via mobile... 20% or more and rising
meladorri A1 Definitely! Looking at our open stats, we see a lot of iPhone users, so try to optimize for 'fat fingers' and smaller screen
TargetCastTalks A1 How could you not? More than 670M ppl use mobile email - expected to grow to 2.4B by 2016, needs to be part of convo
BethLeleck A1 little changes can go a long way in improving emails for mobile.
lindsaylee13 A1: There's small things you can do that make a big difference w/o lots of time - increase font size, consider a one-column email
litmusapp In April, mobile overtook desktop and webmail opens for the first time ever: http://t.co/2hP5CQmg
ETNexus Q2 What bothers you about browsing on mobile devices?
briandshelton A2 - Poor scaling of content; small font, large images, scrolling, etc. Design for usability and conversion first.
BethLeleck A2 cascading menus drive me nuts! Emails AND websites need to be easily clickable via mobile.
TargetCastTalks A2 regarding email, HTML issues sometimes causing elements to not be displayed at all. low resolution and spotty connectivity is a killer for us
lindsaylee13 A2: Some frustrations when mobile browsing is difficult navigation and slow downloads. Hard to read copy is also frustrating.
SusanPrater A2: Non-mobile optimized websites and landing pages.
ETNexus Q3 What steps have you made to optimize your emails for mobile?
BethLeleck A3 basic email 'best practices' still hold true, but mobile 'preview pane' is much smaller. Optimize & make the most of it!
lindsaylee13 A3: On certain campaigns we have made small changes: increasing font size, one-column, narrower emails.
TargetCastTalks A3 visual anchors upfront and clean navigation are critical
MaddieMarovino A3: keep it short and sweet
briandshelton A3: Width of display is a top priority. Lateral scrolling to see/read content is a death sentence for your email.
meladorri A3: We have 1 template that utilizes media queries, others use limited copy, large fonts, more whitespace, bulletproof buttons
ETNexus Q4 Do you take advantage of smartphone features in mobile emails (click-to-call, mobile search, mobile Apps/push)?
lindsaylee13 Q4: Click to call is really handy. Haven't utilized the other options as much yet.
TargetCastTalks A4 click to call works like a charm - most of the time - will leverage mobile apps but not thrilled with depth of metrics
meladorri A4: As a b2b marketer, it's harder to take advantage of fun smartphone tricks (no app, location, etc). What do others think?
HippieBookworm A4 We haven't in email. But our mobile site is designed to take advantage of these features.
ETNexus Q5 What suggestions do you have for making content more digestible on mobile?
lindsaylee13 A5 Research your audience to see what your mobile audience is looking like first.
ryanleecox A5: Less text, get to the point. Entice me to click and go elsewhere. Activate me to ACTION outside of my phone.
lindsaylee13 Consider media queries to create emails that resize and hide/show elements according to screen size
gina_mueller A5 Keep it short and use bullet points. The more copy the more scrolling…
lindsaylee13 A5 Knowing what % of people are viewing your emails on mobile can help determine what level of optimization to make.
TargetCastTalks A5 headline and prologue are huge for attention & action
lindsaylee13 A5 Evaluate what your content will look like after they click-thru to the landing page/website. Make the experience consistent.
lindsaylee13 A5 Small changes such as larger font size and one-column emails can work wonders in readability.
ETNexus Q6 What percentage of your audience is opening emails on mobile?
lindsaylee13 A6 Our mobile audience is still pretty small. Mobile devices consist of about 5-10% of all opens, depending on the campaign.
meladorri We had about 15% open on mobile for our last newsletter; 9% was on iPhone. See our stats here: http://t.co/96jnczDF
briandshelton A6 - We're seeing 19.6% in June accessing via mobile.
BethLeleck Optimize for mobile NOW, make little changes, and don't get left behind.
BethLeleck Regardless of how small, our tipping point was planning for where the market is headed. Mobile is the future!
ETNexus Q7 Do you create one email for both mobile and desktop, or two designs?
lindsaylee13 Q7 One! Too many things going on to spend time creating multiple versions. Creating more than one version isn't scalable for us.
meladorri A7: One design! As a one-woman show, no time to create two separate designs. Plus, you can't predict where users will open.
ryanleecox A7: One design currently, but I can see how two designs would be beneficial. Mobile - shorter and direct. Or maybe that is how BOTH emails should be. Write to the more important consumption: mobile. desktop follows
HippieBookworm A7 one design to be opened via desktop or mobile. We have small staff.
ryanleecox A7: We are becoming mobile-first consumers. It would make sense to create emails &marketing to those emails around it.
jvanrijn I always say: Do one. but you can link to a mobile landingpage ;)
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