Hands up if you remember the recent article I wrote about optimising your emails for smartphones? And hands up again if you remember any of the statistics?
Okay, here’s a quick reminder: 73% read their emails on their phones and 67% access the Internet. Those are pretty high percentages, which goes some way to explaining the rapid increase in mobile commerce spend – in Q2 2013 the year on year increase was 24%, reaching a very impressive $4.7billion.
As if that’s not enough, leading internet technology company comScore’s February 2014 UK market review showed a steady increase in the percentage of users accessing information across multiple platforms, proof positive of the importance to ensure your business is accessible via mobile devices. Back in 2010, Microsoft Tag predicted that mobile marketing would take over desktop usage by 2014, and everything points to it beginning to happen: the Monetate Q4 2013 Ecommerce Quarterly clearly shows that website traffic via tablet and smartphone is growing and that desktop usage is shrinking by over 8% a year. (If you want to be wowed by even more statistics, take a look at Smart Insights’ summary of recent research on mobile marketing.
3 key reasons to optimise for mobile
So it’s even more amazing that only 25% of marketers optimise their emails for smartphones. You’re in the business of selling, and removing the barriers between your customers and a purchase has to be a priority. And if you still need a reason why, I’ll give your three good ones to consider…
- 41% of consumers say it is difficult to shop using a small screen.
- 42% delete an email if it doesn’t display correctly on a mobile.
- 74% will wait less than 5 seconds for a mobile site to load – and the exact same applies to email.
If you use a smartphone you’re bound to know what I’m talking about – how many sites do you visit and discover they are impossible to view and navigate on screen, or how annoyed do you get because an email won’t load? And what do you do? Leave the site and delete the email – maybe, just maybe, you’ll think to look at it again on your computer. If you remember what you were doing earlier that day!
And another 4 reasons to mobile optimise your emails!
Email is the virtual equivalent to opening your shop door and inviting your customers to come in. If they can’t read your emails it doesn’t matter how fantastic your products or special offers are, they’ll simply find another business that is easier to do business with. It makes good business sense to optimise your emails for mobile:
- It improves the user experience – customers will be more inclined to like your business and want to buy from you.
- Conversion rates increase – you just made it easy for the customer to learn more about your business and browse your products selections or special offers.
- Better sales – the more customers actually reading your emails, engaging with the content and visiting your website, the more likely it is that sales will increase.
- Lower unsubscribe and complaint rates – optimised emails is a bit like providing good customer service. If customers feel you care about them and their experience of your business they will continue to subscribe to your emails.
It’s honestly not difficult to optimise your emails. Many email marketing systems, including the ever popular Mail Chimp, now offer mobile optimised templates for your emails. So don’t get left behind – get those emails sorted and keep your customers happy!
It would be great to hear your success stories of how optimised emails impact on your business. And if you need help with your emarketing you know where I am!