Monday, 9 January 2012, 9:39 AM
The Design of an E-Mail for Mobile Phones
When you design a newsletter for a mobile phone there are somewhat different demands to consider; nor are the thoughts about attracting the readers exactly the same. When reading a message of some kind in a mobile phone one doesn’t want it to be too long. You also need to make the buttons larger so it’s easy to click on them. Several companies at shop.org (an e-retailers’ gathering in Boston) told about how their readers use more time when reading a newsletter in an iPad or in a lap top than in a mobile phone. On the other hand, in mobile phones it seems as if the readers quicker continue to the home page, the blog, or whatever it is.
Can you see where your customers read your newsletters? How many of them read them in an iPhone or in an Android? If there is a large part of your readers using mobile devices you should put some resources into the design.
Here are some advice and tips in case you feel this is something you ought to look into:
The navigation needs to be simple because several choices make the texts very small. A simple bottom navigation might help you to see how readers who briefly check the content and – since they miss what they are looking for – in this way go on via the bottom navigation to your homepage.
Our newsletters are in 540 and 560 pixels. It’s absolutely okay to have quite narrow letters if you just consider the structure. Doing this is well spent time since you can give more people the opportunity to see the link texts or other important information at the left side.
Some companies that I’ve seen are asking for e-mail addresses for their subscription lists in applications. Don’t ask too much in an application. Filling in long forms is neither tempting nor easy when the space is so limited.
Those were some tips I hope you’ll find useful.
One last thing: To all e-mail service providers – I can’t tell you how many questions we get right now about how to choose the right e-mail tool. A lot of companies are really disappointed in their present provider. So pull yourselves together folks! Otherwise I might start blogging about things your customers tell me about! Take care of your customers, pamper them, and help them with their e-mail marketing on a long term basis. Everyone will profit from that!
Sarah@@@@@
