Mobile Versioning

How smart is your smartphone? The answer may have to do with the way it handles email. Odds are your phone fits into one of three scenarios, according to Mark Brownlow’s article on Email Marketing Reports. The first (best case) is that the device handles the HTML without a problem, this instance could be improved a mobile (smaller) version optimized for the device’s screen.

A second scenario is that the device receives text-only versions and the final is that it receives the original HTML source code (full links) or simplified version of the HTML. Keep in mind that none of these are bad things… some are just closer to your original email than others.

The challenge is that many eMarketers are unsure of how many of their recipients are viewing email on a mobile device or how to best meet their needs. For the short term, the inclusion of a mobile version is a great way to test popularity. As phones continue to smarten-up (more capabilities) and decrease in price, many more of your recipients will rely on them to serve as their primary email/ internet connection, the mobile version option will help you prepare while simultaneously setting your recipient’s expectations.

Best practices incorporating the mobile version are still forming, but consider these suggestions from Mark’s article:
1) Offer a link to a small screen version in your HTML email (first scenario, above)

2) Add mobile URLs to your plain text version OR set the line length in the plain text version to a mobile-friendly number of characters (second scenario)

3) Make it easy for those with poor HTML email rendering (older operating systems) to find/ follow the mobile version URL (third scenario)

Make plans to dial into our Mobile Marketing Service In Action call this Friday (@ 2:00 ET.)