While many businesses are still undecided about branded apps for mobile users, there’s no denying that rising smartphone and tablet use requires marketers to consider how on-the-go users can access web content and other outreach efforts. Email marketing, for example, is a top mobile web activity. Without developing a whole new campaigns, brands can leverage well-written digital content and target consumers’ inboxes, offering up-to-date news, coupons and genuine B2C or B2B interaction.
However, digital marketers say mobile technology remains a major obstacle in their email marketing campaigns as they have yet to define the best method of engaging audiences via their smartphones and tablet devices. According to a survey from MarketingSherpa, 58 percent of surveyed professionals say that mobile will impact their email plans over the next 12 months. Forty-two percent of respondents say they will design email content to render differently on smaller screens.
Email marketing has been around for many years and some professionals went as far as saying that the practice passed its prime. The evolution of mobile technology and the persistent usage of email channels has led to its second coming, and brands have begun to reallocate their budgets to account for the promotional channel.
The main drawback to rapidly evolving mobile technology is finding the resources to keep up with the channel. In some instances, brands can save money on tech investments by refining the volume of email content and the amount of text included in each message. There’s a time and place to get descriptive and poetic in content marketing, but email works best when brands refine the language they use and get straight to the point – especially for small screen audiences.
Companies don’t have to revamp their email campaigns to embrace mobile technology, but they must consider screen size throughout the conceptualization phase. In some instances, an effective outreach program piques consumers’ interest by using small snippets of text to drive traffic back to branded websites or compel nearby mobile viewers to engage with the brand offline, especially during peak sales seasons.
