Are You Ready For Mobile Email Revolution?

There is an increasing trend of reading emails from mobile phones. This growth is strictly connected to the availability and the popularity of smartphones, using which reading email and surfing the net is easy and the user experience is rich.

According to a recent analysis conducted by Gartner, smartphone sales to end users continued to grow strongly in the first quarter of 2010, totalling 54.3 million units, an increase of 48.7 per cent from the first quarter of 2009.
In the smartphone OS market, Android and Apple were the winners in the first quarter of 2010. Android moved to the No. 4 position displacing Microsoft Windows Mobile for the first time.
In general, smartphones accounted for 17.3 per cent of all mobile handset sales in the first quarter of 2010, up from 13.6 per cent in the same period in 2009.

Does this signal a coming of mobile email revolution?

Current analysis shows impressive statistics where millions of people will be using advanced email-ready phones.
Morgan Stanley Research predicts that sales of smartphones will exceed those of PCs within 2 years, while according to Juniper Research, annual sales of smartphones will reach over 300 million by 2013.
Another research from e-Dialog found that an impressive 68 percent of surveyed consumers are already using their mobile devices to triage personal email while doing something else on their desktop PCs.

In other words, mobile email is going to have a primary role in the future of email marketing. And those involved in email marketing activities should take this trend into serious consideration and start adopting new mobile strategies.

Creating a mobile-friendly email means adopting a new series of tactics tailored for mobile devices.
To get started follow these 7 basic recommendations:

Add a link to a mobile version at the top of your email (for example “Click here to view on your mobile” or “View Mobile-Friendly Version”).
Design a version of your website that is optimised for smaller screens
Consider adding a mobile option on your subscription page. This can be a good step to get statistics from users who choose this option.
Put the most relevant content near the top (above the fold) so that it can be easily seen on mobile screens.
Make sure your message is short and consistent. According to Marketing Sherpa, the average user only spends 15-20 seconds looking at your email.
Avoid misunderstanding. Be clear in the Subject and “From” fields. The sender and content included in your email have to be free from ambiguity.
Send test emails. Try Litmus or Previewmyemail services: they allow you to preview your message on every major mobile device.