Email Marketing

Mobile Devices and E-mail Marketing

John Bradley "JJ" Jackson

26 Dec 2007 • 1 min read

Mobile devices have changed the face of e-mail marketing. Why? Read on.

A recent survey by American Online uncovered the following about the users of PDAs:

• 59% of people e-mailing from portable devices are checking e-mail in bed while in their pajamas
• 53% are checking e-mail while in the bathroom
• 37% are checking e-mail while they drive
• 12% are checking e-mail while they are in church (heaven help us!)

What this means to e-mail marketers is that their messages are being scanned, not read, very quickly. Most often the goal of the PDA user is to figure out what to delete and what to save for later when they view their messages on their PC. The challenge for the e-mail marketer is get their message across quickly on the small screen of the PDA or else they are trashed. Game over.

This means no images, no graphics, and few links (most people don't use them anyway). Oh, by the way did I mention that their are no standards for PDA displays (fonts, screen size, formats, etc)?

This means that simple messages work best. Mostly what you need is some well written text. E-mail on a PDA is kinda like a real long subject line.