Technology and online habits change in a flash.
Here are 5 quick tips to ensure that your email and social marketing campaigns are future ready:
1. No More Mouse
According to Morgan Stanley, by 2014, mobile internet usage will soon surpass that from a desktop. And, according to the Marketing Sherpa panelists, an A/B split test sent to frequent mobile openers revealed that a mobile specific version of the email received a 64% higher clickthrough rate! With 1.08 billion smartphones currently in the world, optimizing emails to be finger-friendly on a touchscreen will be vital. Give your current emails the touchscreen test and see how easy they are to navigate with just your fingertips. Is the text within your email an easy read from a miniature screen? Are your links big enough to endure man-hands? Also, are your emails rendering/downloading correctly on a smart phone?
2. Get Local
The use of geo-location apps such as Foursquare and check-in integrations like Facebook Places is on the rise and will continue to emerge. Using geo-location tools to reach out to customers via smartphones while they’re in the ‘hood’ will help build social buzz and drive foot traffic. Geo-location users are also twice as likely as an average online adult to share product information, coupons and discounts with their friends.
3. Make It Real Life
The phrase ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ probably doesn’t resonate too much when you’re looking at images of say, office supplies., but putting your products to play has been proven to show much more substantial results. According to the panelists at Marketing Sherpa, images demonstrating products in use/action (lifestyle vs. product) have received a 63% higher clickthrough rate. Give your customers a glimpse of what it might be like to have your products or service in their life – it’ll motivate them to take more action.
4. Give Real-Time Cues
With the emergence of daily deals and flash sales, time is of the essence. According to the Sherpa panelists, 95% of emails are opened 2 days after they’re actually received! Including visual time cues, like a countdown timer within the body of your email will provide customers with a realistic sense of urgency.
5. Unsubscribe Easily
Email service providers, particularly Google, provide users with more power than ever in regards to how and what email they see or retrieve. It may sound crazy, but with the continuously growing control over finely filtered inboxes, making the unsubscribe process easier is far better than being dropped into the forever-feared spam box. Don’t let your delivery rates and reputation go down in the spam can – Take a look at your current unsubscribe process and see if you can simplify. Is the process lengthy or tedious? If so, limit it to one step. Is your unsubscribe link clearly visible in your emails and on your site? Allowing your customers to easily opt-out of your emails, will also grant them the opportunity to opt back in at any time.
