Best PracticesDealership Communication Tools

Are You Ignoring this Godzilla-Sized Email Trend?

Mobile continues to take over the world. Here are some recent stats on email marketing and how you can apply them to improve your marketing results.

Litmus.com reported that the percentage of emails opened on a mobile device reached a new high of 51% last year. For webmail users such as Aol, Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail, the mobile open rate bumps to 61%.

Have you looked at how your emails render on a smart phone? How much do people have to manipulate your content to be able to easily read it?

A study from Acxiom last year analyzed what people do if an email doesn’t look good on their phone:

– 70% delete it

– 28% use a computer

– 16% unsubscribe

– 9% try to read it

If you’re not taking advantage of a responsive design that displays your content based on the device it is being viewed on, you’re hurting your results.

Last year we switched our newsletter format to a responsive design. This means if you look at the newsletter on a desktop, you’ll see a two-column version. If you look at it on a smartphone, the left column is automatically suppressed so only the column with the stories displays which makes it much easier to read on a mobile device. Our internal study showed the average click through rate for the non-responsive design was 28.5% versus 31.3% for the responsive design.

How does that number translate into customers?

If you email 5000 newsletters and have a 25% open rate, the responsive design is helping an additional 35 people click through which can add up over time.

Some resources to help you with mobile email design:

1. See how your email looks on different devices

http://litmus.com/

http://emailonacid.com

2. How-To Guide to Responsive Email Design:

The How-To Guide to Responsive Email Design

3. Free email templates:

http://www.emailonacid.com/blog/details/C13/600_free_email_templates

4. Responsive Email Design

http://www.campaignmonitor.com/guides/mobile/

What do you think about these stats?

What have you noticed at your dealership?

M
Take one part geek, add a healthy dose of creativity, top it off with an obsession for marketing and you have… Malinda Terreri. Her marketing talent...