The rise of the smartphone over the last few years has been phenomenal. It seems as though almost everyone has either an iPhone, Android or Blackberry.

Whilst most B2C email recipients do not read their emails on their smartphones, the numbers are growing. In fact, according to a recent survey by Knotice 1 in 5 B2C emails are being read on a mobile handset.

With this ever increasing mobile activity for emails, we thought it was time to give you some tips on creating a mobile friendly version of your marketing emails.

I personally think that its more time efficient to create an online mobile friendly version (similar to a weblink) rather than setting up two versions of each email, but the tips below are valid for both methods:

• Make sure that you are sending a text alternative to your HTML version.

• Recommended width of 320 pixels (Max 600 pixels), the list below is in order of market share:
  1. Iphone – 320 pixels
  2. Android – 480 pixels
  3. Blackberry – 360 pixels
• Stick to a single column layout and make sure the content is left aligned

• Keep images to a minimum and make sure they are small in size

• Automatic text resizing – many mobile devices automatically resize your fonts, which can impact on the design. Use the CSS rule below to disable this:
  -webkit-text-size-adjust: none;

• Space your links out! It can be troublesome clicking the correct link on a touch screen so make it as easy as possible.

• Is your website mobile friendly? It’s all well and good optimising your email marketing for mobile devices but make sure the landing pages you are directing them to are as well.

• Test your work – make sure that you thoroughly test your web version before going live.
  There are some great tools out there for this, such as Litmus.

If you wish to discuss any of this with us, then please email the client services team or call us on 01327 355871.

We have been working hard to develop even more innovative features in Maxemail and will soon be releasing Maxemail Version 6.

Version 6 will contain some exciting new features, including:

Visual Feedback Interface

• Give feedback on an email design by tagging/highlighting the actual email within Maxemail itself.
• Feedback is visual and therefore will reduce ambiguity and save time.
• With all feedback and comments in one place there will be no more endless email chains.
• Store revisions for archiving/auditing purposes.

Advanced HTML Editor

• Non-technical users will now be able to edit emails through a drag and drop interface without needing HTML skills. No more broken code!
• Ensure branding consistency by locking down areas of a template.
• Update all emails using a particular template by simply updating the master template.
• Easily change the order of content within a template and add/remove content blocks.
• Maintain a content library of assets and simply drag content into the email.
• Dreamweaver compatible – create a ‘Dreamweaver Template’ (.DWT file) and import it into Maxemail without the need of any special markup code.

Automated Split Testing

• Predetermine win criteria and Maxemail will complete the send once campaign results are in.
• Choose criteria on any statistics, including open, click and conversion.

Enterprise Control

• Define specific access rights to data, emails and assets per user.
• Control which groups of users have access to which lists, emails, content, reports and other assets.
• Set read and write permissions on any folder.
• Each user can belong to any number of groups and Admin users can see and edit everything.

To speak with a member of our team about any of the features above please call 01327 350921 or email our client services team.

For marketers who have many people setting up email campaigns one of the problems that can occur is each user uses different from addresses, templates or Google Analytics tags to everyone else. Our new function allows you to define exactly what should be used by default, giving you superior control over your email marketing output.

What can I set?

You can set any of the settings that you see on the Email properties page, including:

• Character encoding
• Analytics tracking code
• ROI tracking code
• From name & address
• You can even upload default HTML/Text content

How do I do this?

1. Log into Maxemail and go into the ‘Content’ area on the menu bar.
2. Right click on the ‘Email Templates’ header and create a ‘New email Template’.
3. Create the email template in the root and call it ‘default’.
4. Set your desired defaults, then hit save.

You’ll notice that when you go back to your ‘Emails’ area and create a new one that it has all of the settings set by default.

If you need any further assistance with this or anthing else in Maxemail then please contact the Support Team on either 01327 355871 or via support@emailcenteruk.com

You may already know, but the Canadian Government has recently introduced a new bill called: FISA, the Fighting Internet and Wireless Spam Act (Bill C-28).

The bill is aimed at bad senders and spammers but it will affect anyone who is using electronic messaging for marketing in or to Canada. Read More

Segment Reports is a feature within our Maxemail platform that allows you to drill down on your email reports to see how each segment of your database is performing.

This can be done on an individual send or a whole series of emails giving you say the average open and click rate of each segment over the last 12 months of your newsletters.

Here are some ideas of who this could be used:

• Male versus female – does one gender perform better than others? If so how should you tweak your emails accordingly and does any change you make show a closing of your ‘gender equality gap’?
• Location – do you have a North/South divide in your list? Do customers around certain retail stores perform better?
• Welcome Programme – do those people that received a Welcome email have stronger open rates on subsequent emails?
• Re-activation emails – If you have re-targeted those non-openers can you now see an uplift in future email engagement?
• Product Category – Do customers who have bought a particular category of product have higher click rates on emails where items in this category are included in the subject line?

You can watch a short video of this in action below: