If you found this blog while searching for “Buzz Cola,” welcome. If not, that’s OK too. Earlier this week my page views spiked because of so many people looking for a place to get their Simpson’s paraphernalia fix.
As I mentioned recently, I’d like to explore viewing emails on PDAs. Google seems to have this whole mobile apps thing down pat. I have a Q and just discovered Google Maps. (I tried it when I first got my phone and it didn’t seem to work. Now it will, but I can’t get it to auto-start in Atlanta. Oddly, it has this San Francisco bias…) They even make it quite easy to get Gmail on a Blackberry. (If you’re wondering why I didn’t hold out for an iPhone, that’s a story for another day.)
The success of an email marketing campaign is partly dependent upon click-throughs. But with so many people viewing emails on a PDA, the landing pages used in these emails aren’t always optimized for a mobile browser. What’s the point in telling someone to “click here” for more information if the page won’t load properly on their PDA? It’s narrow-minded to assume everyone is viewing the email from a laptop or desktop and subsequently taking the requested action from the same place.
For those who make impulse buys, not being able to click a link to a mobile-friendly page is a sure-fire way to kill a sale quickly. I got an from Delta of weekly fare specials. It was easy read on my mobile browser, but it didn’t allow me to actually purchase a ticket. If I’d wanted to take advantage of the specials they were sending me, I would still need to call their 800 number for a reservation. No thank you.
How do you read your emails? Seen something you liked? How about a marketing email from a company that made you cringe? And how has an iPhone changed your email habits?
Please use the comments to share best practices for email marketing and PDAs.
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Sandi, you hit the nail on one of the latest problems with landing pages. With the release of the iPhone and the growing popularity of mobile browsing, how do marketers expect users to view and read landing pages that are already brimming and stuffed with content and copy? Is it really safe for them to assume that their expensive campaigns are being viewed on a desktop or laptop? Is it worth it to them to neglect this increasing group of tech savvy prospects? Landing pages have countless weaknesses and problems – that is why I recommend using conversion paths instead. Conversion paths are a series of pages that segment and qualify users by giving them a series of choices, since all prospects are not created equal. They give small amounts of user-specific information per page and can easily be viewed on mobile devices because of their simplistic design. Conversion paths earn trust, are user friendly, increase conversion rates, and finally, don’t give the cold shoulder to iPhone and mobile device users.
I love the iPhone but find it is not ready for prime-time when it comes to working as a Blackberry e-mail replacement. Apple/AT&T hasn’t perfected their spam filter and I get hundreds of spam messages with no way to mass delete them. It makes it hard to find client messages among the clutter. I use it for outgoing messages only for now.