Still think mobile has no relevance to your email marketing program? Think again. With over 250 million wireless users in the USA and over 3 billion users worldwide, mobile phones have reached mainstream status. Sales of Smartphones – those capable of receiving emails and browsing the web – are not only expected to outpace regular mobile phone sales but have exceeded the sale of laptops since 2007. Lower prices, smaller devices, richer capabilities and the phenomenol hype around the iPhone have helped propel smartphone adoption. If you are still under the impression that smartphones are just for the business elite, look around next time you are at the bus stop, in a subway, or standing in line and you’ll see that smartphone usage is crossing gender, color, age, and economic lines.

Smart email marketers already know that their email does not render the same in Hotmail as it does Yahoo or Lotus Notes and have invested in optimization solutions to ensure a consistent customer experience from one email reader to another. However, if you ask the average email marketer what their customers’ experience is like on a mobile phone, you are usually confronted with a blank stare followed by some mumblings to the effect that they don’t do MMS/SMS. When you clarify that you are talking about their customers who are reading their emails on mobile phones, their response usually falls into the category of we can’t track it so we don’t do anything. Sounds a lot like ‘what you don’t know can’t hurt you’. But it can.

As more and more consumers and business users access emails on their mobile phones, those who fail to take even minimal steps to ensure cross-platform consistency run the risk of educating their customers to ignore their brand when on the go. Is this a lesson you really want to teach your customers?

Cross-platform portability of your website and your emails should be a priority if you plan to compete in the 21st century. Unfortunately, email capabilities on mobile phones are even less consistent than those on a pc with Symbian, BlackBerry, Palm, Windows Mobile, and the iPhone all providing very different email environments. True - real cross-platform portability emails will not be achieved overnight but with the right solution and expert guidance you can begin taking simple steps right now that can dramatically improve your customers’ mobile email experience.

The good news: A whole host of innovative ESPs and Agencies have introduced multi-platform email optimization solutions into their service and product suite. If you mail from in-house or have an ESP or Agency who is “waiting to loose a customer” (yes, we’ve heard this) before they embrace the novel concept that emails are being read on mobile devices, contact your Deliverability Service Provider. Look for a solution that minimally allows you to view and optimize your email:

• Across a variety of mobile platforms. While the US Market may be fragmented between BlackBerry, the iPhone, Windows Mobile and Palm, the global market is dominated by Symbian. The differences between them are substantial which is why Its important to have representation of all major mobile email platforms.
• In different mobile screensizes. Screensizes matter a lot as it directly impacts what renders in the first screen and how much scrolling is required to get to your branding and calls to actiion.
• With and without images where applicable. While BlackBerry, Palm, and Symbian don’t render images in their email readers, the iPhone has them on by default and Windows Mobile 6 allows you to turn them on or off.
• The full message. While this may seem obvious, some solutions only show you what displays on the first (tiny) screen and do not permt you to view your entire email on the mobile phone. Look for one that allows you to scroll through the entire email on the mobile phone just like your users do – afterall if the goal is to optimize their experience, its important to understand what their experience is first hand.

If you cannot access a solution through any of the aforementioned resources, consider investing in a BlackBerry if you target primarily USA customers (BlackBerry has 41% of the US market) or a Symbian based phone if you market internationally (Symbian has over 80% marketshare outside North America). Alternately, stay tuned to the next DM Newsletter where we’ll share specific tips on optimizing your emails for each mobile platform.

The bottom line: Your customers are likely going mobile whether you like it or not. Isn’t it time to wake up and embrace it?