How Your Email Marketing Efforts & A Mobile Optimized Site Go Hand In Hand

Do you stick to your guns when faced with a crucial website management dilemma? Or do you change strategy constantly?

It’s a common thread of website management, and it’s huge right now because search engines such as Google and Bing made yet another round of changes in their algorithms.

This time, they are adding mobile friendliness as a critical factor in their Page Ranking. How are you going to tackle that? How does it fit into your digital strategy?

And yet that’s not all there is to consider, as email marketing is becoming an increasingly huge factor of marketing strategy. When online marketing first began to trend, email marketing was one of the most abused ways of reaching consumers. As such, by the early 1990s, the amount of unsolicited email or spam were cluttering users’ email address (it even led to the Data Protection Act)

By 2009, about 30% of all email marketing letters were bouncing back to the senders because recipients were given the power to decide what they wanted to receive in their Inbox. This lead to a new trend in email marketing called “triggered email” which skirted the issue of spam mail. By 2010, 40% of marketers were using this kind of email marketing. It’s the kind that involves a user entering an email address or clicking a checkbox, a tip of the cap to an email provider that yes, this person wants an email.

Although it was in 1992 when the smartphone was programmed to receive emails, it was only in 2007 after the iPhone was launched that emails opened or sent using mobile devices became a trend and one of the most popular online activities with the mobile phone. Three years ago, 40% of marketing emails were opened on mobile devices. This was also about the same time Facebook allowed companies and businesses to market using Facebook. That percentage is growing rapidly. Just think how many emails you send on your phone.

So it all ties in: to give yourself the best shot in marketing, you need a mobile-friendly site and email marketing that doesn’t end up in the spam folder. In fact, eMarketer revealed in 2013 the results of their research that companies that used email marketing hand-in-hand with a mobile optimized website and social media enjoyed as much as 50% higher conversion rates.

But, it has to start with changes.

Your website has to be responsive. A web site that cannot automatically resize for the smaller screen (responsive design) will be dumped by users in favor of websites that they can easily enjoy visiting on all screen sizes. Also, the layout of the website should not be too cramped with icons or links too close to each other.

There are other basic requirements to shift to a mobile optimized site, but it would be better to do a one-on-one consultation with a professional. With the millions of websites now available online, it isn’t enough that your website is mobile optimized, it has to be appealing, engaging, location optimized, easy to navigate, and loaded with relevant fresh simplified content without losing track of brand management. Yes, it’s a lot to handle, and that’s where expertise comes into play.

At the same time, using the right email marketing strategy will put you ahead of your competition. This strategy should be inviting, keep your bounce rate down, and lead to higher subscriptions and more business.

In summary, by being mobile friendly, you can launch your new email marketing and tap a huge market. The latest statistics on mobile use shows that consumers are leaning more to mobile gadgets than desktop simply because they can take it with anywhere they go. Be where they are. Reach them how they want to be reached.