January 9

Meet George…

8  comments

How much of your email do you read on a phone/tablet?

For me…probably 75%…and I WORK FROM HOME!

Now, think about the fact that mobile marketing is GROWING everyday.

Why wasn’t it big a few years ago?

Well, let’s face it: traders are mainly old guys. I have a picture in my mind of the typical trader that I use when writing, thinking about products etc. And my guy is usually 3 years behind the trend. His son showed him the gist of his iPhone last year and just NOW he’s getting good. It’s taken him a while…but my guy is there using mobile…and he’s a ripe target for mobile marketing 🙂

And he’s RIPE to have a single problem chase him away from OUR end goal.

Here are three examples and SOLUTIONS about what I mean…

Our guy, let’s call him George, hears the ‘beep beep’ of his phone and he’s excited…he’s got a new email 🙂

George, fumbles for his glasses, finds the home button, and swipes it open. He pulls the phone away to find the email icon, clicks it, and reads the subject line.

“Why Options Should Be In Your IRA”

He’s interested…he opens!

He reads the subject line again and scrolls down to the content that looks like this:

“Hi George,

The options markets
are

the best place to put your

funds for future

IRA earnings%@”

George is confused…George deletes the email…George sad…

It’s a funny story, but check on your mobile device right NOW and I’ll bet you’ve got a wonky email that you read for 2 seconds and don’t even TRY to wade through…no matter who it’s from, what the content, etc…right to delete.

Solution: Come on people! Send yourself a test, because you KNOW you have a phone, and see if it looks wonky! If it does…do forced line/page breaks to get the content looking right AND fitting on the smallest screens.

A few minutes later as George waits in line at the bank, ‘beep beep’, George’s phone let’s him know he’s got ANOTHER email…George is popular 😉

He goes through the 6-min opening sequence, the subject line is interesting, and he opens this email…

“Options provide many advantages in trading our markets.

First and foremost is the protection they can provide a portfolio of
long equity positions. We know that markets don’t go up in a straight
line forever. Markets have periods of consolidation/stagnancy
(as we are experiencing here in the summer of 2013) as well as periods
of….”

OH NO George is locked in the bank because he’s STILL reading a crazy long email!!

Poor George…he got caught up in a great email…that should have been a dissertation not an email 🙂

Solution: SHORT SHORT SHORT!! I modified a famous quote to help make it clear…

“Get them to click on the link that is BLUE’ (Brad Stafford adapted from Alec Baldwin – Glen Garry Glen Ross)

People only have a few SECONDS to read their emails, so get them to take action as quickly as possible. You want them to read a long article…send them a short email to get them to THAT page.

Want to get them to watch a video…SHORT email to get them to GO to the video.

So George is rescued by bank manager who’s working late and as he gets into his car…’beep beep’.

George is much like the rest of us and is FULLY addicted to that ‘beep beep’…so he reaches into his pocket, gets into his email (only 4 mins this time), and loves the subject line…loves the short email…and BOOM he clicks.

Page loads…George likes the headline…George is ready…

“VIDEO CAN’T BE PLAYED ON THIS DEVICE”

NOOOOO!! George was so close. YOU were so close to make a sale.

Solution: Check your video format before uploading it…and TEST IT ON YOUR PHONE 🙂

So what else am I missing that YOU need to do, to help George have a successful Mobile experience with your marketing?

Feedback and insights APPRECIATED!

Brad


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  • Brad….great post man. After a ton of hard work and creative, it’s easy to get lazy at the last stretch and not test your emails, not test all the links, and not test on all platforms (computer, mobile, tablet, etc.).

    But if you don’t test this type of stuff at the very end, it’s like training for a marathon for months and then showing up with new shoes without trying them on first. Why would you blow all that work on not testing out the new shoes? That’s absurd!

    I like these posts because they remind us of the simple things that often end up being the difference makers. Posts that present new grand ideas are fun but implementation is hard and risky. These are the ones that help you bring in a couple more sales today and tomorrow.

    Cheers all and happy new year!
    -Ken Wohl

    • You’re 100% right Ken…you’d be amazed how many people just plain forget!

      I don’t want that to happen to ANY of my readers.

  • Hey Brad, good points, as usual…

    In addition to Suzanne’s excellent resource, another testing engine that actually does screenshots and shows you exactly what your email will look like in 11 different platforms (including mobile) is Litmus. They have a basic plan for like $40/month at http://litmus.com/freelancers.

    It also shows you how badly your email gets screwed up in IE7 and IE8 (the bane of every web designer’s damned existence).

    That $40 should be super-easy to recover with every single well-formatted email you send out, so there’s really next to no excuse.

    Cheers…

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