There are 3 key steps in raising email campaign effectiveness via mobile devices.

Mobility is playing an increasingly important role in reaching prospective customers for companies.  Studies show and my own recent customer data indicate that 9% to 30% of email (not necessarily campaign) views are done on mobile devices and that mobile traffic is rising VERY fast – one would expect campaign performance to follow in that same range.  However, companies on the B2B side are missing strategies  to reach these mobile devices – a key question to ask is, ‘are the campaigns sent actually viewed by an end user?’  Consequently, campaigns not optimized for mobile devices may not get viewed due to poor display or performance – no conversion means no revenue and that is a conundrum to avoid.

To my surprise, some of the B2B marketing automation toolset vendors in my studies do not have a deep level of mobile capability– in fact I have found a few vendors that have no ability to check the rendering (display) of email campaigns on different platforms, different email clients, or different devices.  Consequently, what may look really great to a creative marketer may make no sense to an end user, and therefore no conversion happens!

STEP 1 – Inventory how large your mobile audience is.  Tools like Litmus, polling subscribers, adding a link to your campaigns specific to a mobile version to see how it works, adding a mobile option to the subscription page, looking at your Google Analytics statistics are just a few ways to start.

Step 2 – Optimize content for the device experience– flash does not usually work on all mobile devices.  Studies show that 70% of mobile searches are within 1hr of need, compared to 1 month on the desktop. Mobile users have different priorities, operate in a different context, have more distractions and less time.  Litmus may be a good solution here as well.

Step 3 – Measure campaign performance. Companies like ReturnPath which is more on the B2C side versus pure B2B has tools like Campaign Insight and Campaign Preview, when combined allow an end user to see which campaigns are working and why in addition to checking for rendering.

There are other strategies that can augment mobile devices such as an SMS strategy, though that kind of advertising is specific to a mobile phone vs. a tablet device.  Take a measured approach when considering a campaign strategy that reaches mobile devices.  What strategies have you found effective?