Many organizations utilizing email marketing have yet to even think about how this shift to mobile engagement affects their experience and goals.

If you’re just starting to explore how to best leverage email in mobile, we’ve put together 5 tips for mobile email marketing success to start with.

1. Know Your Mobile Email Audience

The best place to start is to know how your audience is engaging with your emails. Having the ability to see what email clients and devices lists are using to open and read your emails is of big value.  You’ll also want to pay attention to the growth rate here in the last couple of years to forecast what’s coming.  Our email marketing service tracks email client and device use per campaign.

The example from one of our clients below shows that iPhone, iPad and all iOS engagement is over 21%. Throw in Android and it’s over 24.4% total for mobile on this campaign.

The Return Path report also found that 85% of all mobile email opens are via Apple/iOS devices.

2. Email Design Width & Space

Email marketing designs have had a standard width in the 600-pixel range for quite some time. At the mobile level, the iPhone has a width of 320-pixels and, since right now that device is considered the standard for smartphone screens, you may want to design your emails at a width of 640-pixels for an exact scaling of 50%. Also keep in mind that an iPhone screen in landscape format is 480-pixels wide.

3. Mobile Touch

A click of the mouse is a very precise movement, while a finger or thumb touch on a mobile screen is not.  Apple recommends a 29×41 pixel size for any clickable items and also consider using spacing of at least 10 pixels around these objects.  The goal here is to minimize accidental clicks or touches and improve the mobile experience.

4. Font Size Matters

Whether on a desktop or a mobile device, web and email is still often a “scannable” read. We recommend a font size guideline of 30pt font for headlines and at least 14pt font for body copy.  Don’t forget that when you put together content, avoid giant blocks of text, which will lower your ability to get the reader’s attention for sure.

5. A Mobile Experience

If your use of these mobile email marketing tips gets your email opened and read, don’t let the experience end there.  Having a mobile site or responsive web design will create further engagement and success when your users move from your email marketing content to your website, blog posts, or other media you’ve linked to.

2011 brought a huge leap in mobile devices, mobile searches, mobile apps, and mobile websites, so much so that the predictions in mobile all center around when it will eclipse desktop Internet use.

At Spyder Trap, we’ve been deep into mobile solutions for a while and have been able to build apps and mobile websites that help you find the right wine, book a hotel room, locate a commercial property, follow a X Games gold medalist, attend a conference, find healthcare for your child and more.

Business Mobile Website & App Favorites

Our staff weighed in by sharing their favorite mobile apps and websites they use from other businesses.  This list won’t include Twitter, Instagram, Angry Birds and other mobile solutions that are services, games or content networks.

We wanted to give you a list of brick and mortar businesses that are succeeding at mobile.  Not surprising, you’ll see mobile websites and apps that make our lives easier for finances, health, dining and shopping.

Here’s Our 15 Mobile Picks:

Jimmy John’s – App
The app is almost like the delivery people … freaky fast. It saves addresses you’ve previously ordered from, the navigation to order is simple, and the checkout is quick because it saves past payment methods.

lululemon – Mobile Web
Easy and intuitive navigation of all their products.  Large product photos, detailed but simple product pages make it easy to research your next in-store purchase.  Mobile e-commerce enabled, the site offers a simple 3 step purchase process.

Walgreen’s – App
It’s awesome because you can scan the prescription bottle and it automatically sends your request to refill. It also allows you to upload images, which you can pick up as prints at your local Walgreen’s store.

Nike Golf – Mobile Web
Clean mobile website with features to browse all their golf clubs, locate a dealer and watch videos of their state-of-the-art product development facility called The Oven.

CorePower Yoga – App
CorePower Yoga Studios have a great app that is fully updated with their schedules.  I can choose locations and see what classes are when. Only downside is I can’t check my account status.

Whole Foods – App
Great filters for all types of recipes. The app allows me to add ingredients to a shopping list for my next trip.

Papa John’s – App
I like how it allows you to build your own pizza. Olives on half, pepperoni on the other half .  It also ties in promotion codes and specials to take advantage of. Lastly, it geolocates to ID closest store.

Home Depot – App
The app is great because you can search for certain SKUs within specific locations, and it even tells you what aisle to find it in.

UW Credit Union -Mobile Web
It has a great mobile website that prompts you to bookmark the site to your home screen. Great UI, cross platform, quick access to most commonly used features.

US Bank – App
Easy access to account information for mobile banking and a good branch locator as well.

Jo-Ann Fabrics – App
It is simple and does exactly what I need it to do. The app gives me coupons when I am on the go and tells me the location of the nearest Jo-Ann Fabrics. I like this because I never plan my trips!

Starbucks – App
You can do mobile payments through a gift card, easily find stores and their amenities (drive-through, mobile payment, food, wireless, etc), save your favorite drink and track rewards.

Target – App & Mobile Web
Both the mobile web and app experience are very similar.  You get the weekly ad, store listings and hours, ability to shop and create shopping lists.

FlyDelta – App
The app has the ability to view upcoming trips/purchased tickets, email itineraries, check in for a flight and use your phone as your boarding pass.

Subway – Mobile Web
The site has a really clean interface and I can easily locate the nearest location for fresh sandwiches.  Great example of a big chain mobile done right.

Have A Mobile Favorite?

Do you have a mobile website or app that you engage with that belongs to a brick and mortar business?  We’d love your comments on your favorite.

Cancer Legal Line Redesigned

Part of the event’s drama is that you only learn of the non-profit you will be working with right at the start of the event.  RunPHP was extremely fortunate to be paired with Cancer Legal Line (CALL), a non-profit with a mission to alleviate the non-medical stressors faced by cancer patients and their loved ones by educating and providing them with cancer related legal information, resources and referrals.

CALL Website Redesign (Shiny & New)

The Old CALL Web Design

A Web Design To Build On

When we jumped into the discovery phase with CALL founder Lindy Yokanovich, we learned the incredible service the she and Lindsay Flint provide to cancer patients, survivors and families.  We sought to make the website easier to navigate, more accesible and easier to manage.

The design was an easy upgrade and we built the website on a flexible and easy to use CMS called Concrete5.

CALL is also supported by volunteer attorney’s who give their time to help the cause.  We build a private back-end of the site to make collaboration, referrals and communication even better.  Each attorney working with CALL has a profile to manage, a resource center, calendar and more.

Social Media, Mobile Web Design & More

Our team wasn’t satisfied with just a redesign of the website and we dug deeper to help change CALL’s online landscape.

23,000 Minnesotans are diagnosed with cancer every year. Help us reach someone looking for help. facebook.com/CancerLegalLine

— Aaron Weiche (@AaronWeiche) March 25, 2012

We created a social media strategy, new social branding elements and worked our own social networks to add more than 100 Likes to their Facebook profile. You might want to add your Like to the list.

Our team didn’t stop with social media.  We provided search marketing research, analytics and designed a mobile website to increase the reach of CALL.  Our team’s endless use of Twitter during the event even motivated Lindy and Lindsay to start an account for CALL (@cancerlegalline).

Humbled, Inspired & A Bit Tired

When all the dust settled after 24 hours, it was once again an incredible experience. Spyder Trap web developer Joe Barhorst even used the event to launch his modeling career by appearing on the front page of the Pioneer Press Monday paper.

It’s amazing to apply our talents for such a great organization in a rapid, but meaningful, way.  Thank you Lindy and Lindsay for putting up with us, sharing your passion to give with us and letting us move your efforts forward.

To all of the Spyder Trap staff, friends and social connections that cheered, tweeted and even visited us, your support was appreciated!  Here are a few additional photos from the Overnight Web Challenge.

CALL's Lindy Y. and Lindsay F. with Jeff Wagner

Travis Neiderhiser mapping out the master plan

The Spyder Trap / RunPHP Overnight Web Challenge Team

Last week, Liz discussed the first steps businesses need to make before this Friday’s switch to the new brand page format. But once you’ve uploaded your cover photo and added pictures for your Facebook tabs, where do you go from there?

After taking those initial steps, there are two tactics you should consider as you move forward with your Facebook strategy.

2 Biggest Facebook Timeline Opportunities After The Switch

1.  Highlighting Posts
While consistently producing new content is still crucial, Facebook will now allow you to highlight posts. Highlighting a post will pin it to the top of your brand page’s feed for 7 days.

Highlighting a post also increases its size, and will stretch the post across the 843-pixel space on the Facebook page, instead of the post being relegated to one of the two columns on the feed.

From a strategic standpoint, this will let you call out important posts without burying it in your feed with newer content. For example, if you’re running a contest on Facebook, you can highlight a post directing people to the promotion so anyone who visits your page during the next 7 days will see that post right away.

Of course, highlight posts in moderation; otherwise you will limit the visibility of any new content that you post during that period.

2.  Build Out The Timeline
An even bigger opportunity than highlighting posts, however, is the timeline feature, which allows brands to add historical content to show how their company was formed and how it evolved in the pre-Facebook days.

The possibilities of what that content could be are endless, whether it’s old advertisements, pictures of the product through the years, or old news links about the brand. Coca-Cola has done an especially good job of building their timeline, and is a great example to follow.

There are other benefits to building out the timeline as well. First, I’m starting to see Facebook contests that utilize the timeline. Fanta is currently running a promotion on their page that has people search through their timeline and “like” certain photos.

As more brands build out their timelines, promotions like this will become more and more commonplace. In fact, I could easily see these timeline contests overtaking photo submission contests as the go-to promotion on Facebook by this time next year.

Secondly, the timeline will give you additional material to add to your overall content mix. People like the nostalgia factor with brands, and telling the story of your brand is a good way to engage those users.

Facebook’s shift to Timeline solidifies the social network’s goal to be more than just a broadcasting platform or a conversation piece between friends. Facebook wants to be a scrapbook of person’s life; a digital record of what’s important to them on a personal level.

Brands can, and should, take this to heart with their Facebook strategy from now on. All of these changes may be a huge shift, but it’s also a huge opportunity to step back and reevaluate your social strategy.

Facebook alerted Facebook Page Managers earlier this month that we are finally going to receive Facebook Timeline for Pages.  Those brand pages that have not made the switch by March 30, 2012 will automatically be switched to Timeline.

I will admit—I thought it would take them longer, but as a social strategist and social media fan, I am very excited about this.

We are already seeing creative use of Facebook Timeline from brands. Coca-Cola is sharing its rich history through vivid images and memories from fans, while Red Bull has already enacted a Facebook Timeline contest to promote its Timeline. This is only the beginning of creative uses of Facebook Timeline as an engagement portal for brands.

The Switch To Timeline

This change is potentially a big hit to some brands though—especially smaller brands without a full social media team to fill out Timeline history, determine strategy and engage with fans everyday.

Regardless, if you are a marketer using Facebook, there are things you have to know about this switch.  Gone are the days when you can post something and walk away. Facebook Timeline is a vehicle through which you can tell your brand story and communicate with customers (who are often your BEST customers).

Are you a Facebook Page Manager who is unsure what this switch means (or what you absolutely need to know)? We wanted to offer some quick tips to help.

3 Facebook Timeline Tips For Your Switch

1.    Add a Cover Image
Your cover image is the first thing Facebook users see when they land on your page.  This image should represent your brand.  It is 850 x 315 pixels, by far the largest visual real estate Facebook has ever given to brand pages. This is really the only thing you need in place to make the switch to Timeline.

2.    Facebook Tabs Have A New Home
No longer will your Facebook tabs show up on the left hand navigation—now they are located to the bottom right of your Cover Image at the top of your page.  You will see your Photos, Page Likes and then additional boxes based on the existing tabs you have.

If you used to require non-fans to land on your custom tab, all users will now land on your Timeline.  This makes the visual in that Cover Image even more important.  Note that it goes against Facebook policy to add marketing messages in the cover image (i.e. an arrow and request for users to “like” the page), so it should truly be a visual representation of your brand. Get creative!

When you switch, if your tabs are showing up with an image of a gear, reach out to the developer of your tab to ensure they upload a custom logo or icon for each one.

3.    Edgerank Requires Engaging Content
If you still have not created a content strategy to tell your brand story on Facebook, now it is more important than ever. Facebook has updated Edgerank (its algorithm for the Newsfeed), requiring brands to produce better content in order to get any coverage in users’ Newsfeeds.

Facebook’s algorithm requires that fans engage with your post, whether they like, comment, share, click-on your post or click-thru your link. So, push the push-only mentality out the door.

Consider Facebook to be a channel where you can share news, get feedback, give tips and tricks that only you will know, and genuinely include them in your process.  Make your Facebook customer part of your planning, give fans extra offers because they “liked” you, and genuinely show them appreciation for being connected.

We will continue watching this switch happen and will update with any other considerations to keep in mind.  All in all, now is a great time to refresh your strategy on Facebook and reconnect with your customers.

What makes you excited about Facebook Timeline?

• Read the 2nd part of the Facebook Timeline series

Spyder Trap's Travis Manick, Mike Rynchek, Aaron Weiche and Jeff Wagner along with CSM Lodging attended the Adrian Awards in New York to receive an award for The Depot Minneapolis mobile website.

The Adrian Awards are an international award for hospitality, travel and tourism and are considered the most prestigious in the industry. The HSMAI awards gala was at the Marriott Marquis in New York, NY and four members of Spyder Trap were on hand to accept the award along with our client.

The Mobile Web Project

The mobile website was for The Depot Minneapolis Hotel and was judged on design, usability and its business impact. Released in the spring of 2011, The Depot’s mobile site features location, reservation and other important content to help users research, book and maximize their stay or event attendance.

Spyder Trap and The Depot Minneapolis were in great company with fellow award winning projects from Atlantis Resorts, Four Seasons Hotels, SeaWorld and Trump International. Over 1,000 entries were accepted and judged for the 2011 awards.

Spyder Trap is very proud of our first award at an international level and the many successful projects we have worked on with CSM Lodging and The Depot Minneapolis. We’re setting our sights on more great mobile work this year and we won’t mind if it garners us some additional hardware.

Highlights

Both stories highlight our successes of 2011, including that we officially expanded into mobile and app design/development, had revenue 180% over 2010, and grew to 21 employees.

A couple highlights from the Minnesota Business article are about our business model: “[Rynchek] says working within the traditional agency model served as a catalyst for his idea to start a nimble, client-focused, results-driven agency, something that is an extension of the clients’ marketing arm.”

“We’re trying to build a new agency model—what I describe as a marketing technology firm.”  The story is on page 14 and we really appreciate this great article by Dan Emerson.

And referring to our move into mobile in The Line article, “We’re at the point where we’re optimizing the online side, and going heavily into mobile.  And that will be a point of differentiation for us.” Thanks to Elizabeth Millard for this great article.

Looking Back to Look Forward

We know our success in 2011 is due to a few factors:

• We have a great team that works very hard;
• We are passionate about the technology we work with and want to change perceptions of what is possible; and
• We are focused on statistics/trends and push our partners to invest in the technology as consumer use grows.

Our team has been pulled into exciting industry events and conferences this year as well including Minnesota Search Engine Marketing Association’s first event last week.

We are excited about what 2012 will bring.  We’re hiring, we’re bringing on more exciting clients and we plan to do twice as much as we accomplished in 2011.

Tools of Trade: SEO Edition

It was a great first step for the MnSearch organization and it was fun to pull together such a solid event to set the bar.  I’m looking forward to many attendees becoming members of MnSearch and growing the local search scene.  Twitter was a buzz (#mnsearch) with compliments and excitement thanks to Taylor’s SEO tool knowledge and Celarity blogged their event recap stating “If content is king, MnSearch is the palace.”.

MnSearch Event Photos

Even though I had a few things to do last night I managed to get a few pics and had some Spyder Trap team help to grab a few more.  Thank you to everyone that attended the event and I can’t wait for the next one in April!

You’ll find predictions covering web design, mobile, music, search, social and more below in our marketing and technology predictions for 2012.

While our crystal ball severely over heated from all of the predictions, there is no doubt this year will be another one full of cool technology and marketing integration.

2012 Staff Predictions

TABLET: I think we’ll see the integration of tablet PCs with more mediums.  For example in the same way Nintendo’s Wii is introducing a controller that resembles a Tablet PC, I wouldn’t be surprised to see things like cable companies adopt this theme to improve their TV / Video On Demand user experiences.
Joe Barhorst – Developer

INTEGRATION: Social, Digital & Mainstream Marketing collaboration.  Example being a Coke ad synced across platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and others.
Erin Moore – Project Manager

GOOGLE +: Since Google just introduced Search plus Your World, I see either a strong exodus from Facebook and Twitter to Google+ profiles, or many people being turned off by the new search and using Bing.
Alicia Neubauer – Social Media Intern

SEARCH & SOCIAL: Search engines will be pushing information from social networks towards the top of the search results.  This continues to emphasize a huge need for tools and apps to help combine and organize multiple social network platforms.
Travis Neiderhiser – Developer

WEB DESIGN: Responsive web design is going to be the major trend when designing/developing websites to suit multiple different devices.  I feel that companies will find this a huge advantage of having one website conform to any device without having to load content multiple different ways or for that matter having multiple budgets to support the design & build of different websites for their company.
Jeff Wagner – Creative Director

MUSIC: Technology focused on music sharing will engage music fanatics and freaks even more than the Spotifys of today. I’d love to see a solution connect the creators to the listeners on a tighter level.
Becca Tollefson – Project Manager

TV: I foresee interactive TV’s being the center of our media universe and this will gain even more traction in 2012. No longer will be the days of a central media server rather all media content will be streamed from a central source such as a TV to a more local device such as a computer, iPad or mobile.
Mike Rynchek – President

SOCIAL: The never-ending online social network and media coverage realms have continued to boom as we move forward in the age of technology. More companies begin to realize that connecting with the client and customer on a deeper level is more important than knowing “what’s hot” for the moment.
Lisa Ostrander – Executive Assistant

APPS: The app-centric approach to technology will increase and even spill over to the wider technology sphere.  This means increasingly specific apps that interact with other apps.  It also means a cohesive experience between devices.  As marketers and developers, it’s our job to sell an experience, not just any one app or site, and now more than ever it’ll be our job to make sure that is simple, cohesive, and engaging in an environment in the midst of dramatic transition.
Perry Govier – Developer

VOICE RECOGNITION: The integration of voice recognition technology, like Siri, into our daily routine. This technology will be used in everything from apps to make our lives easier, to selecting entertainment choices, to finding information faster and easier.
Jennie Eukel – Project Manager

MOBILE: 70% of Americans will own a smartphone (44% now).
Barb Vanags – VP of Finance & HR

VOICE RECOGNITION: More hands free technology on all devices. Apple always starts a trend, so I know we’ll see more devices with voice recognition like Siri.   I want my phone to know what I want to read and read it to me so I can drive and hear the stories I want.
Liz Tunheim – Social Media Manager

SOCIAL: Pinterest and its booming growth is going to find a beautiful way to deliver extremely relevant ads to you. Ads you, as a user, are happy to see because they will be integrated with the boards and pins of those you follow. These new “AdPins” will match the look and category of those items/products/yards/homes/quotes you would normally see on the boards you follow.
Jamie Lee Jacobsen – Lead Project Manager

FACIAL & VOICE RECOGNITION: Facial recognition software will allow for customized public display advertising based on age, gender, and other visible demographic metrics.  Also, this will become reality.
Tracy Henry – Search Marketing Associate

GAMIFICATION: There will be a bigger push towards “active interaction” through devices such as Wii and Kinect, which could influence everything from how we interact with games and movies to how we control our computers, or a presentation.
Travis Manick – Developer

MOBILE: Mobile devices will become as powerful as high end laptops. A user will have the ability to plug their phone into a screen and use it as a computer.
Ben Olsem – Designer

MOBILE: Consumers more and more are looking to utilize their smart phones (check-ins, deals, payments, etc.) and brands still know this. Last year was another large year in mobile adoption, but this year I think will be defined by consumers maximizing their mobile to better navigate all aspects of their lives (health, finance, social, etc.).
Nick Bryant – Senior Account Executive

SEARCH: Changes to search engine results and rankings continue to become more frequent at Google. Local, mobile, social and personalized results are all morphing at a rapid rate as Google mashes it’s technology and data across a massive audience.  Will it all be for the good of search or just the good of Google?
My prediction – Aaron Weiche

What will actually take hold in 2012? We might see all of these or just a few, but it’s easy to see that our industry is busting with innovation, growth and opportunity. No doubt this year will be another exciting one.

Do you have a prediction or comment to share on technology and marketing for this year?  Drop your comments below.

Focus On The Device

It was clear device integration will be bigger than ever in 2012. Users are becoming accustomed to receiving the same (or similar) content – no matter the device, no matter the location. I can tell you with certainty that the days of developing a website and mobile site/app in a silo are over. Just ask Pandora and they will tell you developing a cohesisive and consistent user experience is key to mass adoption.

At Spyder Trap, we have invested in making sure we are up-to-speed with mainstream devices and platforms (ie. php, iOS, Droid) along with less-mainstream devices such as the Nook and Xbox. These mobile, tablet and gaming devices are the future of digital marketing.

Getting familiar with all the new tech devices.

Healthcare and Technology

For the first time (at least in my opinion), health care was a major focus of the convention. Companies like Motorola, with their MOTOACTV solution, understand that technology has a role in health/fitness and are clearly trying to stake their claim. The ear buds track your heartbeat! Really? CES also played host to the Digital Health Summit, which showcased the rapidly evolving landscape of consumer-based health care.

Healthcare and Technology

I walked away from CES asking myself the following questions:

1. 1. Will Microsoft be back next year?
2. 2. If not, will CES be the same without them?
3. 3. Will 3D TVs finally take off?

The Conversation Hub

For more of my thoughts and reactions from this year’s event, check out my interview on The Conversation Hub.