Email Marketing's Evolution in a Mobile World

With smartphones seemingly glued to consumers' hands, marketers have realized they need to leverage the mobile devices in order to reach their customers and prospects. This is most definitely true for email marketers. According to digital marketing agency Knotice, 36 percent of all emails are now opened on mobile devices. Brands have been presented with a choice: develop a mobile email strategy or be left behind.

On Jan. 31 in Atlanta, this topic and more will be addressed at All About eMail Live!, a one-day workshop featuring email marketing experts who are ready to answer your questions. One of those experts is Simms Jenkins, CEO of email marketing-focused digital agency BrightWave Marketing. Below is a brief interview I conducted with Simms that will give you a taste of the great content you can expect to hear at All About eMail Live! Register today!  

eM+C: How has the growing consumer adoption of smartphones and tablets affected email marketers?
Simms Jenkins: Well, unfortunately it hasn't for far too many. With smartphone penetration passing 50 percent and tablet ownership hitting 25 percent, one would assume marketers have been crafting a well-developed mobile email strategy or at least a few tactics to adapt, but that isn't the case. We still see many email marketers flatfooted for a variety of reasons. I think this is often because "mobile" means so many different things to digital marketers. Not many people have really defined what mobile means to email in a profound way.

This will be painful for many email marketers as they see their campaigns getting deleted and ignored on a more regular basis if they don't adapt to how consumers and business professionals are consuming their email.

For the email marketers who have taken the first few steps, the first thing they usually possess is information. The first key is understanding what percentage of your database is reading your emails on smartphones. Once you have that information, you can then begin to develop the right business plan to support these important customers. We've seen a trend where the first subscribers to migrate to smartphone email consumption are a brand's best customers in general.

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