Video Emails are Nice, Mobile Video Emails are Essential

Mobile email is not a nice to have, it is essential.  The rapid growth of smartphones and tablets has made a significant impact on the email channel.  It is a necessity that email content be viewable on mobile devices.  It is a missed opportunity if a recipient can’t read your email message on the go.

MediaPost’s EmailInsider rounded up the following stats behind the growth of mobile emails:

• 49.6% of the US adult population now uses a smartphone.
• Tablets are outpacing the sale of PCs and netbooks (which have already been outpaced by the sale of smartphones since Q4 2010).
• After surfing the web, tablet users 2nd most frequent activity is reading email on their iPad or Android tablet.
• Mobile email opens have increased 80% over the past 6-months; mobile email opens exceeded desktop and Web browser opens in April 2012.

Mobile email adoption can’t be disputed.  It is especially important for marketers to consider the following two user behaviors:

1. According to the Litmus email marketing and test tool, only 3.3% of email recipients have viewed a single email on both a mobile device and a desktop or Webmail email client.
2. 45% of users who open an email on a mobile device once will do it again.

Today, email messages must be able to be viewed on mobile devices.  Marketers may only have one chance to connect with a recipient.  Engagement cannot happen if a recipient can’t read or open your email message.

While it can be daunting to think about the nuances that mobile brings to the email marketing table, video email can complicate factors.  Android phones can view Flash and HTML5 video content.  Apple’s iPhone can only view HTML5.  Video emails must be HTML5 compatible or your risk not engaging with the 32% of smartphone users who have an iPhone.

This leads to the biggest question most email marketers ask:  how do I know if someone has an Android or an iPhone?  Obviously, this designation could be part of an email marketing database.  But that’s kind of complex and, let’s face it, people are fickle.  Today’s iPhone user could be on an Android appliance tomorrow.

If you created your video email on the Flimp Platform, then you don’t have to worry about what the type of smart appliance a recipient is using.  Flimp automatically knows if a video email is being viewed on an Android or Apple smart product.

Beyond the smart appliance mechanics, Flimp video emails have been created to render directly in the smart appliance’s screen.  Below is a screen shot of what a Flimp video email looks like on an Apple iPhone:

Don’t discount mobile.  Better yet – consider mobile video emails!