The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/4983
www.iltanet.org 10 Peer to Peer BEST PRACTICES The Art of Delivering HTML E-Mail to Mobile Devices E -mail to mobile devices is an increasingly popular new medium that comes with a new set of challenges. Sending regular e-mail messages in plain text format is rarely an issue, but for firms who deliver professionally branded newsletters, alerts and event invitations as HTML e-mail campaigns, there is a whole world of new elements and issues to consider. The way in which HTML renders is device and technology specific, much like the old days of battling the rendering capabilities (or lack thereof) of Novell Groupwise and older versions of Lotus Notes. In these times of immediate engagement, firms should not shy away from sending HTML campaigns for fear of poor viewing by the recipients. Following some best practices will circumvent most potential problems. One must carefully consider "subject" and "from" lines, which are the two most important things in determining whether your message is opened or deleted. The subject line must be engaging but also reflective of the content of the message. Avoid using long subject lines because that will push the rest of the message down the screen. The "from" name should be as specific as possible; open and response rates have been proven to increase when the recipient receives a message from an individual such as the senior partner "Bob Smith" rather than a firm name. Small screen sizes and e-mail size limitations obscure anything deep within the message or below the first screen, so make your point and your call to action at the top of the message. The message should include a link to a Web version so that recipients can choose to click through to read their message in their browser as opposed to their inbox. Experience has taught us that unless the message is mission critical, in the majority of cases the recipient will save the message and give it the attention it deserves once they return to their desktop. In terms of technical solutions to the delivery of HTML e-mail messages to mobile devices, a third version of the e-mail should be offered (in addition to the HTML and aforementioned Web version) being the "BlackBerry / Mobile Friendly" link. This is a link to a campaign page specifically optimized for mobile and should appear as the first thing a recipient sees when the e-mail is opened on the mobile device. Should the recipient choose this version, he will be taken to a page with low graphics and no wide table structures. To do this, you just have to create a mobile friendly template with restricted width and only basic formatting styles. Not all recipients' mobile devices are able to access their e-mail on the fastest 3G connections, so the Inbox page of the e-mail should be as light as possible with links to additional pages for more information. Keeping the code efficient and avoiding large images also helps your recipients get the most value for the least effort. Similarly, you can add alt-tags to images; alt-tags are descriptions of an image, such as Conceplogo.gif, that will appear in place of an image if blocking is enabled. Adding alt-tags to images is a free opportunity to brand yourself and make it easier for a recipient to identify you. Also, be sure to send a plain text message when sending a multi-part Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME). Older versions of BlackBerry devices, obviously popular in the corporate environment, render the text part of multi-part MIME. If no text part is included, then recipients will see your raw HTML code, unsightly at best; and you will lose many of them as they become frustrated scrolling through code looking for the content. Finally, test, test and test again. Test across multiple e-mail clients, test with your colleagues and test on various mobile devices. Unless you test your messages, you will never know what your clients see and read when they receive your e-mail. More than one billion people will be using smartphones by 2013, so start optimizing now to capitalize on this trend and avoid falling far behind! ILTA anthony Green is the President of concep and the 2010 chair of the lMa new york technology committee. he can be reached at anthony.green@concepglobal.com