Recently in Mobile Category

This post is part of a blog series leading up to Responsys Interact 2012 about how our customers are re-writing the rules of marketing.

Schwan's Home Service, America's largest home food delivery service of high quality frozen foods, has been working with Responsys to evolve its digital marketing from basic transactional emails to an integrated cross-channel program. I spoke with Erica Webb-Belzer, Director of Marketing Communications, about how her team at Schwan's is using targeted emails and mobile SMS messaging to build customer loyalty and engagement. 

Q: You've had some very impressive results in tying increased revenue to email campaigns - what in your opinion has been the most successful campaign or strategy?

A:  Our digital marketing success is in large part due to the automation that we've put in place with Interact Program. It has allowed us to be more sophisticated in targeting customers and driving sales. The Responsys software has enabled us to strategically automate and target communications about shopping cart abandonment, customer preferences, delivery reminders and special offers.  Having email campaigns automated and integrated has enabled my small team to produce some great results. 

Q: How has your digital marketing strategy evolved, have you seen a major shift in spend from offline to online?

A: Schwan's Home Service is a 60 year old company, but it's only been in the last several years that digital marketing has become a greater focus. With a dedicated team now in place, we're shifting our marketing strategy from acquisition to retention and moving customers from offline to online channels.  In 2009, our email program was minimal - we were only running two campaigns and the emails were very text heavy.  We've since created HTML emails that are branded, established a preference center and launched SMS alerts. And there's a lot more in store for 2012!

Q: Consumers are increasingly using smartphones and tablets and I would imagine Schwan's customers are no different.  How is mobile part of your digital marketing strategy?

A: On the mobile side, we've been very successful in using SMS to alert our customers 30 minutes prior to the Route Sales Representative stopping by with their frozen food delivery. Schwan's Home Service has approximately 6,000 drivers across the US who are delivering frozen food, so it's been great for our customers and drivers to know when a delivery is coming and ensure that the recipient will be home or allow them time to prepare their order for next time. The other feature we're putting in place this month is the ability for customers to text their email address to our SMS short code. This gives customers another avenue in which to opt-in to our email communications and provides them with early access to our special offers and discounts.  In turn, it helps us drive more customers to our online channels. This is all executed with Interact Program, allowing us to coordinate the opt-in and subsequent SMS messaging alongside our email campaigns.

We're also working with Responsys Strategic and Creative Services to ensure that our emails are mobile and tablet friendly. And we're using Return Path to do a lot of testing so that we can be sure our emails look good on mobile devices and in all ISP's. 

Q: How are you using offline marketing to drive online engagement and retention?

A: We are integrating our website, Schwans.com, into all printed materials and really focusing on driving customers to enriched content like recipes, videos and preparation instructions. For example, our summer promotion will focus on ribs and other great grilling meats, so there will be call outs throughout our Ordering Guide and Everyday Cravings Catalogs encouraging readers to visit Schwans.com  for grilling tips. Many of our offers and promotions also drive people to our social media sites including Twitter and Facebook.  In the future, we will promote our SMS short code in more places, getting more customers opted-in and engaged on mobile.  Finally, training of our Route Sales Representatives to encourage online engagement is critical to the success of our business as well.

Q: One of the themes at Interact this year is about how marketers are 're-writing the rules' and continuing to innovate - is there anything or anyone in the industry who you think is particularly innovative?

A: The airline industry, from an alerts and SMS messaging standpoint, is always innovating. I admire what Southwest Airlines has done with its 'Click N Save' program, getting consumers at the right time to opt-in their email address, using their mobile phone.  We have such a unique business model, so we don't have many direct competitors, but I do tend to watch General Mills since they are another Minneapolis-based food retailer. I love what they've done with the Betty Crocker email creative.  Also, I'm watching the mobile and tablet industry closely, as we expect our customers to increasingly use these devices and who knows - maybe one day they will entirely replace the PC!   We are also watching the use of Instagram.  Photo sharing is becoming increasingly popular and brands like Red Bull and Pepsi are making great inroads with this app.

Q: What are you looking forward to at Interact this year?  

A: I'm excited to learn from and share ideas with like-minded people who understand the industry.  We're in such a unique niche of an industry so it will be wonderful to have all these experts together in one place! I have several senior colleagues coming to Interact with me, so I'm looking forward to them experiencing the energy and excitement around email, SMS and digital marketing. What they take away from a high level will help us propel our program to the next level in the coming years.

You may have heard the term "responsive email" floating about recently, and for a good reason - people are increasingly using phones and tablets to check email. Most emails are designed for the desktop computer, and even on the smaller side, those designs tend to be more than 600 pixels wide. When the email renders on a phone, it is generally scaled down to at least half of it's original size, if not more. It can be hard to see the details in images, the text is small, and there's a good chance that text resizing has broken the email format. This is where responsive email steps in, allowing the sender to simplify the message and make it easier to see on a small screen.

On a mobile screen, the fold line is drastically higher than it is on a desktop. Responsive emails can hide non-essential parts of a message that a mobile user doesn't need to see to get the point of a message (fig 1). It can also rearrange the message; instead of having a sidebar next to the hero, the sidebar can move below the hero (fig 2). The exact opposite of that is also possible: it can take message elements that are stacked in the desktop version and flow them to be side by side (fig 3). It can resize and recolor text (fig 4), hide non-essential portions of an email (images, text fragments, and whole table structures), change the background image, change the background color, and even change the formatting of a message (fig 5), which is different than moving elements between rows.

 

However, there are some limitations with responsive emails:

• Responsive emails only work in the iPhone native mail app and the Android native mail app.

• In a mobile browser (i.e. not in the mail app), the email will appear as it does on a desktop browser, because the majority of email clients strip out the styling, or because the styles were hidden from the client.

• In proprietary email apps (Gmail app, Y! app, etc), the responsive email renders as it would in the desktop browser - which is to say, the 'regular' email design.

• If styling is not properly hidden from the Yahoo! Mail platform, these emails will work in ALL Yahoo! Mail, even when you would prefer to be showing your regular email (desktop), as opposed to your mobile email.

• In the desktop version of a responsive email, you cannot have a text, hidden, mobile-only message and expect it to show up only on mobiles (although you could do this with images). The desktop message will hide in a lot of places, but there are some places it won't, and there's no way to tell what platform someone will be using to check email.
  

Thanks for reading, and let me know if you have any questions or would like any clarifications!

Attending this year's SXSW Interactive will definitely go down as one of the highlights of my year. The shear amount of high-quality content, top tier presenters and events was both exhilarating and a bit overwhelming. For me, the most interesting topics that bubbled up were around mobile marketing, data and respect for user's privacy and attention.

With the rise of GPS-enabled smart phones, ubiquitous geo-location is now available to a large number of consumers and it's changing what it means to be in a location. Being somewhere is no longer about a simple point on a map--it's a collection of personal experiences. With images, opinions, reviews, map queries, tweets, posts and check-ins come opportunities for marketers to provide more relevant real-time content, whether it's alerting a user to a preference, like a nearby ice cream shop or a direct marketing message about a product or service nearby. But with that ability comes a responsibility to not only ensure that the communications are permission based, but also to provide real and immediate benefits to the user.

Alex Rainert, Head of Product at foursquare, made the very distinct point that relevant content isn't only about proximity and permission; it's about real value. It's unlikely that users will be delighted if a Starbucks coupon pops up as they walk within 20 feet of a retail location, but they will be delighted to know that a friend is checking in to their favorite pizza place and there's a discount in effect for the next two hours.

My main takeaway from the many panels and discussions at SXSW Interactive is that we, as marketers, will be working with more and more personalized, real-time data. And while we do, it's crucial that consumers understand what type of data is being collected and how it will be used.  More than ever, as consumers offer up their attention and personal information, we need to give them smart, relevant, high-value content that makes the trade-off worth it for them, each and every time.

Session references:
Design and the Mobile Startup
Location Tracking: Threatening or Value-added?
Ambient Location and the Future of the Interface

This post is from Rishad Tobaccowala's Reinventing Blog. Rishad is Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer of VivaKi.

As we enter 2012, here is a perspective on the five key arenas that marketers will grapple with:

Marketing as Mobilization: In a world of Twitter, Facebook, Google + and other social platforms, marketing will increasingly resemble political campaigns with Brands mobilizing and incentivizing their advocates to market to their friends and communities. They will also staff up to quickly address and limit the impact of negative streams of publicity such as complaints before they hurt the brand. The emphasis will be on marketing in real time, providing clear value and recognizing that what people say about a brand is more important than what a brand says about itself. Engaging the "peoples network" will be as, if not more critical than leveraging television, retail and other media networks. To do this many companies will recognize that the key challenge is not to develop a Facebook presence but update the corporate communications, legal and marketing infrastructure of their organizations and those of their partners.

Marketing to a New Mindset: Today, all around the world, people are not just more empowered and informed but they also are far less trusting of business and political organizations, leaders of all sorts and flatulence filled, florid, fancy marketing. They are looking for authenticity, community, value, relevance and simplicity. There is a gaping divide between the rulers and the ruled, between marketers, and customers and between the senior leaders and the rank and file. It is going to be critical to get real and stop repeating old shibboleths or behaving in ways that make so many leaders caricatures of themselves. Get real. Get great. Or you may be forced to get out. Personal re-invention is critical.

Marketing's future will be increasingly determined outside the confines of the "marketing industry": In addition to empowered customers, the biggest challenges to the status quo will continue to come from outside the marketing industry. Remember the day that meetings of industry groups were quite incestuous and closed? Those days changed as digital media eroded the differences between video, print and audio. Today, magazines and newspapers and television are all multimedia organizations broadening their competitive and opportunity set. Not so long ago "outsiders" like Google, Apple, Microsoft, Samsung and Facebook became the future of the industry. We expect this trend will continue with a vengeance with Adobe, IBM and many others from the tech industry bringing forth one front while names we have never heard of from both global markets and garages will continue to press us to stop thinking narrowly and becoming more open in both mindset and partnering. It is no surprise that the International Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas next week will be as important as Cannes to the advertising industry.

Significant Restructuring of Marketing Organizations of All Types: Todays marketing organizations at clients, agencies and suppliers are struggling to cope because they lack the right talent, organizational and service/product mix that they need to compete in an age of marketing as mobilization and to an highly empowered customer with a changing mindset. Marketing will have to be world class within organizations since it will be a critical part of the future of all companies. We will begin in 2012 to see significant restructuring and blowing up of existing marketing hierarchies and leaders. It will be messy, bloody and chaotic but the future does not fit in the mindsets or containers of the past and what will need to be done will be done.

Marketing basics will grow more important: In a fragmenting and fast moving world brands will matter more since brands are the ultimate search engines and navigation lighthouses. The great ones are trust marks. Storytelling will continue to be critical and there will be new ways to not just tell stories but have others participate in the stories. Joan Didion wrote "we tell ourselves stories in order to live" and in many ways brands that are alive and vital are stories. Finally the science of marketing particularly finding the right audience in the right mindset and right context to engage in story and brand building will be even more important and fortunately we will have amazing new technologies to make it happen.

The future of marketing is very bright since it is about identifying and meeting customer requirements and in an age of empowered consumers this skill will be increasingly critical. But, for both marketing and marketers to get to the next level we will have to work hard, learn a lot and change our approaches and mindsets in ways that will truly test our mettle.

Please note: This article originally ran in Mobile Marketer

All signs in the market and among consumers say that mobile has finally arrived. Until now, marketers have remained cautious, limiting investment and experimenting with smaller campaigns to test the waters. 

With more mobile devices in the hands of consumers around the world, major brands are ready to make mobile a definitive part of their marketing strategy.The sheer size of mobile users makes a compelling argument that marketers cannot ignore.  For example, there are now more than 2 billion mobile subscribers worldwide and 230 million in the United States alone. What is more, an astounding 99 percent of devices are SMS compatible, per Nielsen Online - and this is where one of the biggest opportunities resides for brands that want to build a meaningful, long-term relationship with their customers.

SMS or text messages remain popular because they are fast and easy to use, saving time and allowing for both privacy and personalization. Some people read text messages before email, choosing the speed and responsiveness of text messages. 

Before marketers can use text messages to reach consumers, they need to build a personal connection first. Marketers need to earn the trust and permission of consumers and offer something of value that makes them want to receive text messages about their service or items such as specially discounted products or promotions. 

There are three strategies that marketers need to consider when creating an SMS campaign in the marketing mix:

1. Do not wait to build your target mobile list
Building a detailed list of current and potential customers is the first critical step to an effective SMS campaign. 

• Consider acquiring mobile numbers through signage at stores, events, billboards and other traditional advertising vehicles. 
• Look for the opportunity to gain email and mobile opt-ins together from customers to maximize engagement across channels. 

For future campaigns, it is also important to capture event, demographic and location details of the customer when you received permission.

Southwest Airlines had great success connecting with customers where they were most engaged with the brand - at the airport. Using mobile opt-in, Southwest promoted campaigns across the Web, television and print ads and at Southwest gates. The airline far exceeded the breakeven number for customer acquisitions in a short, tightly executed three-week campaign.

2. Engage customers
The ultimate goal for marketers is to build long-term relationships with customers, and it starts with earning trust by delivering value. 

Get started with transactional text messages that can quickly open doors to deliver more value. 

For example, Southwest confirms important flight information via text messages and then, with further opt-in from the customer, provides additional promotions. 

Marketers can engage their customers through highly targeted campaigns that use profile and behavioral data to personalize messages with relevant information for that particular customer. 

In-store SMS campaigns are another way to provide value to customers with on-demand access to store information and savings.

Retailers might consider providing an instant coupon for use in-store or allow customers to receive more information about a product.

Online grocery store and food delivery service Schwan's takes this approach by letting customers choose to receive delivery notifications at checkout time. 

Schwan's provides value by sending customers a text message when the delivery is 30 minutes away so that customers have time to prepare. This also becomes an opportunity for its customers to get ready for to place their next order and in turn boosts Schwan's business.

3. Monetize SMS messages
Marketers can easily track campaign performance by including promotion codes for specific promotions. 

One of the clear advantages of today's mobile technology is the sophistication and experience of the mobile Web. This provides marketers the possibilities of adding multiple strategies to the marketing campaign. 

For example, a text message can lead consumers to an engaging mobile Web site or application. The mobile Web can act as the glue between online and offline experiences, and text messages deliver the right message at the right time to motivate customers with a specific action. 

Mobile technology is opening many new doors for marketers, but the beauty of SMS campaigns is it does not take the most advanced smartphone to implement them. 

A well-crafted SMS campaign will take advantage of location and time to deliver a simple message that engages customers. 

Once a meaningful relationship is built with customers, mobile campaigns will deliver significant ROI and continue to demonstrate why they are a critical investment in the marketing strategy.

THE WORLD OF mobile marketing is here to stay, and marketers can start with SMS and then gradually open up to additional avenues like mobile Web, mobile applications and mobile advertizing. Providing a cohesive customer experience across all avenues of mobile is what marketers need to start thinking about and is key to marketing success in the mobile medium.

From: Horchow
Subject Line: Wired for style: Chic cases for your mobile devices
Date: Fri, Aug 26, 2011

Horchow reminds us that in the Mobile Age, it pays to match the layout of your message to the medium. The preview pane content is big and bold, and the horizontal scroll is a tailor-made layout for touch screen interaction. One of my only gripes is the lack of detail in the call-to-action treatment: though there are several options in the email, a touch sent me to one general landing page with a list of products. Not the best experience, but still a good example of a retailer who is starting to take their share of the mobile market experience seriously.

From: Old Navy
Subject Line: Spin & Save: Get Ready to Win BIG + FREE Shipping Every Day
Date: Thursday, July 14, 2011

From the adorable JCREW popsicle email to the jazzy West Elm sparkler promo, animation is emerging as a major email creative trend this summer. I love Old Navy's take on the technique because they integrate the whole concept of a spinning wheel from the subject line right through to the graphics. It's also a stellar iPhone experience--if you're a righty, the animation is perfectly nestled underneath your thumb. Kudos on a well thought out application of motion graphics.

From: Jetsetter
Subject Line: Memorable Rooms With a View: NYC, Peru, Vail, South Africa and More
Date: Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Jetsetter's emails always offer a great source of inspiration; sometimes it's about places I can be other than my desk, but mostly it's their smart use of photography, typography and design.

What sets Jetsetter apart from other travel emails is the proportion of space they dedicate to photography. Rather than taking a grid approach to all the getaways they're touting, they let each location have the same visual weight. I love that they are far enough apart then even when you're looking at one location, you can see the beginning of the next image, making you want to scroll and scroll and scroll.

We all can learn from the way Jetsetter treats their "link farm." They've done a fantastic job giving enough space to make clear groups of links, and used a contrast between color and size to define give importance to the title of each section.

And we can't ignore the fact that this template will work well in both mobile and desktop environments. Jetsetter understands their on-the-go audience and delivers an excellent experience whether their customers are at their desk or a "Lush Urban Escape in Brazil."

From: iTunes
Subject Line: New on iTunes
Date: 07 / July

 / 2011

The latest iTunes email came as a surprise to me because I was a little bit disappointed when I saw it. I had to remind myself these are the people behind iPods, iPhones and iPads. Apple's branding online and off is something companies recognise as being ahead of the curve. 

However, my opinion completely changed when I viewed the same email on my iPhone. The email was strikingly more impactful. It's crazy how much of a difference it makes to the observer.

Obviously, these emails were made to be ideal for smartphones because they hold much better on smartphones. In theory the only thing that has changed is the composition and size. But optically, the calls-to-action stick out more, the email navigates better (especially with a side rail on the right-hand side), and it's much more rigid--even the compact word count suggests this message is for a smartphone device.

www.swedish.org : Viewed on the web and on a mobile device.

   
As a patient of the Swedish Medical Group, I do need to visit their website from time to time. They have a lot of great information on their website, including how to find a doctor. While I was searching for my doctor's phone number (on my iPhone) I was surprised to see a giant horizontal blue bar in an unflattering position on the page—right over a doctor's profile!

The screenshots to the right show the blue navigation bar on a mobile device, and what it looks like on the web.

A simple fix to improve the mobile user experience would be to remove the bottom blue navigation bar on their website—altogether. I understand that the list of doctors can be long, and while on a website this is helpful...on a mobile device it's debilitating.

With all the great information that Swedish is able
to provide to their patients on their site and in emails,
I wish it was a little easier to access on a mobile device.

From: LinkedIn Today

Subject Line: Top Headlines in Design

Date: May 20^th, 2011

 

LinkedIn has partnered with Twitter to deliver a news service called LinkedIn Today. Based on your industry of interest, you can customize your own Front Page as well as opt to receive daily or weekly email digests of the top news being shared and tweeted by professionals around the world.

 

What draws my attention to the email digest is its simple execution and how it translates to the mobile inbox. With so many people now checking their emails through smart portable devices, this raises interesting questions about leveraging content delivery for different email clients as well as mobile devices.

 

Several stories are featured in each send and each have a small thumbnail image, followed by a brief headline and original site where the article came from. Next, a short article preview and a link to read the rest of the story are provided. It also calls out how many times the story has been shared and allows for the subscriber to share with others as well.

 

Tailoring emails to be easily digested on a computer screen and mobile device is a tricky balancing act. However, as more people read emails on the go, some creative forethought and strategic planning can yield a better mobile experience and better user engagement between businesses and subscribers.

Sender: chasing fireflies
Subject Line: See what's cooking in our Toy Shop!
Date: Thursday, December 02, 2010

With so many people viewing email on mobile devices, the importance of a great preheader has become increasingly more relevant. In this email from chasing fireflies, the clever use of adding my name dynamically to the preheader made it stand out from the pack during my daily rapid scroll through the inbox, plus the copy had a cute and familiar feeling to it - like it could have been from a buddy... to quote Dale Carneghie from How to Win Friends and Influence People: "Remember that a man's name is to him the sweetest and most important sound in the English language".

Unfortunately, the nit-picking email marketer in me can't help but notice that the rest of the email's execution leaves room for improvement. The entire hero/body of the email is one image slice, that when clicked, leads to the toys landing page of their site and features a foosball table, not the incredibly cute kitchen from the email. The poor coordination between the email and landing page create further frustration as the main and secondary products are not labeled in the email, so it is another challenge to try to find them once you are on the site. Additionally, I believe that if one wants to be a player in the Email Marketing world, it's best to leave off the little logo for your email marketing platform (no offense meant to Vertical Response).


It is a seriously cute little kitchen though... Santa might have to be alerted! ;)

From: Red Cross
Date: Monday, January 15, 2010


On January 12, 2010, Haiti was struck by a devastating earthquake that not only shook the island but people across the globe. Within days, many organizations mobilized to collect donations. The Red Cross partnered with the Mobile Giving Foundation and First Lady Michelle Obama to launch an incredible mobile campaign.

Within three days of the earthquake, the Red Cross generated over $8 million in donations via texts at $10 per transaction. More donations were generated via short codes as other organizations launched their own mobile campaigns.

All marketing channels were leveraged to generate historically significant totals. Through websites, music sales, benefits, telethons and texts, organizations quickly organized to drive one the most focused and successful campaigns in history. Success was driven by three key components: low donation thresholds, ease of donation through mobile partners and cross channel efforts that amplified the message.

Donors were presented with options to receive updates on how their dollars were spent. Subscribers connected to the event through updates and news that drove continued contributions. To date, donations to help Haiti exceed $528 million. What an amazing feat!

From: HP Home & Home Office Store
Subject Line: Your HP Home & Home Office Store Deals - Week of January 4, 2010
Date: Monday, January 4, 2010

From: HP Home & Home Office Store
Date: Monday, January 4, 2010

While I know a few senders already have begun to take advantage of the power of using their email lists to build their mobile contact lists, I still get excited when I see an example in the wild. Like most consumers, I'm not eager to get text messages for promotions on my iPhone. I don't mind receiving timely and relevant alerts for specific reasons, but for this message from HP, my excitement quickly turned to skepticism when I tried to provide my details.

I clicked on the image based form on the landing page to enter my mobile number, however, that was the only requested data point. The fine print reads "As a member of the HP Club you'll receive a maximum of 4 messages a month", which doesn't sound very customized or alert based to me. Without any chance to provide other details to HP like my name, email address (both could be populated from the email click saving time and ensuring data synchronization) printer type and typical usage, how can they possibly send me a relevant and timely alert when my ink is low?

As we continue to build cross channel programs and lists throughout 2010, we need to keep in mind one of the key lessons learned from the email channel -- consumers want meaningful choices and control of where and how they receive messaging from marketers. Respecting these choices builds stronger performing programs with more engaged recipients.

From: Victoria's Secret
Subject Line: Our Way of Saying Thank You: Special In-Store Offers.
Date: Wednesday, November 25, 2009

From: Victoria's Secret - Facebook
Date: Wednesday, November 25, 2009

From: Victoria's Secret - SMS
Date: Friday, November 27, 2009

Victoria's Secret is leading the way with their strategy for integrating cross channel campaigns to engage their audience at multiple touch points. Case in point, their Black Friday free bag giveaway message was delivered via email, mobile and social. However, in order to be successful, great strategy needs to follow through with great execution. Timing is everything and their timing was off.

Their email should've been a specific Black Friday reminder. The email was sent out Wednesday and included offers for the whole weekend. It's important to map out the timing of your marketing messages against the timing of when your customers are shopping, while also giving them enough time to plan in advance if the call-to-action is a retail store.

Once I received their SMS message, I was already done with my shopping for the day. Don't they know that people start lining up at 4am to get the best deals and by noon most people are back home taking a nap? As for Facebook, they should've talked about the in-store offer for Black Friday, not the Fashion Show. I realize they posted content on the 25th, but a reminder on the 27th would've been more important than the Fashion show, which was several days later.

Overall, they need to close the loop. The SMS link does not take you to a mobile site, nor do they have a mobile store app. There are also missed opportunities with the email and Facebook pages - both are prime locations to encourage mobile sign up, but the only place I could find mobile sign up was on their website. (I understand they do have in-store signage but I've never seen it - and I shop there often).

A great cross channel strategy will only get you so far - the key is making sure the execution ensures the success of the campaign.

Blogger's note: Hours after I finished this blog post, I received an SMS message that Victoria Secret has now launched a mobile website. Glad to see they're headed in the right direction!

From: Apple Business University Village
Subject Line: Snow Leopard Event at the Apple Store
Date: Thursday, September 17, 2009

This message is interesting to me for two reasons. No, three:
(1) I like that it's addressed to me as a business owner. Wow - the folks over at Apple know me after I spent tens of thousands of dollars on computers at their store with the sad little 5% discount they give high-volume business purchasers! No, but seriously, I appreciate being spoken to in a way that's relevant to me.
(2) This message is really skinny. The main letter body is just 382 pixels wide. I'm thinking it's because it's going to me - a business person - who they are assuming has an iPhone and checks their email on it. I'm imagining that they designed for the iPhone screen. What do you think? That's pretty cool.
(3) If I could be any animal, I would be a Snow Leopard, hands-down. "...Powerful and refined...?" That's a kick-ass animal.

From: Starbucks.com
Subject Line: Turn your iPhone˙ into your Starbucks Card
Date: Wednesday, September 23, 2009

OK. I saw this and was like, "Is this not the moment we've all been waiting for?" It's basically the holy grail. To be able to pay for your Americano with your iPhone is every aspiring upper-middle class marketing manager's dream, right? Right?

Major letdown: "Find out more about which stores are accepting mobile payment here" leads to a store location page with no information whatsoever about which stores in particular accept mobile payment. Hel-LO!? How totally annoying. Considering the integrated email-to-landing-experience path is becoming more and more of a focus here at Smith-Harmon, and clickthrough moments like these are just one of the reasons why it needs to be more of a focus industry-wide.

From: Twitter
Subject Line: wyatt seipp is now following you on Twitter
Date: May 21, 2009

From: Facebook
Subject Line: Kendal Burrell confirmed you as a friend on Facebook
Date: May 10, 2009

Yes, I have a Twitter account and I guess people are following me. What that means I haven't quite figured out yet, and I think it requires that I start doing something. But, I'll get there...at some point. What I really want to talk about is how much I appreciate Twitter adding a little life to their triggered messages. I get that these emails need to be easy-to-read on a mobile, but does that have to mean boring old type without any color? Couldn't Facebook at least add the profile pic of who confirmed my friendship? Thoughts? Anybody? Anybody?

From: introducing our first ever crewcuts catalog + free shipping
Subject Line: J.Crew
Date: Friday, May 1, 2009

I am all about beauty and brains.
This image has both.
(1) It's delightful with sorbet colors, chalk swirls and jungle animals.
(2) It tells a story: this girl is sitting on her brothers' skateboard in her SoCal driveway. Those are his jungle animals. Those are her chalk drawings. She's so proud of her jewels and her tutu.
(3) It sells: the accessories, the clothes and the shoes are unmistakably crewcuts, and will make your kids' life - and your life - as smooth as strawberry sorbet.

This email message also includes a "View this email on a mobile device" link. For the uninitiated: for now, this is how a "mobile version" should look (at right.) Simple to do, right? Go for it, all! Only I think J.Crew is being a little too eager putting the mobile link as the first element of the preheader. I'm interested in what portion of audiences are clicking on this link from brand to brand. Have any input for us?

I would probably dress just like this every day if I could, only none of you would take me very seriously ;).