Behind the scenes: how tech shifts are changing email marketing services
We look at some of the major technological and feature list changes to the major platforms that those working in email marketing in Australia are now having to contend with as found in The annual Litmus State of Email report.
In our four-part series, we will review the Litmus State of Email Report 2018. The annual Litmus State of Email report helps you understand the data, trends and innovations that shape the email industry and provides actionable advice to help you build a successful email campaign in 2018. Over the next four articles, we will look behind the scenes on how tech shifts are changing email marketing services.
The world of email and email marketing platforms is constantly changing and it seems like only a week or two has to go by before we see another functionality update. From operating system quirks to screen sizes, there’s a lot to get your head around.
In this post, the first part of a series we’re going to look at some of the major technological and feature list changes to the major platforms that those working in email marketing in Australia are now having to contend with.
Google Pixel
Google’s new mobile offerings, the Pixel 2 and the Pixel 2 XL, both boast huge screen sizes. The Pixel 2, for example, has a screen measuring 5.7 inches, while the Pixel 2 XL has a 6.2-inch screen. And there’s more: the Pixel 2 has 441ppi, while the 2 XL has 538ppi.
While this again offers a great opportunity for those who run email marketing platforms to show off their content, it also presents problems. Images and other rich content need to be made to fit amazing technology like this, but they also need to be made in a way that allows them to render well on other devices which are less sophisticated.
iPhone
iPhone releases can strike fear into the hearts of those who provide email marketing services because they have the power to require a full-on strategy change.
But luckily, this year’s updates haven’t caused too much trouble. For example, the iPhone X (which was revealed in 2017) has a Super Retina Display – which means there’s a golden opportunity for marketers to invest in high-quality images to boost their messaging and get ahead of the game.
One of the top email marketing tips for 2018, though, lies in checking your rendering. In order to make sure that your email renders – or loads and appears – correctly on an iPhone, there is a technical quirk in iOS 11 which you need to be aware of.
Whereas before previews of videos in email used to just load automatically without any fuss on an iPhone, you now need to ensure that what’s known as an attribute (or short piece of code) gets loaded in. The attribute in question is (poster=” “), and whoever is responsible for the tech side of your emails needs to make sure it goes in the <video> tag area. It may sound fiddly, but it’s essential for retaining that professional and effective appearance for your email marketing.
Android
On the face of it, Android email marketing looks like it should be something pretty simple. Given that it is one of the world’s most common phone operating systems, you might think there’d be lots of easy, off-the-shelf options for making it easy.
But that’s not always the case. Due to the facts that lots of Android phone users decide to keep very old operating systems and there’s no piece of hardware that is known almost exclusively as the “Android device”, it leads to what tech experts describe as “fragmentation”. This means that what works well on one device won’t necessarily work well on the next, so you need to be careful.
If you need a hand with your email marketing, everybody from the designers and testers to the programmers and copywriters at premier Bowen Hills-based digital marketing agency iFactory are here to help. Just give us a call or email us today and we’ll be happy to help. And don’t forget to catch the next post in our 4-part series covering the Litmus State of Email Report 2018, where we’ll be looking at trends in email platform usage.
