The recent explosion in popularity over the last few years for mobile Internet devices means that no longer are people reading email strictly on large monitors connected to their desktop computers. Now there are smart phones, netbooks, laptops, and tablets, all with different screen sizes and resolutions for surfing the Internet and checking email. This means that if you conduct a lot of email marketing via Internet newsletters, to guarantee your information is actually getting out there in a readable format, you have to make sure your emails are optimized for all platforms. And if you’re not using e-mail marketing as a means to grow your online real estate business, you seriously need to start doing so now! Here’s are some items to keep in mind.
The Subject Line Is the First Thing People See
As your potential readers browse through their inboxes, the very first thing they’re going to see is the subject line of your email. Depending on the size of their screen, you could have less than 30 characters to convince them to actually open and view your message. As a result, crafting short yet attention grabbing subject lines is crucial for optimizing your email across any platform. To pack the biggest punch, ensure the line itself is as relevant as possible to why your subscriber signed up to your email newsletter in the first place. Otherwise they may scroll past it without a second glance.
Get the Font Size Just Right
When it comes to optimizing for any screen size, the font size of your emails is an important factor you must consider. Generally speaking, larger is better, but if it’s too large, your readers won’t even be able to zoom out far enough to read the information. For the body of the email, a generous size that should accommodate the vast majority of devices out there is a minimum 14pt font, and around 22pt font for your headers. A lot of devices will automatically re-size any body content smaller than 12pt, possibly causing unforeseen complications with how you originally intended the text to be seen on the screen. Sticking with the minimum of 14pt font for your body will help you avoid any such issues.
Have Images Auto Adjust Their Proportions
If your emails contain images, then chances are you could run into sizing problems on most mobile devices if you don’t optimize properly. The easiest way to do this is to simply have the images automatically adjust their proportions to the size of the screen they’re being displayed on. To do this, go into the HTML editor of your email. From there, go to the “img style=” section and adjust the value of the max width to equal whatever percentage of the display you want your image to occupy. After that you can adjust the max height value right beside it, setting it to equal “auto.” This way the image height will change by itself depending upon the width. With these changes, your image will auto adjust its size and be viewable on any display screen. Keep in mind that this is a slightly advanced technique.
Ensure Copy Is Clean and to the Point
As most people know, Internet users today are multi-taskers who typically have multiple tabs open at any one time, especially when on the go with a mobile/tablet device. This is even more true when they are researching real estate online! Because of this, it means that the meat of your email, its central body content, must be concise and to the point. Stay away from long-winded paragraphs and don’t use a lot of flowery or unnecessary statements/words. Instead, bullet points are a great way to convey a lot of information in quick, one-line snippets. What you ultimately want to do is engage readers in as short a period of time as possible, all while getting across everything you needed them to know.
The value of email optimization to your marketing campaign cannot be understated. It can mean the difference between hooking readers and growing your reach, or losing subscribers who become frustrated, unable to view your content. Take into consideration the discussed techniques so that your content is viewable on any device no matter what because as we all know, being a modern REALTOR® is very competitive and you need every edge you can get.
