Believe it or not, Smartwatches are starting to sell. They have been around about a year now, but the launch of Apple Watch gave a kick-start to wearable communication devices. According to Nielsen’s Connected Life Report, the number of wearable devices sold will increase ten-fold by 2018. This means people will be staring at their wrist more and phone less. Although it is the small section of the market, it is important to consider how people will react to your emails.
Here are some smartwatch email design tips which will help marketers maximize success.
Sender Details
Sender details form part of the notification when someone receives an email and are even more important for smartwatches. You should use a recognizable name that could be either your own name or the name of your company. Here you can also make use of A/B test feature to determine which will work best.
Subject Lines
Screen size being smaller on wearable devices leaves minimal display area for other information. It is very important to keep your subject line short and catchy. It should be engaging enough to capture audience attention. Try to keep your subject line around 3-6 words so that you have more space for other email text. For example, Apple watches offer 12-20 characters for subject line whereas Samsung Gear S allow 30-45 characters for the subject.
Preheader Text
Preheader is the text followed by the subject line and provides an overview of the rest of the content. It gives you an idea of what the message is about before you open it. As wearable devices are getting popular, it is essential to entice readers at the beginning of your emails. This helps the user to decide whether to mark this for later or take the action instantly.
Call To Action
Tell the reader exactly what to do by crafting your call to action early in the email. Links are disabled for apple watches so it is better to mention as a text rather than a link. You can make the address and phone number a link to allow wearers to call up straight away or open the address in maps to make a visit.
Plain Text
Smartwatches lack built-in browsers so most of the time they ignore your fancy HTML and CSS. This makes the plain text version of your email more essential and requires a compelling introductory message. If your email doesn’t have a plain-text alternative, it will be more or less useless. Without a text version Android watches render raw HTML, whereas Apple watches tell you that “The full version of this message isn’t available, but you can read it on your iPhone.”
Marketers know that the best way to reach customers is to message them wherever they are and wearable devices allow marketers to engage with their audience in new and fun ways. You can only win by standing out in the cluttered inbox, so start optimizing your subject lines and preheader for different devices. Wearable devices are part of a bigger picture and they are here to stay.
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