Make 2013 Your Year For Mobile...

We're already half way through February which means the New Year dust has just about settled; reports, analysis and changes from 2012 have been implemented and I finally have time to focus on what’s important… 2013. Which let’s be fair, is set to be a pretty exciting year.

As ever, in the fast paced industry that is ‘Online’, changes come up quicker than a spot the night before your yearbook photo, and in a very similar fashion - If you don’t catch them quick and aren't on the ball, it could potentially ruin your year to come.

So with that in mind, I thought I’d take a moment to look at 2013 and make some points on what I think is key to success in Email Marketing for 2013, focusing on one major aspect of it, mobile.

Going Mobile…

I don’t want to sound too cliché here as the following term has been battered around for the last couple of years, but with the activation of 17.4 million new smart phones on 25th December alone (Flurry Analytics) this year truly is ‘The Year Of Mobile’. 

Toward the back end of last year, I was already seeing an average of 45% of total traffic to our platform and 38% of email traffic coming from mobile, what with predictions of this growing by up to 80% this year, there’s definitely no time like the present to start looking at your email campaigns and asking yourself “do these render well on mobile?” And it’s no good just looking at them on your latest iPhone 5 or Galaxy S3. These higher end devices have a much higher screen resolution than a lot of the lower end market which believe it or not are much more popular. 

OK, the stats: Turning to my Google Analytics figures, I've seen that over 50% of total mobile traffic actually comes from devices with a screen resolution of LESS THAN 380px (width) and 75% comes from those with less than 480px. Meaning that only 25% of my mobile audience are using higher end devices making it more important to ensure your emails render for these lesser capable handsets.

Initially, due to highest proportion of our audience being in the ‘less than 480px’ category, I decided to adopt our templates to a responsive design for devices less than this screen width. Although I'm yet to see much of an increase in the overall click through rate, I've already achieved an increase of 4.6% in traffic from mobile in just a couple of weeks. Now obviously, it’s still very early days, and I expect this increase to die down somewhat and hopefully, as I start to optimise these more based on learning’s, I expect to see the overall click through increase.

The Problem With Mobile?

The main issue with emails on mobile (as with websites) is that the overall width of them is considerably wider (in some cases, double) than that of the mobile device resulting in the need for horizontal scrolling, which no one wants to have to do. It’s annoying, it’s unattractive and for the lesser capable handsets that don’t have an overly sensitive touch-screen it’s not that user friendly. And it’s no good just zooming out because then the content is so small it's ineligible, calls to action aren't clear and can quite often be missed. So now you need to decide on how you’re going to achieve the right results.

Responsive Design Or Scalable?

Once you've taken the plunge and decided mobile is for you, it’s time to ask yourself another question. Responsive or Scalable? These are the two tactics used for mobile design for web and depending on what you want to achieve and the type of audience you have, either one could work effectively for you.

Scalable:

A Scalable design is readable and click-able regardless of the size of the device and only requires one version of the HTML, all using the same styles and are often created using the following techniques:

• Grid system for alignment and proportion
• Single column layout
• Larger fonts (Min 14px)
• Touch friendly buttons
• Key information and CTA in the upper left of the email (above the fold)

These are great for people who don’t have the time or much experience with HTML to focus on more complex designs. They ensure that the email is still fully functional and eligible regardless of what device it is viewed on and / or screen resolution.

Responsive:

As the name suggests, using CSS3 and @media queries, Responsive emails detect the screen resolution and respond accordingly, rendering two, three and even four different layouts depending on the screen size. Using the correct CSS media queries you can auto-adjust the layout, content and text size of an email depending on the resolution of the device. In addition, images, such as buttons, can be swapped out or completely removed.

By using responsive designs you’re able to get the important stuff in the face of the user where and when it matters, remove blocks of content that might be useful to have there when being viewed on a desktop whilst in the comfort of the home, but whilst out on the go and viewing on a mobile device, just isn't necessary or needed and most importantly - takes away from the purpose of the email.

Knowing What’s Right For You!

Before deciding which technique you want to adopt you need to decide which one is right for you and more importantly, your audience. What content are you sending? What’s the age of your audience? Are they more likely to have lower or higher end device? What screen resolutions do they use? All this is vital to consider before you invest any time and / or resources in to either. All of this information is readily available in Google Analytics and should be analysed. Look at the stats, adopt a technique and then review the stats again, see the changes, are they positive? What could you better? Is that technique right for you? As with everything online... testing, trial and error is the key to success…

So what are you waiting for? Embrace 2013 as your ‘Year Of Mobile’. 

Bad Weather, Signalling Problems and Generally Bad Service

OK.. so firstly, I must wish you all a Happy New Year and hope that you all make 2013 'your' year! I know I will be :) 

Secondly, I have to apologise as it's been some time since I've written anything at all. Partly because I've been really busy at work and home, partly because I was worried I was focusing too much on Android but mostly, because I haven't been bothered.

However, after a horrible journey home and the dying need to vent my frustration somewhere I decided that what a better place to do it than here, on my blog. (I initially started to vent it via my Facebook status, but soon realised what I had to say was far too long to go on there).

So... Quick question. What the fudge does "Signalling Problems" mean?!? I've just spent 1 and half hours (for a journey that usually takes 45 mins) on a extremely over cramped train all because of the same old story. Whenever there is an issue with First Great Western rail service @FGW they blame it on one of 2 things. Bad weather, or signalling problems. I mean, c'mon... you can 'almost' accept the weather excuse, as it's something out of our control. But sometimes, they use this excuse when there is bad rain, and c'mon... surely, rain can't affect a train that doesn't have to worry about corners as it's fixed to following a bloody track. But signalling issues... WTF does that mean? Again, you could accept this if it was a one off event, or if maybe a couple of trains were delayed, but said 'signalling issues' cause problems for ALL the trains in the entire area most days, and not just up to the point of where they 'claim' the issue is... but ongoing from there also.

To explain the above, I have come up with a very simple example... see below.

Train leaves point A and needs to stop at points B, C, D & E... But there are 'signalling issues' at point B. So you can sort of understand (if that were true) that there might be a delay whilst the train travels between A, B and maybe even C... but once they have passed point C, surely the delay shouldn't continue to grow. It makes no sense to me and I often think that they use this excuse as another way of saying 'Due to us being complete f**k ups and unable to run an effective service'. Tell is how it is guys, I'm sure you would get much more respect for being honest and open. You're useless and can't do your jobs correctly.

And just to add insult to injury, they charge me £170 a month for the privilege of getting stressed because I'm constantly delayed. Nice huh?!

So please tell me First Great Western (@FGW)... What is a signalling problem?!?!

Well, for those of you who have actually read all of the above, I apologise. But I can happily say now, that I feel much better for getting it off my chest :) 

End of rant! 
x 

Sense 4.1 Update... HTC One X as it should be!

OK... so just a quick update on my previous post...

Like many frustrated HTC One X customers, I couldn't be bothered waiting for them to push the release out OTA, so downloaded the official RUU from XDA and can happily say that both the performance and the battery life have been improved considerably.

Although I was never unhappy with my HOX, I did used to wonder how I was supposed to manage more than one day without having to charge the battery, and I did come across a few minor niggles with the operation of certain aspects of it, mostly coming from Sense itself. Navigating menu's and the home screen could have been so much smoother.

All this has now been rectified though and I can happily confirm that this latest update from HTC has cured the issues. I'm now getting more than a days usage from my phone and navigating around the UI is a delight.

One of the other fixes, which is equally satisfying, is the removal of the '3 dots' in non-ICS apps. This wasn't something I had noticed previously until it was actually pointed out to me on XDA. But all apps that haven't been developed for ICS (including the likes of Facebook, and many games) featured a solid black bar along the bottom of the screen with 3 dots in them. This was used to get to the menu of whatever app you were in.

As I said previous, I never really noticed it. However, now that it's no longer there, and I have manually mapped the 'recent apps' button to be the menu, the difference is amazing. Such a small change can have mass impact on the user experience and makes the HOX a much nicer phone to use as you can now fully appreciate the screen's size and resolution.

I can happily say, that once again, I am thoroughly satisfied with my HTC One X, but the fact of the ridiculous wait for this, to the point where I have had to manually download and update this myself, coupled with the fact that HTC clearly rushed the HOX out the door without sorting this issue prior to launch makes me wonder what HTC were thinking. It's an arms race in the smart phone industry right now, and more imperative than ever to get things right first time.

Either way... I'm happy with the result and am only left with one question... How long do we have to wait for Jelly Bean ???

HTC Making A Little More Sense (4.1)

Latest rumour coming from the HTC camp is that there is finally a worthy update coming for the Sense UI.

Sense 4.1 is set to improve battery levels (from 3 hours screen time to 5), fix some minor glitches with the Wi-Fi connectivity and all-in-all make it a smoother experience.

There is also rumours that users are going to be able to remap the dedicated buttons along the bottom edge of the screen, allowing us to use the (not so) multi-tasking button as a menu button, much like most AOKP roms, thus disposing of the horrible black menu bar that appears in the majority of apps and games. In addition to numerous other dedicated buttons for both the browser and camera.

I will be eagerly awaiting this update over the coming weeks... Shame it's not Jelly Bean, but I guess that's not far off either :) 

My First Taste Of Jelly Bean

So I did it, I took the leap and rooted my HTC One X.
I'm sick of reading blogs about Jelly Bean coming soon, and how well it's performing on the Galaxy Nexus, I decided I had to try it for myself.

OK, so it's not the most stable, and there are still a couple of little faults here and there, but nothing I can't live with. 


Plus, I know once HTC pull their finger out and finally release Jelly Bean with Sense, I can soon enough flash my HOX back to stock and get the update OTA.

Initial thoughts... Superb. Galaxy S3, eat your heart out! 

The new Google Project Butter really make the quad core Tegra 3 chip work, but wow! It works well. Screen transitions are amazing, instant and as the name suggests. Buttery smooth.

The other feature I've been eagerly awaiting to get my hands on it Google Now. I still haven't managed to get my teeth into it just yet, all I have done is open the app, but as soon as I did, I was amazingly impressed that it displayed local delays across trains, and roads in my local area and asking if I wanted suggestions to alternatives. That's Impressive.

That's about it for now... Just wanted to share my initial experience with Jelly Bean. I'll create a full write-up on it over the coming days once I've managed to get my teeth in to it completely.



Massive thanks to TripNDroid for this update, head over to XDA if you want to try it for yourself.

The Power Of Social Media

It's 2012, and we are well in to what we call 'The Digital Age'. Gone are the days of using maps, typewriters, stopping and asking for directions and having photo's developed at the local Boots. Every thing we do can be done at home, (or out on the move) at the flick of a button, or in most cases, the touch of a screen.

Mobile phones are more like pocket size devices which have many features, one of which happens to make calls, camera's, GPS navigation, email and of course, Social Media. 

Why Social Media? What is it that has us addicted to (over) sharing where we are, what we are doing, what we are thinking and in some cases what we are eating? Because if you turn back the clocks some 10 years, to a time when social media didn't exist, I don't ever remember receiving phone calls from friends telling me 'I'm at the cinema about to watch Jurassic Park', or "I'm just in the back garden, chilling in the sun with a glass of beer". This was information we just didn't really share. So, back to the question, 'Why?' Well that's simple - because we can.

But social media isn't just about sharing photo's, information and whereabouts with your friends... oh no! Brands are using it too. Big brands use the power of social media to gauge online interaction with their brand, to see what people are saying, see what people want and in some cases, even to monitor complaints. Which is what this post is focused on.

In the last couple of month, I have used Social Media, particularly Twitter, a couple of times to rant about my dissatisfaction at service levels from a couple of brands, but I did it in such a way that I knew the brand would see it in the hope they would take action, resulting in me receiving almost £150's worth of compensation from the 2. After all, no brand wants bad press. The brand's in question were First Great Western Trains (@FGW), for their poor train service this month, resulting in me missing connections and being late to work 7 times in one month and SCS Sofa's (@SCSSofas) for not delivering our new sofa when stated. Both of these brands picked up on my complaint and handled it very efficiently and left me extremely satisfied with the result. #WellDone ;)

So here's my 'Quick & Simple Guide To Complaining Via Social Media'

Step 1. Google 'Brand name twitter account'.

Chances are, if said brand have an account, Google will know it, and display it... For those of you not familiar with Twitter ID's, they all start with an '@' symbol. For example, mine is @Lynden2883

Step 2. Tweet Your Disgust.

Create a Tweet, this doesn't have to be Shakespeare's greatest work, and remember you only have 140 characters (including spaces), and you HAVE to get the Twitter ID in there too (maybe even a hash-tag). Make it simple, and make it instant. It's no good waiting until you have calmed down, it has to be there and then.

e.g. Really p*ssed off with @BrandName today, completely #RuinedMyDay, #Thanks

Step 3. Wait For A Reply.

If said brand have a Social Media team worth their salt, they should get back to you, and usually within a couple of hours. In both my cases, it has been within minutes. After all, that's what they are paid to do.

Step 4. Be Brazen.

My Mum always told me, "If you don't ask, you don't get"... so be brazen. Once they've replied, tell them what would make it better, what would be ample compensation for your miss-fortune / inconvenience. Don't ask for something that's clearly not going to happen, like the winning lottery ticket, or £500. But something realistic that you know should be well within their power.

Step 5. Show Gratitude... 

This is something I think people often forget. We are all too quick to complain when things go wrong, but not so quick to give praise when something is handled right. OK, so they messed your order up, or ruined your day, but this wasn't the fault of the customer care / social media team who handled your enquiry, so show a little gratitude in the way they handled it. Sometimes a simple 'Received #GreatCustomerService from @BrandName today, #Thanks :)' goes a long way, and will ensure that team, keeps working the way they did. :)

1 important thing to remember... 'The World Is Watching'. Whether someone follows you or not, there is a high chance that other people will see your tweets, especially if you are using hash tags in there too, and the brands know this also. So they want to be fast, they want to handle your problem, and most importantly, they want to be seen doing so. So use this to your ADVANTAGE!!! 

Go on. Embrace the Power Of Social Media!

A Day of Fun, Laughter and.... Screams!?

Right, off the bat, I have to say that up until Saturday, I'd never been to a theme park, and mostly for the reason that the appeal has never really been there to do so. I've never really seen the enjoyment out of standing in queues for hours on end waiting to go on a ride which lasts (in some cases) seconds...
However, my girlfriend and her family are on the other hand, the complete opposite. Regular visits to Alton Towers each year, holiday's to Disney World in Florida, Portaventura... basically, anywhere there are rollorcoasters... they are there. In short, they are theme park mad.

So when the suggestion of going to Thorpe Park came up, I wasn't particularly excited about it, but figured we were going as a group, so whatever happened, it would be a good day. After all, it was more for Sal's Birthday, as the family couldn't make it the weekend of her birthday, so we decided to do something the weekend before.

As the weeks went by and the weekend got closer, I began to look up the rides, and expected to start to feel some kind of nerves building up, but they didn't. Even when doing my research on the rides I was to expect, I didn't get that sense of 'Oh my god!'... I did however, really start to look forward to the weekend. More so because Sal was getting excited and it was a weekend with her family, which is when I know she is at her happiest.

We were up early doors on Saturday to ensure we got the Thorpe Park first thing and didn't have to queue for the tickets too much. As we got closer, I could see the rides sticking out above the horizon... OMG! These were big... You could see Stealth for miles... and they only got bigger the closer you get.

Once we were parked, got the tickets and were actually in the park, it's then you start to see how big these rides actually are. They tower above everything. Just watching them put a huge smile on my face and gave me a sense of excitement. The sense of excitement I had been looking for over the last couple of weeks.

The crew arrived and we were soon heading off around the park looking for the first ride to go on... As I'd never been before and had no idea about rollor coasters, I was happy to follow everyone's lead and go on whatever they wanted to throw at me first. But still, I had no sense of nerves... nothing was telling me 'this isn't such a good idea'... The first ride we headed for was Nemesis, and as we joined the queue the voice over the speaker said the estimated queuing time was 60 minutes... "60 minutes?... That's a lifetime"... But it wasn't... you stand there (luckily in the sun) chatting away, wandering through the landscaped queuing areas, ducking un-necessarily as the rollor coasters fly by, and actually find that time flies by almost as quick as the people on the ride only a mere couple of feet above your head.

It was only when we got to the very end of the queue, and I was strapped in, that the feeling of fear hit me... and boy did it hit me! Ha! I wasn't panicking, and wanting to get off, but that sense of butterflies that I'd been expecting (and forgotten about) suddenly hit me. By this time tho, it was far to late... We were off... 

The floor below me disappeared, and the coaster was off, ducking and diving through the trees even before we reached the climb to the first and major drop, almost preparing you for what was to come. my legs suspended below me, I decided the best thing was to just relax, and go with it, and boy... was it fun. OK... so it only lasted a minute, tops.. but wow.. the feeling was amazing.

This was the point where I realised why people happily queue for hours to go on a ride that lasts seconds... It was amazing.

Following Nemesis, we headed for Stealth... 0 - 80 in 2 seconds, then up to a height with a view which can only be described as 'breath taking', and then diving back down to the ground again and back into the finish. Must have been all of 10 seconds, but had to be the best rush I've ever experienced in my life. It all happened that fast that I can't exactly remember what was going through my head as we launched, but whatever it was, I must have screamed it, because when I got off, my throat was sore... That deep down sore you get following a night of partying, shouting and screaming. I loved it so much, I was ready to get to the back of the 1hr queue and go back on it again... But the day was drawing fast, and there were more rides to hit.

Next was Saw. We queued for 2 hours in the baking sun chatting away and having a laugh. Over this time, the ride broke down twice, and we contemplated walking away, but the ride was back up and running within 10 minutes max, and we were relieved we didn't walk off. After all, by this point, we'd been queuing for well over an hour. Saw was a different experience all together. I guess they had tried to encompass that feeling of fear, taken from the Saw movies. It was a very good ride, and had plenty of drops, twists and turns. But I spent more time trying to figure out where I was and what was happening to me, than actually enjoying it. So, I guess, it wasn't my favourite.

I think the only disappointment of the day was that Swarm broke down toward the end of the day, and we never got to go on it... But I'll be back, and that'll be the first coaster I make a B-line for :) 

Needless to say, I now have the bug and will be investing in some Merlin passes over the next couple of month's. With Thorpe Park only a 20 minute drive away from where I live, I'd be mad not to. But I'm also keen to now visit Alton Towers... I hear they have even more, bigger and better rides which I just have to experience.