Responsive design is said to be the method of choice in the mobile web. Emails in particular face the challenge of different display sizes with recipients. Through a fluid or responsive design, emails can be adapted on smartphones and tablets and displayed accordingly, while on a desktop PC, they can be displayed to their full width. Unfortunately, not all devices support HTML 5, which is necessary for responsive design. Omitting or scaling graphics is often not enough to fulfil the requirements of marketers or recipients for the mobile context of use. Location-based services or direct response to customer behaviour at POS, require other communication tools for mobile target groups.
With the new Ultra Responsive Email, online CRM technology and consulting provider artegic AG, introduces a new format for effective dialogue marketing with mobile target groups. This solution combines elements from fluid and responsive design on the client side with terminal device identification and based on this, response media technology on the server side. Ultra responsive email therefore enables the adjustment of the format to different, even older terminal devices, plus the adaptation of contents depending on the terminal device and context of use.
Devices or provider-specific services, time of opening, weather or lifecycle information can be used for real-time changes in emails and to respond to the particular context of use of the recipient. For example, a customer email triggered after a purchase at the POS can show a different content when opened on a mobile device within the first 90 minutes, than the same email later opened on a PC.
“With the ultra responsive email, we are reinventing mobile email communication”, says Stefan von Lieven, CEO at artegic AG. “Only by taking into consideration and individualising the mobile context of use, mobile email really exploits its potential. Until now, this was only about weirdly displayed emails on smartphones.”
“Responsiveness” for the first time in the recipient’s context of use
The promise of responsive design is: Optimal user experience on every terminal device. When a user opens an email on a smartphone, modern HTML code automatically retrieves the specifications of the terminal device and the client adjusts the display for mobile use. With classic responsive design, emails are usually only scaled in size or hidden. artegic’s new ultra responsive email technology expands these abilities and allows individual contents, e.g. entirely different images for different terminal devices and resolutions up to HD quality for users of retina displays. In the same way, control elements, such as links and buttons or touchscreen operation, are adapted and individually integrated.
However, the term “responsiveness” in ultra responsive email does not only refer to an adjustment of the display, but also to a response to the context of use. This allows a contextual allocation of contents in realtime when the email is opened, e.g. according to the terminal device or client used. When a user opens an email with an iPhone or iPad, a direct reference and link to the iTunes App can be provided. The same email on an Adroid Smartphone may take the reader to the Google Play Store. On a PC in a browser view, the same email would not include the App ad but offer a directly playable video instead.