Are you delivering your e-mail marketing messages to your customers' phones yet? If not, you'd better start thinking about it for at least two really good reasons:

Mobile Provides One More Channel To Overcome Marketing Clutter

First, your customers are increasingly becoming overwhelmed with marketing messages delivered to their regular e-mail accounts.

Studies from Lyris and other e-mail marketing companies show:

1. An alarming amount of opt-in e-mails get sent to recipients' junk mail folders, and

2. People are so overwhelmed with even opt-in messages that they increasingly report them as spam without even realizing they opted in to start with.

So, if traditional e-mail marketing is your only means of communicating with your customers, you run the risk that they never receive your messages.

Early Adoption of Mobile Provides An Untapped Channel for Customer Communications

Second, by being an early adopter and getting your messages out to customers' mobile devices early, you reach them in a virtually untapped and uncluttered channel. Chances are very good that they aren't yet receiving volumes of mobile messages, so your opt-in messages are more likely to get read.

7 Essential Tips For Crafting Your Mobile Marketing Messages

Tip #1 - Text vs. HTML - Text Wins

Even though your traditional e-mail marketing campaigns may be entirely html, your mobile e-mail messages should be in text until a better standard for html mobile delivery arrives.

Despite iPhone, Blackberry and other html "friendly" devices, there are so many variations of mobile devices and rendering formats that you're best off to send text only messages, at least until a better and more stable standard arrives for html or rich content delivery.

Tip #2 - Write For Mobile's Small Screen

Don't forget the small screen real estate afforded by mobile devices. The average mobile screen measures a paltry 2 to 4 inches.

Tip #3 - Optimize For Blocked Images and Preview Pane

Optimize mobile messages to compensate for blocked images and the preview pane.

Tip #4 - Preview Before You Send

Even though it's a good idea to offer all readers a text option as an alternative to HTML, view your text version on your own mobile device to ensure it shows up the way you want it to. Also, if you can, check your messages on other phones your friends or officemates have. The best test is on the oldest most abused phone you can find.

Test, test, test, and then test some more. Never, ever send your mobile messages out without testing them first.

Tip #5 - Keep It Short

Remember that most text messages have 60 to 80 characters per line, and mobile platforms will show 20 to 40 characters in 12 to 15 lines per screen, depending on screen width and type style.

Short messages are critical. Messages over a certain size may be cut off or require the reader to push a button to see the rest of the message. You want your entire message readable at a glance with no further action of the reader required. Remember the snail mail maxim of keeping it "above the fold." It applies to both your e-mail and your mobile messages as well.

Tip #6 - Avoid Long URLs

Use simple URL's instead of long-string tracking URLs, even if it means you won't be able to track as well.

Tip #7 - Validate Your Website For Mobile

Validate your website for mobile if you include links to send readers there from your e-mail messages.

Conclusion

Mobile messaging is not just the wave of the future - it's the current wave. Be sure you get your mobile marketing campaign off on the right foot by following these 7 simple, easy-to-implement steps.

You'll keep your readers happy and you should also increase the reach of your marketing messages.