With the emphasis on securing mobile viewership always on the rise, it’s no surprise that every little change within the latest generation of smartphones sends ripples through the email marketing world. The current fervor surrounding the new “3D Touch” feature found on the iPhone 6s is no exception to this rule. To ensure that you don’t miss out on vital opportunities to interact with your audience members who can’t put their iPhones down, let’s take some to time talk about what this new feature entails and how your brand can make the most out of this development.
Breaking down the Particulars of Apple’s “3D Touch”
For those readers who didn’t rush out and grab the latest edition of the iPhone when it launched on Sept. 25th, chances are that you’re sitting on the other side of this screen and wondering just what the heck all the commotion is about. As Dom Esposito of 9 to 5 Mac explains, the uproar is all thanks to the new 3D Touch functionality found on this mobile device.Essentially, Esposito notes that the 3D Touch variations of the iPhone enhance the touch screen capabilities of these devices and introduce a few new tactile control options to users. By sensing the amount of pressure placed upon the screen by users, this new feature offers up “layers” of response options that provide haptic feedback to let you know that you initiated an action.In terms of your mobile email opens and views, the big navigational changes with the 3D Touch display can be distilled down to the “peek” and “pop” options. As the name implies, the peek touch command lets users take a look at an email without opening it, all while blurring out the rest of the screen and zooming in on the interior contents of the offering. Basically, this response keeps viewers out of the actual message while still allowing them to decide whether or not to trash this new transmission.The pop option requires a heavier press and transfers the user into your marketed message from their app of choice once they have given your content a quick preview. While not as impactful initially as its peek counterpart, it is still important to understand the functionality of this navigational input as you learn more about the particulars of 3D Touch capable iPhone models.
Why This Change Matters to the World of Email Marketing
“Put simply, the iPhone 6s 3D Touch feature will force email marketers and brands to raise their game. The margin of error for marketers is now much smaller.” – Simon Farthing, Head of Consultancy at Profusion.This quote, via a piece from Ben Frederick of Media Post’s Email Marketing Daily blog, does a great job of highlighting the impact this change in functionality could have for iPhone-based email marketing audiences moving forward. Peek previews won’t count toward open numbers because the email isn’t viewed in a traditional sense, yet it still can lead to a dismissal from your viewer if they don’t engage with your content.The long and short of this development is that raising – or even simply maintaining – open rates just got a lot harder when it comes to the iPhone segment of your target audience.Perhaps even more concerning is the fact that this could be just the first in a long line of phone manufacturers that travel down this path. If Samsung, LG, and other major brands also continue to enhance and incorporate preview functionality that diminishes open rates, all while mobile usage continues to skyrocket, the future for email marketing could look a lot different than the landscape that we know today.
Ensuring You Don’t Lose out on Opens with This New Feature
Fortunately, the iPhone 3D Touch system isn’t a death sentence for your inbox initiatives. In fact, with the proper response, there’s no real reason why the impact of your email marketing operations has to diminish at all. As Frederick goes on to note, it’s all about renewing your emphasis on captivating and vibrant images and copy within your preview panes.Just like on a desktop browser, everything “above the fold” is more important than ever before. Thankfully, if your subject lines, visual content, and opening few sentences of actual body copy are refined and optimized for the person on the other side of the screen, then this latest upgrade to the iPhone line of products shouldn’t stand as a bump in the road for your brand.
