Yahoo’s New Email App Favors a Mobile-Friendly Experience

by Victor Green
3 mins read

As one of the biggest names in the email world, it’s no surprise that the moves and machinations coming out of Yahoo can send ripples through the inbox strategies of brands and marketers alike. With the release of Yahoo’s latest iteration of its mobile email app, this notion rings true yet again. To keep you ahead of the competition as you hone in on this audience, let’s take a moment to talk about why this new take on Yahoo’s app favors mobile-friendly emails, as well as how best to capitalize on this opportunity with optimized mobile messages.

The Particulars of Yahoo’s New Email App

As Jess Nelson of Media Post’s Email Marketing Daily blog explains, Yahoo released an update for iOS and Android on October 15th that is focused on creating a great mobile experience for users of this app. The new user interface aims to enhance mobile speed and usability, as well as provide access to additional features – namely, a smarter mobile search engine, Yahoo News updates, and even contact profiles that integrate seamlessly with social media networks and apps.The mobile update from Yahoo also rolls out the new “Yahoo Account Key” feature. This service replaces the need for the traditional take on email security and protection by completely removing account passwords from the equation. Instead, users will simply link their Yahoo accounts to the mobile device in question, thereby creating a link that Yahoo’s app development team sees as more secure than standard passwords. It is important to note that members of your mobile inbox audience can still use regular passwords if they so choose.From a larger picture point of view, Nelson goes on to point out that all of these changes serve as strong responses to two important factors – the growing demand for a mobile-friendly experience from email users, and the pressure created by the continued growth of other providers on this front. While time will tell if these improvements are enough to gain ground for Yahoo in the mobile world, it’s safe to say that the launch of this upgraded email app has definitely set the stage for a major push in the right direction.

Making a Great First Impression on This New Platform

So now that you understand what’s going on with Yahoo’s new mobile email app, it’s time to talk about the best ways to ensure that you make the most out of this opportunity as well by following in this email service provider’s mobile-friendly footsteps. In terms of creating content that not only responds well to viewing on this – or any other – mobile platform, but also enhances the experience for the person on the other side of the screen, Entrepreneur magazine’s D.J. Waldow points out that it’s hard to go wrong with a call-to-action (CTA) that’s big and obvious to the viewer.Yes, your brand wants to elaborate on the offer, announcement, or news story that makes up the majority of this message’s body content, but it’s also important to understand that mobile viewers generally scroll past anything that they perceive as “fluff.” This means that you’ll want a CTA button or link that states its purpose in an obvious manner, all while being in a place of prominence within the message.A good rule of thumb to keep in mind when it comes to your CTA is that if it’s hard for you to click on or otherwise interact with it during testing, then you can bet your audience won’t waste more than a few seconds in trying to fiddle with this button or link before they give up and head to the next message in their inbox.From here, Waldow also suggests being smart with your image usage in these mobile messages. This isn’t to say that you have to skip out on images entirely, just spend some time working out how these visuals render and affect the user experience within Yahoo’s new app – or any other mobile platform, for that matter. In some cases, leaving the images for a landing page or expandable link might be a better call and ensure that the viewer experience is streamlined and easily navigable.If you’re able to keep these quick tips in mind, as well as put to good use the rest of what you’ve learned here about Yahoo’s recent email app update, then there’s no reason why your brand can’t capture all of the potential held within this segment of its audience as you continue to refine and optimize your mobile inbox experience.

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