1. KITBAG.COM
Case Study: iPhone Optimisation
Lyris Ltd –
1 Confidential

2. Objective
To find out if optimising
Kitbag.com’s emails for mobile
devices results in higher open,
click through and conversion
rates.
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3. Kitbag.com
Kitbag.com is Europe's leading online sports retailer
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4. Why are mobile devices important to
email marketers?
 Morgan Stanley predicted that the
population of mobile users will exceed
desktop internet users within five years.
 Mobile e-commerce is ramping up faster
than online e-commerce, now making up
4% of total retail sales
 Research by Nielsen shows that Email
accounts for 42 percent of mobile internet
time (compared to just 10.5 percent using
social media, for example).
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5. What are the main issues?
 What does your email look like on a small screen?
 Is it hard to click on links?
 Do your subscribers have to zoom in to read
the content?
 If you have optimised the email for a mobile device,
what does it look like on a large screen?
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6. Testing method
 Litmus email analytics tags added to Kitbag emails from December 2011 –
February 2012
 Top email clients analysed – Apple iPhone was used by 22.49% of
recipients making it the most popular email client among Kitbag
subscribers
 Apple iPhone subscribers flagged within Lyris HQ
 Lyris and Kitbag develop iPhone optimised email templates which are 400
pixels wide rather than 750 pixels wide
 50% of flagged iPhone users are sent a regular sized version of the Kitbag
newsletter and 50% are sent the iPhone optimised version
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7. KEY STATS

8. Popularity of reading environments
among Kitbag.com subscribers
35% of opens
from Kitbag.com
subscribers come
from a mobile device
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9. Top email clients used by
Kitbag.com subscribers
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10. Top mobile email clients used by
Kitbag.com subscribers
66% of Kitbag’s
mobile opens come
from the Apple iPhone
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11. Top email clients used by iPhone users
98% of iPhone
users view their emails
with the built-in mail
client
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12. Engagement across email clients
Desktop Mobile Webmail
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13. OPTIONS FOR OPTIMISING

14. Option 1 – Removing fixed width tables
One of the most widely used solutions to this issue is having a table that
is equal to 100%. This means the email will automatically fill 100% of the
screen it is being viewed on.
Pros
• Easy to do
• Usually looks good on
mobile devices
Cons
• Not appropriate for image
only emails
• Can look very bad on
larger screens
• Doesn’t always look good on a
mobile device, especially if there
are images
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15. Option 1 – Removing fixed width tables
Example of an email with 100% table fully open in Outlook
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16. Option 2 – Add a view on mobile link to
your email
Add a link to the top of an email which points to a mobile friendly version
of the email.
Pros
• Easy to do
• Looks good on mobile devices
Cons
• Requires subscriber to click on a
link to view
• Takes longer to code the email
• Often gets overlooked because the
link is usually quite small on a
mobile device
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17. Option 3 – Intelligent CSS
Use CSS media queries to remove unnecessary elements of your email
when viewed on a small screen.
Pros Cons
• Allows you to change the look of the • Requires a coder to implement
email depending on screen size • Not effective for image only emails
• Looks good on large and small • Can take longer to code
screens • Adds weight to email due to extra
• Gives you the ability to remove code
unnecessary parts of your email • Doesn’t work in Gmail’s Android app
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18. Option 3 – Intelligent CSS
Outlook iPhone iPhone
without CSS with CSS
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19. Option 4 – Design your email for mobile users
Reduce the width of your current email to between 300 – 500 pixels and
use a single column layout. Ensure the email text is large enough to read
on a mobile and the call to action is easy to click.
Pros
• Not hard to do
• Easy to read on a mobile without
having to zoom in
• Links are easy to tap
Cons
• Could look slightly strange when
viewed on a large screen
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20. HOW DID WE OPTIMISE KITBAG’S EMAILS

21. Regular email design – Within iPhone
 750 pixels wide
 Very small pre-header text
 Small navigation buttons
 Multi-column layout
 Unreadable text
 Small calls to action – can be
hard to click through on
desired link
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22. iPhone optimised email design
 400 pixels wide
 No pre-header text
 No navigation buttons
 Single column layout
 Larger text
 Large calls to action that are
easy to tap
 Unnecessary content has been
removed
 Main message is clearly visible
at the top of the email
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23. TEST RESULTS

24. Non-iPhone users
Full size emails sent to all non-iPhone users
Key Metrics Results
Average unique open rate 12.3%
Average unique click rate 2.3%
Average click to open rate 19.11%
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25. iPhone users sent full size email
Full size emails sent to 50% of iPhone users
Key Metrics Results
Average unique open rate 39.8%
Average unique click rate 5.3%
Average click to open rate 13.31%
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26. iPhone users sent optimised email
Optimised email sent to 50% of iPhone users
Key Metrics Results
Average unique open rate 43.4%
Average unique click rate 4.9%
Average click to open rate 11.37%
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27. Average unique open rates
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28. Higher open rates for mobile optimised emails?
Why would the mobile optimised emails
consistently have a higher open rate?
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29. Size matters!
Average Email Average open
weight rate
Full size version of email 17.42 KB 39.84%
iPhone optimised version of 9.35 KB 43.38%
email
Light weight emails =
Higher open rates on mobile devices
Internet download speeds can vary greatly on
mobile devices so it makes sense that the faster
downloading email would have a higher open rate
on a mobile.
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30. How about conversions?
Although we received great
open rates from our iPhone
segment we did not see an
increase in conversion rates.
There could be several
reasons for this:
 Kitbag.com does not have a mobile
optimised version of their website
 Subscribers are most probably not
in a position to purchase when
viewing your emails on their mobile Kitbag.com on an iPhone
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31. Why bother?
Why bother optimising for mobile devices if
conversion rates are not higher?
We believe that it’s still important to optimise for mobile devices because:
 Open rates from mobiles are much higher than other email clients
 Having a clear mobile optimised email design will encourage these
subscribers to return directly to your website or shop at a later date – via
their desktop or tablet
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32. THANK YOU