Pressly Blog

Email Marketing on Mobile: 10 Things You Need to Know

by Tobin Dalrymple

Email marketing on mobile is an increasing concern for marketers, with some industries seeing over 65% of their email campaigns being opened from a tablet or smartphone.

However, there is still a large portion marketers that are doing nothing about optimizing their emails for the small screen. Not only is this causing readers to suffer from a poor reading experience, but this can have significant impacts on a marketer’s key metrics, such as conversion, sales and lead generation.

One reason for this inertia is that mobile is still a blooming trend and not everyone has had time to prepare for it adequately. Which is why Pressly put together a free ebook to help marketers navigate this new world. 10 Things You Know About Mobile Email Marketing is available for instant download, and it gives you best practices and insight into some surprising facts about mobile email, such as:

More people use their smartphone for email than for phoning people
The three most common complaints for mobile email
The secret to better lead conversion on mobile email campaigns

And so much more!

Get your free guide today and get started on the path to improving your mobile email strategy.

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Come meet us at BrightCove Play 2013 (and get our guide)

by Tobin Dalrymple

Fellow Bostonians! We are in your beautiful city for BrightcovePlay 2013, between May 13 and May 15. If you are attending the event, come say hello! We would love to meet up with anyone interested in learning more about transforming your content for mobile, and improving your mobile content engagement and returns.

A Pressly Guide to Brightcove Play 2013

For those of you who are attending, we’ve got something special just for you. We have put together a Pressly-powered guide to give you everything you need find your away around the conference, as well as some special features, such as:

Live stream video so you can watch all the action happening on stage, no matter where you are
Full schedules and links to the speaker tracks
Bios and background info on all the speakers
Plus: bonus info on Boston’s best places to eat and go have fun once you’re done schmoozing

On your smartphone or tablet device, you can access the BrightcovePlay 2013 Guide here: Brightcove.Pressly.com

(Tip: if you aren’t on a mobile device right now, email yourself that link for easy opening).

If you’d like to catch up, Pressly CEO Jeff Brenner will be taking part in the panel on responsive design and video on Tuesday. And we also have a booth set up with the other sponsors, and we’ll be giving live demos of Brightcove video integrations with Pressly’s mobile publishing platform. Just look for the people in the black polo shirts holding iPads.

Pressly Integrates with Brightcove

We are also pleased to announce that Pressly now integrates with Brightcove. So, if you are a Brightcove customer and you want to know how you can start presenting your video content to tablet and smartphone users in a beautiful and compelling way, please get in touch.

That’s it for now. Can’t wait to meet you!

ps: not sure what Pressly is? Learn more here.

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Mobile Makeover: Local News Goes Mobile To Boost Engagement

by Tobin Dalrymple

In this Mobile Makeover series, we’ve written a lot about how brands and marketers can improve their content marketing results on mobile, simply by making it more engaging with a tool like Pressly.

But the exact same thing can be said for traditional publishers of all sizes, whether you are a major daily, or a niche local magazine. Content marketers and brands are just a different kind of publisher, after all. And pageviews, bounce rates and advertising (or call to actions) are all crucial elements in both worlds. Continue reading “Mobile Makeover: Local News Goes Mobile To Boost Engagement” »

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Thoughts on Flash: 3 Years Later

by Tobin Dalrymple

Three years ago today, Steve Jobs published a controversial letter called “Thoughts on Flash.” In it, he put an end to years of speculation and debate as to why Apple wouldn’t let Flash on its mobile devices. He gave six reasons, but in general it was all about openness, performance and not being at the mercy of third parties to ensure quality.

Long before that letter came out, Apple wouldn’t let Flash on its other mobile touch devices, the iPhone and iPod touch. But the launch of long-anticipated Apple tablet brought things to a boiling point. This was a new era of mobile content publishing and Flash wasn’t invited. At the time, the vast majority of web video was Flash powered. Interactive sites and rich experiences were practically all Flash. There was a feeling that, if Apple devices didn’t have Flash, then they didn’t have access to the “full web.” When Jobs gave the world its first ever glimpse of the iPad, browsing the web from a leather couch on stage, a big fat missing Flash plugin icon stood out on the screen like a sore thumb.

Out of this situation emerged HTML5 as the Web’s new hero, and in the three years since Jobs’ letter, this open, standardized Web technology has made tremendous leaps and bounds. There is no longer any worry about “the full web.” Video is alive and thriving on mobile. Apple still leads the tablet market. And Flash support has been stopped.

At Pressly we know the power HTML5 brings to content creators and users. We are very proud to have been taking part in this new era, by bringing the most cutting-edge content experiences to the mobile Web. And we love that we have helped make the Web on tablets and smartphones just a little more “full.”

Here’s to the next three years!

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Content Marketing Mobile Makeover: TopRank Online Marketing Blog

by Tobin Dalrymple

Lee Odden is an SEO master. He’s the author of best selling SEO and marketing books, like this one. As the CEO of TopRank, he runs a successful boutique agency that’s been around since 2001. But most people know him better for his blog, The TopRank Online Marketing blog, which was once hailed as the #1 content marketing blog.

When you Google “online marketing blog”, TopRank is the top ranked online marketing blog (at least it was when I searched for it today).

But Lee’s got a problem. In fact he’s got thousands and thousands of problems: mobile website visitors.

Continue reading “Content Marketing Mobile Makeover: TopRank Online Marketing Blog” »

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Content Marketing Mobile Makeover: Converse

by Tobin Dalrymple

Spring has sprung, the snow is melting, and that means people everywhere are putting away the boots, and lacing up their old, beat-up Chuck Taylors.

Which is why it’s perfect timing for our first ever Mobile Makeover for great content marketing brands, as we pay homage to the great sneaker company, Converse. Today we are giving Converse’s blog and social content a mobile re-do, which we hope will give their readers a more enjoyable, engaging mobile reading experience. Continue reading “Content Marketing Mobile Makeover: Converse” »

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How long does it take to build a mobile content marketing app?

by Tobin Dalrymple

Content marketing expert Joe Chernov released a useful infographic in January, revealing just how long it takes to create a mobile app.

The post was fittingly called: “How long does it take to build a mobile app?” And the answer was 18 weeks. In that same amount of time, you could send 40 Apollo 11′s to the moon or drill three 3,000 foot oil wells. In other words: it takes a while. Continue reading “How long does it take to build a mobile content marketing app?” »

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Mobile adoption in 2013: it’s time to stop calling it “second screen”

by Tobin Dalrymple

The image above, originally produced by NBC, was posted on our Twitter feed this week by a good friend. It shows two crowds, both gathered for the exact same event (the unveiling of a new pope), at the exact same location, eight years apart.

I’ve never seen a more powerful illustration of just how far mobile adoption has come.

In fact, it’s starting to feel a little bit like an understatement to simply call it “adoption”. It’s more like “total take over”.

Continue reading “Mobile adoption in 2013: it’s time to stop calling it “second screen”” »

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Responsive web design vs mobile web apps

by Tobin Dalrymple

By now most publishers have hopefully started to think about the mobile web. They’ve seen their Google Analytics reports, and noticed an ever-growing portion of their online traffic is coming from mobile devices – and those mobile users need something better than an ad telling them to go download a native app. But the jury is still out about the best way to handle the explosive rise of the mobile web.

Mostly the thinking falls into two categories:

Do you build a separate web app for tablet and smartphone visitors (delivered from the browser from a subdomain like m.yoursite.com)? Or do you re-do your desktop site with mobile responsive design in mind?

Continue reading “Responsive web design vs mobile web apps” »

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Pressly Picks: Subcompact Publishing isn’t just for magazines.

by Ian Richmond

Back towards the end of 2012, Craig Mod published a manifesto on the need to move away from traditional notions of the digital magazine:

“I propose Subcompact Publishing tools and editorial ethos begin (but not end) with the following qualities:

• Small issue sizes (3-7 articles / issue)

• Small file sizes • Digital-aware subscription prices

• Fluid publishing schedule

• Scroll (don’t paginate)

• Clear navigation • HTML(ish) based

• Touching the open web”

These ideas strike me as essential truths for almost any digital content strategy. Mod is encouraging restraint in how we use the powerful platforms we have for content development and distribution. Suggesting, for example, that too much innovation in user experience can lead to confusion and decreased engagement.

As marketers become story tellers, they are reaching out to their audiences on diverse platforms. Adopting lightweight, agile approaches and business models seem to make sense for them too.

>> Read the rest of Craig Mod’s article here.

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