Targeting the Tablet Customer

Adobe Systems’ first "Digital Marketing Insights" report begins with a powerful statement: “Consumers who visit retail websites using tablet devices are more valuable online customers than those who visit websites using smartphones or traditional desktop/laptop computers.”

Let’s think about that for a moment… device type is now another layer that we can use to measure customers that bring in the most value.  Traditional purchase behavior, site activity, social media interactions, and overall engagement can now be broken down by what someone is holding in their hands or where they are sitting. I love data.

Not only are your tablet buyers valuable, they are spending more dollars than their smartphone and desktop and laptop counterparts. The report found that tablet users spent 50% more than smartphone users and 20% more than those on traditional computers.  They are also nearly three times as likely to purchase compared to smartphone users and nearly as likely as those using traditional computers.

The actual percentage of your customer base using tablets may be small but clearly they are important… and growing.  A report by Pew Internet found that tablet ownership nearly doubled (from 10% to 19%) between mid-December and early January.

Let’s explore a few tactics you can employ now to not only learn more about your tablet audience but also make sure they have a positive experience when interacting with your brand.

Raise Your Hand (but don’t drop your tablet!)

From the email engagement perspective, most tablets will provide a web-based user experience similar to that of a traditional computer.  But that’s today and who knows what advances will be made and how engagement trends will shift.  Start identifying your tablet users now by adding an option to your site where a user can tell you that they use a tablet to shop as well as what kind of tablet they are using.  You can add this to a “How do you shop” option on your sign-up forms and preference centers where the choices could be: In-Store, Online, iPad, Android Tablet, iPhone, Android Phone, or Other Mobile Device.  Not only will you still start to gain insight into the tablet adoption rate of your customers but you can also analyze their historical performance to find open, click and conversion trends.  Even if you are not at a point to take action on this data now, it is important to start the collection process in advance.  This data may also help you to determine whether a tablet focused app would be worth the investment.

Email Creative Gets Tablet-ized

It is important to consider the unique tablet, smartphone, and desktop user experiences separately and, once you have completed that exercise, try to combine them.  That’s what your customers are doing.  Your emails are most likely being read on monitors, smartphones, and tablets.  This presents a challenge for your email design.  A mouse click is different from a “pinch and zoom” world.  Bronto Marketing Strategist, Emily Keye, previously posted several recommendations for email design for mobile devices. 

What changes for the tablet user is that they are viewing on a larger screen and usually in a portrait mode.  This pushes the fold of your email down so the above-the-fold area is more present.  View your emails on a tablet and alternate between portrait and landscape orientations to see how your message appears.  Pay attention to how this device shifts what is seen by the recipient without scrolling. 

Let’s take a look at a Zazzle email on the following devices:

The amount of content shown above-the-fold drastically varies by device.  If you know you are sending to a segment containing tablet viewing subscribers, make sure you have something interesting below the standard fold line.

This Zazzle email effectively communicates the “New Custom Products” offer within all devices.  It should be noted that iPad sleeves are part of the new custom product line so this should be great news for the Zazzle.com team! 

I also like how Zazzle has alternated the product shots in the secondary section of the email.  Having these large chunks of clickable space physically divided on each row will decrease the amount of fat-fingering misclicks that frustrate many mobile device users.

Another factor to keep in mind is image quality.  With smartphones, you need to consider the overall size of your email and images can impact download times.  Most tablets use wifi connections and will be able to handle the load.  Considering the numbers reported by Adobe, making sure the tablet population has something pretty to see can result in some serious conversions.  Make sure images can be “pinched and zoomed” and that the detail of those images is pleasing to the tablet holder.

With tablet usage increasing, the cost of tablets decreasing, and new tablet lines launching pretty much daily, this is the time to start paying attention to your tablet customers and collecting relevant data about them.  Based on Adobe’s report, these are valuable customers that should not be ignored.  

Have you launched any tablet specific strategies?  Share what has worked for you below.

Jim Davidson
Manager of Marketing Research