How does your company email look on a BlackBerry?
Posted 14 August 2007 at 8:43AM by Simon Dickson in Email and communications
Maybe it's just me, but I'm seeing more and more people using BlackBerry mobile devices at the moment. Originally restricted to high-powered executives in extra-large corporations, we're starting to see packages aimed at smaller businesses. And the devices themselves have come a long way too: newer models, like the Pearl are much closer to 'normal' phone handsets, so you won't feel daft holding one up to your ear to take a call.
The main selling point about the BlackBerry is email. Much like a text message, as soon as a message arrives in your account's inbox, it gets 'pushed' out over the airwaves to your handheld unit. But therein lies a problem, which may affect you if you do any email-based marketing - a company newsletter, for example.
Although most BlackBerries come with a fully HTML-compliant web browser, the email application isn't particularly HTML-friendly. So when a typical BlackBerry opens a richly designed email newsletter, it ignores most of the formatting (particularly the more modern CSS-based coding), and renders the remainder in what can only be called an 'old school' style. Text marked up as bold appears *surrounded by asterisks*, for example. Even worse, links don't appear with underlining, as you're used to: instead, the destination URL is shown in full. If you ever link to something like eBay, which has famously long URLs, the results can be horrendous.
'Plain text' versions of glitzy HTML newsletters are unquestionably the poorer relation. All too often, they get ten seconds' attention just before pressing the 'send' button. Yes, most desktop email software is pretty good with HTML these days (although that's a whole other story...). But with the obvious exception of Apple's iPhone, you can't expect smaller devices to handle web pages quite so well.
Most email newsletter tools will let you send something called 'multipart MIME'. This is basically several copies of the same email rolled into one; the recipient's software decides which one it can handle best. BlackBerries are generally realistic: if a simple text version is available, they will usually prefer it.
My advice? Take the extra few minutes to ensure your 'plain text version' looks as professional as your full-on HTML version. Don't leave it to chance.
(If anyone has any experience with BlackBerries, either sending email to them, or receiving email on them - we'd love to hear about it in the comments below.)
Tags: blackberry, email marketing, email newsletters, html email
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Comments
2. At August 14, 2007 9:47 AM, Chris Hainey wrote:
I think Blackberries are both good and bad things.
The new Pearl, as you have correctly noted does look more like a normal phone, and the "qwerty" keypad design does take some getting used to.The email functionality is very good on the whole, but can be costly, especially overseas.
The other downside to them is the phenomenal amount of spam which manages to get through my online spam filter (usually at about 3am) which is particularly annoying since I use my Blackberry as an alarm clock.
So I reckon, they can be useful, but annoying as well as when not at work, I don't want to read work emails which are automatically pushed through.
I suppose though if I don't want my email all day every day, don't use my Blackberry.
3. At August 14, 2007 9:53 AM, Patrick Coach wrote:
Well...this certainly does wet my tastebuds! All this talk of fruit is making me quiver, from the knees to the top of my shins!
I don't get it though! for a technical weblog 'guru', you sure talk a lot about food! I think that you're talents would best be 'Served' (wink wink) on a Gordon Ramsey Weblog - at least then you can use expressions such as "this is F***ing great!" and "S***, i cant B****** my fat S***n** Bananas!"
Furthermore.
4. At August 14, 2007 4:28 PM, Alasdair McTavish wrote:
Surely it can't be difficult for the BlackBerry e-mail client to support standard XHTML and CSS? It's pretty much essential for desktop browsers and mail clients to support it these days.
There is nothing more frustrating than a portable device with a shody web browser or e-mail client. I have Opera Mini for my Symbian mobile and it's pretty disapointing!
5. At August 14, 2007 4:46 PM, Chris Paton wrote:
To be honest, I find that it's easier to read plain text emails as they have a better layout than the HTML ones that people make all fancy, and they tend to distract from what your trying to inform them about.
Also newsletter are also I have noticed, unless really well done just a glorified version of junk mail and I find companies just delete them after they read the first couple of lines of it.
But yeah, I agree, if you are going to do a HTML version, doing a plain reading version is a good idea.
6. At August 15, 2007 7:16 AM, Mark Thorpe wrote:
We have to all remember that portable email clients etc are relatively new in terms of mail clients as a whole....think back to the older versions of Outlook Express and the likes; these had much less functionality than modern day clients, and thus all we have to do is wait for progression in the field of portable apps...
7. At August 16, 2007 4:14 PM, Craig Donaldson wrote:
In reference to mark, i am to lazy to wait for things to progress! I like it now.
Blackberrys = good for ribena.
8. At August 17, 2007 4:22 PM, vera wrote:
Regarding Craig's addition - ribena is made from blackcurrants :o) ... as for Mark - I do agree, although many times tempted to buy a blackberry, to read my emails 'on-the-go', I much rather wait until the it becomes more progressed - & cheaper ...
9. At August 25, 2007 1:48 PM, Nicholas Gentile wrote:
The Blackberry XHTML browser to me is lousy. I have tried alternatives and Opera (Mini) is just brilliant. The Blackberry browser attempts too much to be a full browser and while rendering, forgets that the Processor is tiny, so can spend upto 15 minutes rendering a page. The Email Client is brilliant, but I have to admit still lacking in some basic functionality found on other Devices. All in all, I wouldn't trade my Blackberry for any other device. Ever.
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1. At August 14, 2007 9:19 AM, victor mass wrote: