So now we have something else to read emails on – the Apple Watch has arrived and the Smart Watch era is well and truly here!

So is it a smaller iPhone strapped to your wrist?  Kind of.  It’s basically another device that notifications are pushed to and that includes texts, tweets, Facebook messages and emails.

What are the benefits of such a device?  Well if you love the sound of a ping notification then you will love this.

But what we’re more concerned about is how emails will render on this watch.

You MUST Create Plain Text Emails

Apple Watch will detect linked images in an email and will automatically display a plain text message. So ensure you always build a plain text message as this message will appear “This message contains elements Apple Watch can’t display. You can read a text version below”.  By using Campaignmaster platform you will have the ability to launch multi-part emails (server smart email) so as long as you create a text version in your email campaign, Apple Watch wearer will receive the text version.

The End of “View Online” Links?

You will be familiar with the ‘View Online’ link at the top of emails but over time this will be replaced by “View on iPhone”. This is because when a message is sent to the Apple Watch which has the text version missing, the following warning message will be displayed “The full version of this message isn’t available on Apple Watch. But you can read it on your iPhone”.

Use Pre-Header Text

So although you will be presented with lengthy warning messages to read a text version, the pre-header text will still display so it’s more important than ever to include this at the very top of your HTML email. Text versions get a raw deal sometimes, they’re not always easy on the eye but now more than ever they should be used to provide immediate value to the reader.

Tracking

Us marketers love analytics, it’s crucial in developing our emails further to perform better but with the Apple Watch, open tracking is not possible. This is because open tracking requires a 1×1 tracking image loading and these tracking pixels are not shown or loaded. But with Campaignmaster you are able to putting tracking on text version links – handy!