There were some interesting discussions at BIMS about optimizing email for mobile, including a great session by my friends from Real Magnet. This is an important thing to watch because more and more people are reading (or at least triaging) their email on mobile devices.

My biggest concern is the next step — getting the recipient of the email to place an order on a mobile-optimized sales page. It’s my contention that very few people want to fill out an order form with one of those silly on-screen keyboards. Yes, I know that 13 year olds are experts with those things, but most publishers are not trying to sell to 13 year olds.

What’s the solution? I don’t know, but here are some ideas I heard over the last few days.

• Add an option on the landing page to “email this page to myself” so they can do it later on a real computer.
• Segment your list by how much data you have on the recipient. For the recipients where you have their name, address, etc., include that in the link to the order page (that is, send it as a query parameter in the link) so the recipient doesn’t have to do as much typing on the landing page.
• Add Paypal, Amazon 1-click, or some other easy checkout option on your landing page so the recipient doesn’t have to type much.
• Include a phone number (with click to call) so the recipient can place the order on the phone.

I’m not sure which is the best solution, but I’m going to try to test these.