When composing an email, your reader’s experience should be your top priority – and unless you’re on the go, you most likely designed your email on a full-sized computer screen. But what about those reading your emails on their mobile device – is your email optimized for these users?
We’re living in a world gone mobile, and with everything conveniently placed in the palms of our hands and at the touch of our fingers, it’s a given that emails would follow. In fact, according to a 2016 study, 55% of emails are opened first on a mobile device. If your business has an email marketing campaign and you aren’t yet optimizing for mobile viewing, now’s the time to jump on the bandwagon.
Why Mobile-Friendly Email Is So Important
Mobile-friendly email is essential to connecting with the majority of your clients, but just how important is it? Let’s take a look at email marketing by the numbers:
- 86% of all emails are read on a mobile device [Kahuna Mobile Marketing Index, 2016]
- 75% of Gmail’s 900 million users access their account via mobile device [Google, 2015]
- 43% of B2C emails are opened first via mobile device [DDMA, 2015]
- 67% of mobile device users check their emails via cell phone, and 42% via tablet [BlueHornet, 2015]
[data compiled by ReputationLoop]
7 Easy Ways to Optimize for Mobile-Friendly Email
Keep Subject Lines Short
The amount of space mobile devices provide for subject lines can be trouble for even the most succinct writers. Though some email clients will display the entire text of your subject line, many will not.
Your subject line in an email will be similar to your headline, so you do not want it to be cut off. To ensure this doesn’t happen, you should try to keep your subject under 40 characters long. If this can’t be done, for one reason or another, try positioning the most important phrase of your subject in the first 40 characters. This will make sure that at the very least, your main point will be visible to the reader.
Design with Touch in Mind
The fastest way to lose your reader’s attention is to frustrate them. All it takes is one accidental click or slide, and your reader has now been taken to a page that they did not want to be on. Some will just go back to the previous page, but even those who do can become frustrated enough to close your email altogether.
It is important that your email is spaced out, making sure that your reader can easily navigate without having to avoid a ton of unnecessary links or clickable images. You should know what the goal of your email is and which links you absolutely need to help achieve that goal. Unnecessary links can lead to frustration for the reader.
A Single Column is Ideal
Keep your reader sliding vertically, not horizontally. On a mobile device, multiple columns typically appear condensed and mash-up your content. That or the content is spread out, forcing the reader to slide their finger every which way in an attempt to read everything in your email.
A single-column email will help to keep your design compatible on all devices, with all email clients. Most importantly, single columns help to keep your most important content front and center for the reader.
Make the Call-To-Action Obvious
Every email campaign you send out should have a goal. Otherwise, what is the point?
Your call-to-action is your way of letting the reader know what to do next. You want it to stand out as your main point of the email, so it should be big and bold on mobile screens.
Avoid using an image as your call to action. Some email clients won’t show images from unverified senders. Also if a user decides not to display images on their mobile device, then your call-to-action won’t be seen and your goal will not be achieved.
Increase Font Size, Decrease Image Size
If someone is struggling to read your email, simply put – they won’t. Nothing will make your subscribers click out of the email quicker than text that’s too tiny or a page that takes too long to load.
For better readability, use 14-pixel or 15-pixel font sizes to make your mobile-friendly email easy to see on smaller screens. Reduce load times and bandwidth by using smaller images. The easiest way to do this is to follow the old “600 pixels rule,” making sure that your images are compressed to a maximum of 600 pixels for faster page loading.
Test Emails on Multiple Mobile Devices
Before sending out your email, you should test it to make sure that all of your readers, no matter which device they check their inboxes from, will have no trouble viewing and reading it. With today’s technology, there are many ways to ensure your email is readable.
Many email providers will provide a testing feature that allows you to preview your emails from desktop to smartphone to tablet, such as MailChimp’s Inbox Preview feature that lets paid users test how an email will look on mobile devices on more than 40 different mobile clients.
If your email provider doesn’t have a mobile testing feature, you’ll have to do it the hard way. Create an email, send it to yourself, and check it on the smartphones and tablets at your disposal. Fix any problems you see, then use it as a template for future emails.
Focus on User Experience
People want things short and to the point. That goes for what they are reading and how they read it. Don’t expect your readers to give much attention to your emails if you haven’t made it easy for them to do so.
Remember to look at your email from the perspective of the reader. Would you take the time to read what you’re sending out? Did you make your point clear? These are questions you want to ask yourself before sending out any email.
Whether you’re just starting to ask yourself the crucial questions to consider before starting your own email marketing campaign or you’ve already got the ball rolling, it’s always better to have a little extra help from the pros. The Creative Click Media team is comprised of digital and email marketing experts who know just what it takes to craft mobile-friendly emails that get results. Contact us today to get started.
