How to Optimize Your Email Marketing for Mobile Readers

HubSpot reveals that a significant 64% of small businesses leverage email marketing to connect with their clientele, and nearly half of smartphone users show a preference for receiving business communications through email. The effort you put into crafting the text and overall content of your marketing emails is crucial. Yet, without an engaging subject line or compelling opening sentences, there’s a high chance your emails will go unopened. This challenge is intensified when emails are viewed on mobile devices.

Chris Baggott once said, “Not viewing your email marketing as content is a mistake.”

In the mobile-centric world we live in, several barriers prevent your emails from being effectively delivered to and displayed on smartphones. From issues with opening emails to unreadable content and blocked images, navigating the intricacies of email compatibility with iOS and other mobile platforms is essential. Here’s a deep dive into some realities about email marketing in the mobile domain.

Why Optimize Emails for Mobile Devices?

Statistics highlight the importance of optimizing email design for mobile users. Consider the following data:

• Mobile Email Opens:

Depending on your target audience, product, and email type, mobile email accounts for 26% to 78% of email opens.

• Consumer Behavior:

71.6% of consumers will delete emails if they don’t display well on mobile devices.

Ensuring that your emails look good on smaller screens is crucial for engagement.

• Mobile Reading Environment:
• 44.7% of email opens occur on mobile devices, making it the most popular reading environment. This data comes from the 2021 State of Email by Litmus and highlights the dominance of mobile usage.

A Strong Introduction Is an Attention-Getter

55% of emails are opened on a mobile device. This is a nearly 600% increase in the last five years. This means that if you’re not optimizing your email for cell phones, your email is unlikely to be read. Even if only a third of your customers read your full email, 100% of them will see your email name, your subject line, and the preview text. Make those items smart and appealing. Those three things are visible when your message appears in an inbox, and it’s imperative you make these items “pop:”

• “From” Name: Is your audience more likely to open an email from you, personally, or from the brand? If you have a personal relationship with your customers, your name should be the name they see in the “from” line. If your brand is what they know (for instance, you have a large company with several locations), then the brand is what you should use. If you send emails from a “no reply address” you’re sending a message to customers that you don’t care enough to address their concerns.

• Subject Line: Is it compelling or interesting? Does it offer value? You get about 35 characters before a subject line is cut off on most screens. Put the most important information first. Also, understand that if your characters get cut off, something offensive may be the result. (If the last seven characters are cut off from the word “assistance,” what is your message conveying?) Search for your brand name and the keyword “email” on Twitter. You may be unpleasantly surprised that someone has tweeted an embarrassing subject line or preview text from one of your emails.

• Preview Text: These words are the first few words of the email – about 25 characters. Sometimes businesses use line at the beginning of an email saying, “If you can’t see the images, click on this HTML address.” Unfortunately, that will appear in the preview text, unless you use code to hide it in the email.  If that is too technical for you to do or optimize, move that text elsewhere. Leverage your text to make your customers feel good, or help them see there’s something valuable in the email. Be creative: “Here are the next steps,” “Thanks for all you do…” etc.

Consider the Device and Optimize Your Email

In crafting your email’s content, it’s essential to remember that many recipients might have images in their emails disabled. A clever workaround is the use of “styled alt text” which allows you to maintain a visually engaging layout with a mix of text and images, complemented by background colors. This ensures that even if images are not displayed, your email retains its appeal. Alternatively, including descriptions of the images through coding provides context and retains the message’s effectiveness.

Howard Gossage once remarked,

“Nobody reads ads. People read what interests them. Sometimes, it’s an ad.”

This insight holds true for email marketing as well. The content of your email must be engaging enough to capture interest, regardless of its form.

Further considerations include the legibility and visual appeal of your emails on mobile devices. Colors that are too faint or fonts too small can hinder readability on small screens. Additionally, the clarity of your logos and images is paramount. On high-resolution devices, low-resolution graphics appear blurry and detract from professionalism. Saving images at twice their intended size ensures they appear crisp and clear when viewed on any device, enhancing the overall quality of your email communication.

Create an email design that is responsive. That is, people can click on links designed to work on a desktop computer or mobile device. This, too, is accomplished with code. While it can be challenging, it can have huge payoffs. “Responsive email” gets better clicks and opens. However, if you use an image as a button, it will be blocked if someone has blocked images altogether. There are workarounds by creating a table cell with background colour, and providing a text link.

Enlarge Your Images and Pictures

Make things BIG. That will make them much more visible. Bear in mind, iOS on a mobile device will turn frequently-used terms (like calendar dates) into blue and underline them. If you have words like that against a black or blue background, they won’t be readable. (Once more, you can turn off those things or change their colour through the use of code.)

Here are some expert recommendations for maximizing your email images for mobile:

• 22 pixels for headlines
• 16 pixels for body copy
• 44×44 pixels for buttons
• Using “tappable” touch targets
• 40 pixels per space – give room between tappable items
• Use 13+ pixel font (or iOS will change it and possibly create problems)

Make Sure Your Website Is Ready for Prime Time

Ultimately, make sure your landing page is optimized for mobile devices. If you send people to your website and it looks horrible on a cell phone, the user’s positive experience ends.

If you need help improving your emails and working on code to optimize your customer mobile experience with your communications and website, find code professionals who can assist and help build your business. And if you’re looking for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to get more traffic on your site, call us at LocalSEOsearch.ca. Our team will get you the attention you deserve.