Email is changing. We all know that. Marketers are getting smarter with their data. Analytics are now the price of admission. Every component of an email marketing strategy needs to be informed by customer and campaign data. This includes understanding the devices that readers use to view their email.
Mobile represents one of email marketing’s seismic shifts. According to research from Litmus, they’ve seen an 80% increase in smartphone and tablet opens since January 2012. Asymco and comScore recently stated that of US consumers who use a mobile phone, 47% use a smartphone as their primary mobile phone.
This rapid rate of adoption doesn’t show any sign of slowing. And it means that it’s very likely that the person receiving your marketing message is reading it on a smartphone. So optimize for mobile. Here’s how to create a mobile-friendly email:
Design
Mobile screens are obviously smaller than desktop displays. Design your pixel width accordingly. For a mobile-friendly email, aim for somewhere between 320-500 pixels. Most mobile-only readers are in the 320 pixel range.
Images
Limit image size to 20k or less for each image. Text to image to ratio is still important with mobile-friendly email. Shoot for 60/40 text to images.
Call to Action
Use e a clear CTA button above the fold. Place it in the top 200- 250 pixels. Include an HTML text-based CTA to account for those users who disable images.
Pre-header
Use one line of pre-header text to succinctly outline your offer. It should be positioned so that prospects can read it before they’re prompted to download images. If you’re really savvy, the subject line will lead right into the pre-header for a seamless user experience.
Subject Lines
Avoid spammy words, and shoot for approximately 35 characters in length. Try to tie the subject line into your pre-header text.
Hopefully this brief look at the importance and design of mobile-friendly email was helpful. A second post on this topic will come in the next week. We’ll dig deeper into design and development considerations for the mobile crowd.
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