Personal technology is here today, updated this afternoon and out-of-date tomorrow. At least it seems that way. By some estimates, as of this year, 80% of email users are reading their email on smartphones. Therefore, if your email marketing doesn’t have a responsive design that adapts to smartphone-size screens, you’re wasting your time and effort. After all, a great email with a super offer that can’t be read is no better than a bad email with nothing to offer that gets ignored.
For Marketers, optimizing email for mobile devices generally involves:
Shorter subject lines In the desktop inbox, you’ve got more breathing room for the subject line (maybe up to 60 characters), but you’ve got half that space or less on a mobile device. Be brief. Be compelling. Actually, those few words in your subject line are critical to the success of your email campaign. The subject line acts as the headline for your email, and you need a good headline to get the email opened. Thus, your subject line has to be seen for it to act as your headline.
Mobile-friendly design. When you do get a click to open, the experience should be an easy one from there for your customer. Photos in a streamlined design should be sized right to load quickly on a phone or tablet. Also, single-column formats are easier to read on mobile.
Clickable links. If you do get someone to read your email, make it easy for them to respond. Increase the size and spacing of clickable links and call to action buttons. Customers get annoyed if they can’t click the link – and you don’t want annoyed customers.
Landing pages. Mobile-optimized landing pages are just as important. The click needs to take your customer to a page where content flows in a format that works for mobile, and forms are easy to complete.