Rethinking Mobile Email

   email / email marketing / email templates / mobile / mobile trends / user interface      Posted on August 6, 2012 by Amy

According to MailChimp, 40% of email was read on mobile devices in the 3rd quarter of 2011.  eConsultancy reports 27% of emails are opened on mobile devices, up from 20% earlier in 2011. While their estimates differ, both studies agree that this trend is growing as people increasingly read emails on the go.

In an effort to improve the effectiveness of emails on mobile devices, we evaluated different types of emails to see how they rendered.  And we found a number of challenges:

• Image-heavy emails where the content is blocked altogether
• Newsletter-formatted emails where the text is split across columns and difficult to read
• Text-only emails where the messaging is tiny and difficult to read

We wanted to get a sense of how this trend was impacting our clients.  So we measured it.  And we found that for one of our clients nearly 36% of their email opens were on mobile devices - right in between the MailChimp and econsultancy estimates above.

So we developed a mobile responsive email template that incorporated the following:

• Larger text for easy reading
• One column layout for easy scrolling
• Removed images to avoid blocking

The new format dramatically improved the recipients’ experience with the email, making it easier to read, scroll and click through.

Next up: Mobile landing page!