Unless you have been living under a rock, you have probably heard at least once recently how important optimizing for mobile is. The simple fact is that mobile has become the dominant method for people to interface with the internet, which includes emails. While many articles have focused on the need of optimizing websites, today we are going to cover the 4 reasons you need to optimize your email marketing for mobile.

In fact, we feel that optimizing your email marketing for mobile should be your top priority for 2016 if you regularly use email marketing.

4 Reasons to Optimize

  • Mobile Rules – In 2015 mobile overtook desktop browsers for reading emails. Various statistics showed by the end of 2015 that 55% to 60% of all emails are opened on smartphones or tablets. That majority is important because it means that just over half your customers are likely to be reading your email marketing via a mobile device.
  • Click-Through Rates – Current statistics show that 35% to 40% of total click-through occurs on mobile devices. While not as powerful as the number of reads, that is still a large percentage of business.
  • Delete It – Approximately 75% of people will delete an email without reading it if it is not optimized for mobile. One study shows that number as high as 80% for emails the primarily utilize images.
  • Unsubscribers – The same studies showed that 30% of the people who open non-mobile friendly emails will unsubscribe from the list altogether. That is something you never want to have happen as each subscription takes a decent amount of work to obtain on average.

Those are all very powerful numbers and you owe it to your customers and yourself to not find yourself on the wrong side of them.

Tips to Optimize for Mobile

So what can you do to make your emails mobile friendly?

  • Short Subject Line – Mobile devices show about 25-30 characters of a subject line, which is about half of the typical desktop inbox. While tablets show slightly more, at 41-50 characters, it will depend on your demographic as to what you decide to limit yourself to. The subject line should be poignant, while staying short and sweet.
  • Pre-Header Text – Pre-header text is something many people aren’t aware of, but works phenomenally for mobile optimization. It is the first line of the copy from your email, which typically shows right below the subject. Think of this as the “2” in a good 1-2 punch you want to use to persuade your reader to open the email.
  • To-the-point Copy – Don’t waste time – get right to the meat of the matter. People on a mobile device not only have a shorter attention span, but they are often also trying to multi-task so you simply can’t beat around the bush. Everything needs to be quality, relevant, and compelling.
  • CTA’s Up Front – Calls-to-Action should be near the top of the email so they know exactly where to go from the beginning. Buttons should always be large enough to be easily clickable.
  • Careful with Images – Images can always be used, but a lot of thought needs to go into them. Not only might users have “images off” which can affect how your layout appears, but you also need to consider what the layout will look like on a smartphone versus tablet versus desktop to ensure it fits well and loads quickly. Images should support text and not the other way around.
  • Test Like Crazy – The best way to ensure that people will be accepting of your email marketing is to test it exhaustively. That means using various devices such as an iPhone, Android device, Windows phone and tablets along with various email apps and clients. This does take some work up font to understand format and limitations, but it pays off in the end.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is that mobile usage has grown consistently and now has overtaken desktops for the method the majority of people read emails. The 4 reasons you need to optimize your email marketing for mobile outline exactly why every business needs to be focused on mobile first if they want to maximize their email marketing campaigns effectiveness.