Mobile Friendly Email MarketingNowadays, more and more people are reading emails on their phone. A report by Nielson finds that 53% of mobile users check email on their phone more than once a day. However, many businesses aren’t ensuring their mobile campaigns are indeed mobile friendly.

According to MarketingTechBlog.com, “80% of consumers find reading marketing emails on their mobile less easy than on a PC.” So, instead of wasting the great opportunities mobile can bring to your e-mail marketing efforts, consider these 5 tips to make it work for you and the customer.

Overall Design

While there are a number of considerations to make when preparing your emails for mobile, the overall design is of utmost importance. Just like your mobile website, it’s the most minor aspects of the email that can make the biggest difference.

  • Links: Make your call to action clickable, and be sure it’s big enough to “click” with a fingertip.
  • Columns: If doing an all mobile campaign, be sure to stick with one column. Otherwise, to ensure your emails are still friendly for both computer and smartphone utilize responsive web design, otherwise known as media queries to adjust for screen size.

Do Your Testing

While you’ll have customers receiving emails on their phones before you get a chance to test, it’s worthwhile to do so regardless. Test more than once to see where there is need for improvement, what seems to be getting clicked, etc. This will be crucial to ensure your mobile, computer and tablet customers are all getting the same great emails.

Short and Concise

Your mobile email readers are on the go; sitting in line at the bank, stuck in traffic after work or on lunch break at work. To be sure that they are still reading each email you send their way, you want each and every one to be created with focus and intent – from styling to wording.

  • Simple versus attractive: Mobile customers don’t have much room on their screen. Instead of including dozens of slow loading images that lengthen the email, keep your design simple.
  • Subject line: Most mobile phones will only display the first 5-6 words, so think of it as a Tweet – keep it short and simple but enticing.

Consider the Fold Change

On a mobile phone, your customers don’t see as much on one screen as they do on a computer. And, when your customer can’t see the entire email in one shot, they need more motivation to continue scrolling though. While some emails will inevitably require more text, keep your heavy weighted content on top so you can talk them into scrolling through.

Basic Code Changes

Finally, it’s important that you consider the back end of your design. If your customers are getting the bulk of your email on mobile, you want them to still gain from the content. To do this, you’ll need to modify your coding slightly. For example, Blue Train Mobile suggests, “Set inline CSS for all stylings, and NEVER use CSS shorthand.”

With the number of smartphone users growing each and every day, it’s more and more important that your emails are ready for mobile reading. With a few small changes and considerations for the various formats your emails can be read on, you can be sure to get the most from your campaigns on any device.

About The Author:

Jessica Sanders is an avid small business writer touching on topics that range from social media to direct mail marketing and business telephones. She is a professional blogger and web content writer for ResourceNation.com.