Key Email Strategy for Mobile-Responsive Web Design

How important is a mobile email strategy? Considering that more than 50% of most brands’ emails will be opened on a mobile device this year, a mobile email strategy is vital for success. Here we talk about how that strategy must go beyond simply the email design to ensure that your entire conversion path — from email to website landing page — provides a great mobile experience.

Mobile Email Strategy Is a Must Today

A recent study by the email-marketing firm BlueHornet illustrates why a mobile email strategy is a must for marketers today. In the study:

• 63% of respondents said they would make a purchase as a result of a mobile email.
• Over 80% of respondents said they would delete a mobile email that “doesn’t look good.”
• Only 13.5% of respondents said they would view an email later on a desktop that they couldn’t read on their mobile device.
• 30% of survey respondents said they would unsubscribe from a list if an email they received wasn’t optimized for mobile.

With Responsive Design, Emails and Web Pages Render Well on All Devices

As we covered in a recent NewsLever feature, responsive design is one important way to improve subscribers’ mobile email experience. Responsive design is when email or web landing page layouts are created with a set of code that is designed to render well on all forms of digital media — from tablets and smartphones to desktops and laptops. Not only does responsive design cater to the increasing number of mobile email users, but it also can be used to add stunning graphics and optimize for larger screens, as well.

Do You Need Responsive Design for All Facets of Your Email Campaigns?

Although responsive design is a great solution for creating a universally good user experience, it adds time and expense to email campaigns. Is it worth the investment? To help answer this question, a study reported by email-marketing consultant Tim Watson compared the number of email opens on mobile devices to the average overall open and click rates for email campaigns. He assumed that emails not optimized for mobile devices were providing a poor user experience; therefore, lower average clicks and opens would be seen in campaigns that had a high number of opens on mobile devices. The results showed that open and click rates didn’t vary much, regardless of the percentage of opens on a mobile device. In other words, high/low mobile open rates were not correlated to overall campaign open or click rates.

According to the results from this study, mobile devices are being used to view more emails; however, that doesn’t necessarily mean fewer people are opening and clicking on emails not optimized for mobile. So how do we explain the many reports of improved response rates when using responsive design for emails? It’s likely that a lift in performance rates could be due to putting extra time and effort into a new, more simply designed, high-quality email template.

Emails Are the Conduit to the Website Landing Pages That Convert

Keep in mind that no matter how well you’ve optimized an email message, the conversion process will quickly break down if your recipients click through to a website landing page that renders poorly and is difficult to navigate. The email serves as the conduit in the conversion process, while the website landing page is where the conversion or sale is made. So that’s where the investment in a responsive design would pay off the most.

If you know a significant portion of your subscribers are using mobile devices to read and respond to your emails, then responsive design for both your emails and your website landing pages is likely worth the investment. But since many consumers use multiple devices to read their emails, you can’t predict in advance what type of device they’ll use to open an email. Incorporating some mobile email optimization design strategies helps ensure emails can be easily read on mobile devices. These include:

• Simple and uncluttered designs
• Clear, concise copy and headings focused on the primary campaign objectives
• Bold and prominent calls to action.

Most important, be sure the conversion path from the email to the landing page provides a great experience for your desktop and mobile users alike. With responsive web design, one website can provide an outstanding user experience across many screen sizes and devices, catering to a rapidly growing number of mobile email prospects and customers.

Optimizing your email campaigns and website landing pages with mobile users in mind is necessary today. How can you do it in the most effective and cost-efficient way? FulcrumTech can help you answer that question. Email us or give us a call at 215-489-9336 to learn more.