The numbers are out and strictly in favor of mobile phones! A whopping 68% of netizens are opening marketing emails on their smartphones. If we talk about the most pitched-to lead group – the millennials – 73% of them prefer marketing communication over email.

So, it’s safe to say that your email campaigns must not only be mobile-friendly but also mobile-first. Designing campaigns, first for smartphone viewing and then other devices drives higher engagement and boosts conversions. Otherwise, you stand to experience a definite departure from high open and response rates.

Not sure what to do to devise mobile-friendly email campaigns? Worry not! Here is some hands-on expert advice to help you get it right on the first go.

Free Download

The Ultimate Guide to Website Traffic for Business

10 Ways to create engaging mobile-friendly email campaigns

Here are 10 tips for concocting email campaigns for mobile devices. Take notes:

1. Simplify Viewing by Using a Single-Column Layout

Image Source: HubSpot

Don’t worry; there’s nothing wrong with a spread-out multi-column layout if you’re designing an email to be opened on laptops or tablets. Those devices are meant for landscape-style viewing. But, this isn’t the case with smartphones.

Here, users view things quickly and do it in portrait mode. Therefore, your email must appear like a pillar text – everything condensed with correct spacing and imagery in one column. The more columns you design, the more your viewer has to scroll side-to-side instead of scrolling up and down, which comes far more naturally. And, when this happens, readers lose interest quicker than you think.

Avoid this under all circumstances, and allow viewers quick and easy readability by using a single-column email layout as shown in the picture above.

2. Write Shorter Subject Lines

If you’re confident you write crisp and concise subject lines, riddle us this – do you mean for computer screens or smartphone screens? Okay, do this quickly, open your inbox and tally how many characters appeared in your last subject line? If it was around 60, congratulations, your subject line is optimized. But, only for a desktop or laptop!

For a mobile phone, anything over 25 to 30 characters is simply too much. Why is your subject’s character length so important? It is the first thing your leads quickly glance at when they receive your email.

Their smartphone’s alert bar itself shows them the subject line, which, if not concise and impactful, will leave the email unopened. So, keep your subject lines within the 25 to 30-character limit when designing for smartphones.

3. Less is more for body content

Image Source: PayPal

Before you roll out your email marketing campaign, be sure to create consumable content for it. Think of writing a mobile email as designing a User Interface (UI) with a serious space crunch. You should ensure it is an easy-to-scan page. How? Here are a few tips for limiting your body content without compromising on quality.

• Never write a single block of text. Either break the paragraphs up or finish what you have to say in a couple of sentences. 
• A picture is worth a thousand words. Use images, videos, animated GIFs, or infographics to get your point across.
• If you must write a substantial amount of text, split it using bullets, headings and sub-headings.
• Embed easy-to-see calls-to-action (CTAs).

4. Provide Context Using Pre-Headers

Image Source: MailerLite

Leverage the pre-header space to inform readers of the purpose of your email. Doing this instantly builds context and piques their interest in opening your emails. While reading the pre-header, they can also glean through your subject line.

If used right, pre-headers speak volumes, thus optimizing your email for mobile users. Think of it as prime email space, and don’t waste it by writing sentences like “can you read this email.”

5. Don’t Use Images as Buttons or CTAs

Getting readers to click through your email is a very strategic process. Therefore, you must place buttons, also called CTAs, separately within the email. They must be easy to find, contain the right words to create a sense of urgency, prompting or compelling the reader to take the next action.

So, don’t make the mistake of choosing pictures as buttons that take them to another landing page for making a purchase. This doesn’t mean you don’t make your pictures clickable. A reader might want to click an image to enlarge it. Let them have this option, but keep your actionable CTAs irresistible, and separate from images.

6. Choose the Right Font Size and Type

Just because you’re designing for a small screen doesn’t mean you need a compact font. If anything, go beyond the usual size of 10 pixels, used by many of your competitor brands. Try incorporating font sizes that start with 12 pixels and go up to 14.

The logic at play here is simple. A bigger font size makes the entire email easier on the eyes. Know, what else helps with this? Using the right font type for higher legibility. So, roll out your emails in Helvetica, Garamond, Futura, Verdana, Arial, etc.

7. Draft Stand-Alone Emails

While it’s good to incorporate imagery in mobile-friendly emails, don’t rely on it. Because sometimes images and videos fail to load! And then your entire email effort ends up in vain.

Prevent this from happening by ensuring that your email makes sense even if the images don’t show. This doesn’t mean, write additional content. Simply modify the existing content keeping a stand-alone approach in mind.

8. Never Embed Navigation Bars

Remember, as long as your leads are only scrolling up or down; you have their attention. The minute you offer them side-to-side movement through navigational bars, you stand to lose them.

Besides, we’re talking about an email, not a website, so it’s best to avoid embedding this tool altogether.

9. Be Wary of the Email Size

While it’s excellent to embed images and GIFs that make mobile emails engaging, you must be wary of the entire file’s size. This is to ensure you have the shortest possible page load time. What is the ideal file weight?

Try not to go beyond the total weight of 1 MB for your mobile-friendly email marketing campaign. So, no extra high-resolution images or GIFs for better engagement from leads and subscribers.

10. Conduct A/B Tests

After incorporating all the above tips, formulate at least two email templates, and test them on different devices (Android and IOS) with different test batches. Track the engagement levels for each template, and choose the one that performs better.

Over to you

Perhaps you, too, receive several marketing emails on your smartphone each day. Some you like, while others you discard within an instant, even when they market stuff you need.

Next time, tally the marketing emails that engage you with the tips given above. Maybe, you like certain ones precisely because they end up following the tricks listed in this post. In the meantime, we’re leaving you with a great mobile-friendly email by Trello to get inspired!

Image Source: Sleeknote

Guest author: Rochelle Williams is a Senior Marketing Manager at Span Global Services. She comes with a strong marketing and advertising industry exposure of over 8+ years and has a deep understanding of SEO, SEM, SMO, branding, and allied marketing strategies. Connect with her on Twitter.