Ignoring mobile is no longer an option if you’re communicating with customers and prospects via email, the communication method preferred by 70% of consumers. If you think you still can, consider this:
- mobile devices are the single most popular place for people to open email; multiple studies all place the percentage of emails opened on mobile devices between 40 – 50%, higher than any other single device
- opening emails is the most common activity done on a smartphone, even more than making an actual phone call
- different emails studies placed the percentage of online purchasers who engaged with or were prompted to shop from a mobile email at 38% and 56%
Meaning, your community wants to be contacted via email and they’re highly likely to be engaging with that email on a mobile device. However, as mobile email engagement increases, the clicks relative to opens (CTO) percentage on mobile is going down.
That’s not good.
Two Mobile Paths to Conversions
A recent Campaign Monitor email study presents some interesting results. A strong majority, 78%, of mobile click throughs occur during a reader’s first engagement with the email. However, almost quarter of mobile readers will opt to open the email a second time. Even though these “double tap” readers are far more likely to re-open the email again on their mobile device, those that re-open them on a desktop are 65% more likely to convert.
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What to make of this?
The high number of first-open click-throughs compared with the relatively low level of click-throughs on emails re-opened on mobile may be due to the quality of a conversion experience. Mobile emails that get it right and motivate to action get the click-through right away. Mobile emails that aren’t getting the mobile conversion experience right may get people to try a second time, but will result in a far lower click-through rate than those re-opening the email on a desktop for an easier conversion experience.
A poor quality mobile conversion experience would also explain why the overall decline in clicks to open rate on mobile.
Bottom line: If you treat mobile readers the same as desktop or webmail readers, you’re missing out on conversions from your emails.
How to Make Your Emails a Positive Mobile Experience
Remember – deleting an email is a form of “engagement” as well. And mobile readers are looking for a reason to delete your email. They already have too much to read. A vast majority of mobile readers will delete an email unopened if it doesn’t look good on their mobile device, if they don’t recognize the name of the sender, or if the subject line doesn’t motivate them.
So as you craft emails for opens and clicks, you need to address these areas:
- copy
- design
Limited Space Requires Concise Messages
The two most important areas for your mobile email copy are what readers will see in their inbox and what appears at the top of the email if they open it.
I’ve previously recommended that you always use an actual person’s name in your “From” field. This holds true to mobile email as well. Mobile readers have indicated that familiarity with sender’s name is a main influencer on whether they’ll open an email. In many mobile email clients, the sender’s name appears above the subject line, making it a critical player in getting readers to open your email.
Your subject line itself also has to provide strong open motivation and in only 20-40 characters. Keep it short, sweet, and specific. For example:
Flash sale – 50% off for 1 day only
Brand new class… Limited spaces
Many consumers sign up for email lists in the hopes of receiving discounts and special treatment from a company. So if your email is offering either, get that into your subject line.
As for the body copy in the email, what appears at the top of the email, including the first line of text, will impact whether the reader digs further. You have even less time and space to motivate readers to action here than in a desktop email, so don’t be coy.
The first line should present the one call-to-action this email is making (and it should be only one) that finishes what the subject line promised. Let’s continue with the flash sale subject line example:
Take 50% off all heirloom seed varieties in any online order placed before 12am.
In addition to the clear, single CTA text, place a CTA button at the top as well – but more on that under Design, below.
Design that Doesn’t Scare People Away
A recent email survey found that 87% of respondents said they’d delete an email or unsubscribe entirely from an email list if it didn’t display properly on their mobile device. If that doesn’t convince you of the importance in designing a mobile-friendly email – just stop reading.
For the rest of you, some of the design and layout recommendations for email generally also apply to mobile: Use your white space well. Make the copy scannable with headlines and bullet lists. But many designs and layouts that may work in a desktop email, don’t on mobile. Here’s a list of mobile design tips:
- Put a good CTA button at the top of your email with your first line. Let the motivated click through without having to scroll down. Check that your button is easily clickable with a finger; generally 44 x 44 pixels.
- Keep it all in a single column. Your space is limited enough without squeezing two columns of text next to each other.
- To that point: (1) Don’t make your readers scroll sideways to read. Keep the column width within 500-600 pixels. (2) Use fonts of at least 12 pixels for body copy.
- Readers will only see around 100 words mobile screen, so keep each paragraph very “snackable” – maybe around 150 characters.
Making Mobile Emails Happen
While your email service provider (ESP) most likely provides responsive email design to help make your emails work on mobile, you still need to write and design with mobile in mind.
You should also remember that the actual device and email client a reader is using on that mobile device impacts how your email displays. They all have different defaults, like whether they’ll display an image, and size constraints. So the pixel recommendations above are general guidelines, various device/reader combinations may have different optimized requirements. What this means is that previewing and testing mobile emails for different devices and readers is necessary.
If this all sounds like a bit work, it is. Although, when you consider the potential return on being the company that gets mobile email right and captures that growing audience before your competitors can, the ROI on the effort should make it all worthwhile.
How do you mobilize your emails to boost conversions? You can share your ideas below in the comments section.
Elisa Silverman is a B2B content writer with a background in law and technology, who’s spent a career helping diverse groups of people communicate well with each other.
