Not using responsive email design? The latest marketing studies say you can expect to lose out on 50% of potential website traffic from email marketing efforts.
Mobile is the number one platform for opening and reading emails, and the case for using responsive email marketing to reach mobile customers keeps getting stronger. A majority 52% of all email opens now happen from mobile devices, and among emails opened on mobile devices, those using responsive email design have a 21% higher click-to-open rate than the rest.
Despite that, few businesses are actively using responsive design in their emails, and just 1% is exclusively sending responsive emails.
Getting your email newsletter to display optimally on mobile devices is just as important as ensuring it can be read in long-standing email clients like Outlook and Gmail. 75% percent of consumers say they will delete an email that doesn’t render properly on their device, so ignoring responsive email design can have disastrous results. Not using responsive email design means missed customers, missed website traffic, tarnished brand image and reputation, and lost revenue. The message your reader takes away is that your business doesn’t care about the personal customer experience, and that your content marketing strategy is set to autopilot.
Does your brand need to hire new people and buy new email management solutions to produce responsive email designs?
The short answer is — yes. Not all email platforms support responsive design, including many of the most popular platforms for business, like Constant Contact.
Campaign management solutions like the one we use for our clients leverage responsive design code without limitations, and also offer responsive design templates in the newest software. Plus additional features that help you target and collect detailed information about your audience and their email viewing habits.
Even if your platform does support responsive design or you invest in one that does, you need to ask yourself if you have a team member(s) capable of designing and developing responsive emails, and knowledgeable of the new best-practices?
Responsive email may be one more reason to consider outsourcing your content creation, and the ability to custom code ‘mobile-ready’ email is something that is increasingly distinguishing one digital marketing agency from the next. You must check if your agency has enough expertise in mobile readiness and responsive design.
Mobile-ready email also comes with a new set of visual and user-experience preferences:
Smartphone screens demand that content be arranged vertically, and lateral scrolling is not a good practice for mobile design. Single column templates achieve this and optimize readability.
Mobile is the best argument yet for short copy: people don’t have time for lots of text, and responsive layouts simply don’t have the space. Content should be brief but impactful – remember, your readers are seeing your content “on the go” so your message must stand out against a lot of distraction.
To this point, consider where your readers go next after viewing your email. The Call-to-Action should be clear and visible without scrolling. The “action” your reader takes also needs to be able to be performed from the same device. So, for example, a landing page to “buy” or “learn more” must be optimized for that same device, and a “call now” button must be large enough to be easily reachable with the touch of a finger.
There are many other technical and aesthetic considerations for responsive email design, and the key to knowing what works for your unique brand and customers is test – and test again!
Liqui-Site develops exclusively responsive emails (the 1%!) and uses responsive design with almost 100% of our client website and marketing projects. And with new website clients we almost always recommend that they also update to responsive email so their content marketing campaigns support their newly designed responsive website. The goal is all brand content consistently displayed and optimized across all devices, all the time.
To learn more about Liqui-Site’s responsive email design (RED) capabilities or receive a sample responsive email on behalf of your brand, contact us.
