Responsive mobile email is here! More than 50 percent of emails are now opened on a mobile device, and that number is only going to grow. If your email marketing campaigns aren’t responsive, you’re missing out on a huge portion of your audience. In this blog post, I’ll discuss the why, how, and best practices for responsive mobile email. Starting with the basics of what responsive mobile email is and why it’s important. Then I’ll move on to how responsive mobile email displays and how to create responsive mobile email messages. Finally, I’ll give you some best practices to follow when creating your own responsive mobile email campaigns!
Responsive Mobile Email Design
Responsive mobile email is an email that adapts to the device it’s being viewed on. This means that whether your email is being opened on a desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone, it will always look great. Responsive mobile email uses a combination of fluid layouts, media queries, and flexible images to ensure that your email renders correctly on any screen size.
Importance of Using Responsive Mobile Email
The usefulness of responsive mobile email cannot be understated. In a world where over 50% of emails are opened on a mobile device, it is essential that your email marketing campaigns are responsive. If they are not, you are missing out on a huge portion of your audience.
Using responsive mobile email improves the experience of your subscribers, allowing them to interact on the go, or for that matter on other devices as well.
Leveraging responsive mobile email also helps you stay ahead of your competitors, while showing your audience your willingness to adapt to their needs (and lifestyle). Helping you to reach the maximum number of people possible with your email marketing campaigns.
How Responsive Email Displays
Responsive mobile email uses a combination of fluid layouts, media queries, and flexible images to ensure that your email renders correctly on any screen size.
Mobile First Design
One of the most important aspects of responsive mobile email is mobile first design. Mobile first design means that you design your email for mobile devices first, and then scale up to larger screen sizes.
The reason for this is that it’s much easier to scale up from a smaller screen size than it is to scale down from a larger screen size. Mobile first design also ensures that your email will look great on any device, no matter how small or large.
Responsive Design
Another important aspect of responsive mobile email is responsive design. Responsive design means that your email will adapt to the device it’s being viewed on. This means that whether your email is being opened on a desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone, it will always look good and remain usable.
Flexible Design
The last aspect of responsive mobile email is flexible design. Flexible design means that your email will be easy to read and interact with on any device. This is achieved by using a combination of fluid layouts, media queries, and flexible images.
Creating Responsive Mobile Email Messages
You want to create a responsive mobile email, but don’t know where to start.
Creating responsive mobile email can seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. In this section, I’ll walk you through the process of creating a responsive mobile email message. This won’t be a technical explanation, instead a general flow of how the process plays out.
The first step is to decide what kind of email you want to create. There are two main types of responsive mobile email: responsive and fluid.
Responsive mobile email uses media queries to determine how your email should look on different screen sizes. This means that your email will look different on a desktop than it does on a smartphone.
Fluid mobile email uses a fluid layout to make your email look good on any screen size. This means that your email will look the same on a desktop as it does on a smartphone.
Once you’ve decided which type of responsive mobile email you want to create, it’s time to start coding!
If you’re using responsive mobile email, the first thing you need to do is create a media query. A media query is a CSS rule that tells your email how to look on different screen sizes.
For example, you might have one media query for desktop screens and another for mobile screens.
If you’re using fluid mobile email, the first thing you need to do is create a fluid layout. A fluid layout is an email that uses percentage-based widths instead of fixed widths.
This means that your email will resize itself to fit any screen size.
Once you’ve created your media query or fluid layout, it’s time to add your content.
When adding content to your responsive mobile email, you need to keep two things in mind:
- Keep your content short and sweet. Mobile users appear to have shorter attention spans than those sitting at a desktop computer, so it’s important to keep your content concise.
- Use large, easy-to-read fonts. Mobile screens are small, so you need to use large fonts to make your email readable on all devices.
After you’ve added your content, it’s time to add your images.
When adding images to your responsive mobile email, you need to make sure that they’re responsive too. This means using image tags that have the width and height set to percentages.
For example, an image with a width of 100% will always fill the width of the screen, no matter how big or small.
And that’s it for the basic flow of creating a responsive mobile email!
Responsive Mobile Email Best Practices
Now that you know the general flow of how to create responsive mobile email messages, let’s take a look at some best practices for responsive mobile email.
Use A Single Column Layout
When it comes to responsive mobile email, simpler is better.
This is why you should use a single column layout for your responsive mobile email messages.
A single column layout is easier to code and easier to read on small screen sizes. Plus, it pretty much eliminates the need for media queries.
Keep Your Content Short And Sweet
Remember, mobile users have shorter attention spans than desktop users.
So, it’s important to keep your content short and sweet. Get to the point quickly and use large, easy-to-read fonts.
Use Large Fonts
Mobile screens are smaller, that’s why it’s important to use large fonts to make your email readable on all devices.
A good practise is to use fonts that are at least 16px.
Use Images Sparingly
When it comes to responsive mobile email, less is more.
This is especially true for images. Mobile screens are small, so too many images will make your email look cluttered and difficult to read (and it’s hard to see detail in a tiny image).
Also, make sure you use optimized images, so the file size is smaller, and the image can load faster. One of my favorite tools to use for this is TinyPNG.
Avoid Clustering Links
Mobile screens are smaller, so too many links will make your email look cluttered and – more importantly – also makes accessing (tapping) a single link harder!
So, avoid clustering links together and make sure that they’re spaced out evenly.
Subject Line Character Limits
Ideally, you’ll want to keep your subject line to around 50 characters or less.
This is because most mobile devices have a limited amount of screen space, and you don’t want to take up too much of it with your subject line.
Plus, mobile users are less likely to read long subject lines than desktop users.
CTA Size
Your CTA button should be around 44px wide or more.
Anything smaller than that will be too hard to tap on a small screen, and you can decrease your click through rate.
Single Column Layouts Work Best
As mentioned already, single column layouts are usually easier to code and also easier to read on small screen sizes. They also virtually eliminate the need for media queries (which results in less code and an email that displays faster).
Testing
Testing responsive email messages is important because it allows you to see how your email will look on different devices and screen sizes. This helps to ensure that your email looks good and is easy to read on all devices.
One of the best ways to test responsive email messages is by using responsive design testing tools. These are online tools that allow you to enter your email’s HTML code and then see how it will look on different devices.
Some of my favorite responsive design testing tools are:
Conclusion
Responsive mobile email is the best way to ensure that your email looks good on any device. And it will help you reach a large segment of subscribers that “traditional” email design cannot reach as effectively.
It’s important to use a responsive mobile email template. This ensures your email will look the same on a desktop as it does on a smartphone, so your CTA and subscriber engagement increases.
And finally, remember to keep your content short and sweet, use large fonts, and avoid clustering links together. These responsive mobile email tips will help you create responsive emails that look great on any device.
You can learn much more about responsive mobile email design, by visiting our Small Business Email Marketing posts. As well as find out more about responsive mobile email.