In this day and age all email should be designed with mobile in mind.

Over half of all emails are read on a mobile or tablet. 80% of emails are deleted especially if they don’t load. That’s the equivalent of 40% of your whole database and 40% of your potential revenue or white paper downloads, event registrations or survey participants getting lost.

Your mobile email marketing design should be instantly recognizable and reflect your brand and consistency is crucial. Having a strong set of Brand Guidelines can really make a difference in creating eye-catching, content rich emails with a purpose and positive results. Here are our 5 quick tips to make sure you are heading in the right direction:

SIZE MATTERS

With 51% of all emails opening on smart devices, size really does matter in email design. The safe width of design is shrinking. Many emails are designed at 750 pixels wide or more, despite best practice always being around 600. This advice has become more important than ever. 600 pixels wide should now be seen as a maximum width size rather than a guide.

STACK YOUR CONTENT

Don’t buy into the myth that you need to get everything above the fold. Instead go and look out of the window and if you can see anyone in the street, chances are they are looking at their smart device. Watch their right hand, what is their opposable digit doing? Exactly what evolution had in mind for it, scrolling a touch screen! So now you’ve trimmed the width of your email, make it taller to get all your content in rather than force it above the fold. Give the thumb its workout!

SIZE MATTERS (PART 2)

Have you ever squinted at a backlit screen to try and read a 9 point font? We rest our case! Font size in emails is getting bigger. It is now 13 or 14 points and gives your recipient a better user experience, subsequently they are more likely to engage your email and take your call to action.

BE SOCIABLE

Nobody clicks the social buttons in your emails because you don’t give them a reason to. So, include links to specific interesting social-only content, thus giving the user cause to click and hopefully share.

INFORMATION OVERLOAD

Before you start with your email design, think about what you are trying to achieve. Including everything and hoping at least one thing catches their attention doesn’t work. All that noise is information overload in an already very crowded inbox. Decide what the message is, what the products are (one to three maximum) what the goals are and then design accordingly. We have seen clicks increase for clients who went from 20 products in one email to 4 or 5. More products do not mean more clicks. It just means more confusion.