Consider the following eight measures to ensure that your mobile-friendly email marketing campaigns are opened, clicked, and converted:
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Make use of mobile-friendly templates.
It’s vital that your campaigns appear fantastic in all situations to maximize open and click-through rates, and the easiest way to achieve so is to use mobile-friendly email templates.
For example, the first step in creating an email marketing campaign for Campaign Monitor customers is to choose an email template that has already been produced and tailored to look fantastic in every inbox and on every mobile device:
You can always elect to code your email to be mobile-ready if you have coding abilities (or a member of your team does), but this takes time and skill, which many lean marketing teams simply don’t have. Please visit our public template library if you’d like to try out one of Campaign Monitor’s email templates for yourself.
Virgin used a template from the library to focus on selecting the proper photos and copy instead of worrying about how it will render on every iPhone model, as shown in the image below. Before users even hit “send,” they can see a preview of how the email will look on desktop and mobile.
The content tiles comprising the various offers stack on top of each other when viewed on a smaller screen because the template is geared for mobile. This arrangement keeps the text and buttons at a manageable size, making it simple for subscribers to read the information and respond to the calls to action.
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Make your topic line shorter.
When it comes to creating an engaging subject line on a mobile device, you have a lot less room to play around with than you would be used to on a desktop.
While many desktop clients will display subject lines with up to 80 characters, our experience reveals that subject lines with more than 30 characters will be cut off when viewed on mobile devices.
The subject line is darker, stronger lettering on most devices in an attempt to stand out amid the other details in the email.
Because 30 characters isn’t much, make sure to draft a succinct, intriguing subject line that will entice your recipients to read the email.
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Create enticing preheader text.
When viewing an email from your inbox, the preheader is the summary that appears behind the subject line.
The pre-header text is an important factor for your subscribers to consider when selecting whether or not to open and interact with your campaign. This content is an excellent opportunity to “sell” your subscriber on the importance of opening and reading your email.
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Make the ‘From’ name more appealing.
When read on mobile devices, the “From” name is one of the most frequently displayed aspects of your campaign. It’s shown with larger text and a heavier font on most devices to help consumers immediately recognize who sent the email.
Given its prominence, it’s no surprise that 68 percent of Americans say the “From” name influences their decision to open an email.
So, how do you make this crucial component of your campaign more effective? The goal is to fit it to the expectations of your audience.
Consider what would happen if you signed up for a BuzzFeed email newsletter. Would you be surprised if you got emails from ‘BuzzFeed’ or ‘Dan Oshinsky’? Given that you signed up for these emails through the BuzzFeed website, it’s likely the former, even though Dan is the one who creates and sends them.
Aside from matching the “From” name to the expectations of your subscribers, you should also consider the number of characters you put in your “From” name, as most devices have a limit on how many they display.
Although it varies by device and screen orientation, keeping your “From” name under 23 characters will very certainly result in it being displayed in full, regardless of the recipient’s device or screen orientation.
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Make sure the image and text sizes are in proportion.
According to research, the average time spent reading a newsletter after it is opened is only 51 seconds.
Given the human brain’s short attention span and the fact that visuals are processed 60,000 times quicker than text, including appealing graphics and visuals in your email marketing can be a powerful method to deliver your message.
When utilizing photos in ads, though, keep in mind how they will seem when downsized to fit on a small mobile screen.
The majority of the text in the image has been unreadable because it contains a substantial quantity of information and has been compressed to fit the mobile screen.
While adding photos in your ads can be an effective method to communicate your message, you must consider how they will appear on a mobile device if you want them to have the greatest impact.
The above example also emphasizes the significance of using as little copy as possible in the email body. On a small screen, the amount of text becomes virtually illegible.
If your email campaign contains too much text, it will become too long to read, especially when viewed on a mobile device, and your subscribers will lose interest. Assume that your reader will browse through your email at least once, if not twice, before going on to the next one.
Instead, take a page from Freshbooks’ playbook when announcing their Expense Import functionality.
They delivered a short announcement campaign with a concise synopsis of the announcement and a call to action to learn more, rather than a long, text-heavy email explaining all the features of the new feature.
Subscribers will be directed to a page on their website where they will find more information on how the feature works and how they can get started.
Freshbooks was able to get the main idea through fast and easily by keeping the email copy short, while also making it easier for individuals who wanted more information to go through and get it.
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Extra-large buttons for extra-large fingers
The average size of an adult index finger, according to a recent MIT research, is between 1.6cm and 2 cm, which converts to 45 x 45px and 57 x 57px on a mobile device.
With your readers’ fingers taking up so much screen real estate, the worst thing you can do is ask them to convert by clicking a tiny link in your email.
Instead, make it easy for subscribers to click through by using large, well-contrasted call-to-action buttons in your email marketing.
The call to action button they’ve used here is large enough for readers to click, and the fact that it’s placed off from any other clickable elements helps guarantee that users don’t click the wrong link and end up somewhere they didn’t intend to go.
If you use Campaign Monitor, you can just drag and drop buttons into your email and modify them with whatever text and colors you like.