Perceived wisdom (and hard evidence) tells us that increasingly emails are being read on the move. Many sources suggest that around 70% of email traffic is now accessed on a mobile device – a smartphone or tablet.
And yet, many marketers are not optimising their eshots for mobile. This inaction can cause extreme dissatisfaction amongst recipients and encourage them to hit the delete button.
Whether you opt for mobile adaptive or mobile responsive format (and there are several significant differences) it is absolutely crucial to have a platform which automatically alters the layout of the email depending on the size of screen on which it is being viewed.
For example, your desktop view might have a two- or three-column layout which would automatically change to single column when viewed on a smartphone. Images can automatically resize for clarity and impact.
It’s not just layout though. By their very nature, people reading emails on mobile devices are usually on the move. It is important to make it easy for them to read the email by breaking it up with paragraphs, headings, bullet points and, possibly most important of all, prominent Calls to Action.
Sometimes, we marketers get so bound up in our beautiful prose and sexy imagery we forget to ask the reader to so something – go to the website, give us a call, refer a friend or whatever the objective of the eshot is. (You do have an objective, don’t you?)
This is even more important in an eshot being viewed on mobile. The reader won’t wade through lots of verbiage to get to the point. Tell them loud and clear what they should do next. And, why
The summary is – consider your reader and make their life easier. Create content in a format and volume which can be absorbed quickly and clearly. Then, tell them what to do next and provide a big, friendly <click here> function to activate.
Then, with lots of careful work and a large slice of luck, your objectives will be met. And your readers will be happy.