'Tis the Season for Email Design Optimization for Mobile Devices

The Holidays are quickly approaching. Are your emails optimized for viewing on mobile devices?

According to InsightExpress’ Mobile Consumer Research, 45% of smartphone owners anticipate that at least some of their holiday shopping will be done via a mobile device. 38% of these shoppers anticipate spending between $100-$300.

Now is the perfect time to make a few easy tweaks to your email designs to ensure that they are optimized for mobile devices, in time for the busy Holiday season.

When I discuss optimizing email message designs for mobile devices with my clients, I find that the most common response is: “I don’t want to change what is working for the majority of my subscribers who are viewing my message on bigger screens and I don’t have the time and resources to create multiple versions of the same message.” I totally get it. However I believe that “redesign” doesn’t have to be all or nothing. You can make changes that help mobile email readers and don’t hinder email readers on laptops and desktops.

Here are a few suggestions for creating an email design that is clean and clear enough to be read on smartphones while also looking good on laptop and desktop readers.

1. Shorter is better: Avoid using long subject lines. When I look at my mobile device I can usually see between 4 to 6 words of the subject line. Make sure that the most important content is at the front of the subject line. Don’t be redundant by repeating your from name in your subject line, you’re just wasting space. Pre-header text can help too. Once the email is opened, a long subject line can push the main message even farther down an already-small mobile screen. Keep email and landing page copy brief too. Remember, brevity and simplicity have always been essential to emails, and mobile only serves to reinforce that further. Stick to fewer words, shorter sentences and be direct. Make sure you write in a large, clear font. What is becoming the standard recommendation for mobile is 14-pt for body text and 30-pt for headlines. At that size for a headline, the less words you use, the better.
2. Watch your weight: Mobile internet speeds are slower than desktop connections, so try to keep your emails light. Some mobile email clients will require an additional button press to download the rest of the email when file weight is too big. The optimal email weight for mobile is being recommend at 20kb or less, and while that may not be a realistic goal for most marketers, the more you can slim down the file weight, the better. Also, don't neglect your text-only versions of your emails. Not only for those viewing on a laptop or desktop that have images/html turned off, for mobile it's also just as important. With limited space on mobile device, some users opt for text only versions. Make sure these versions are perfect: the text matches your html version, use compelling marketing copy to describe promotions/products/images that the user can't see, and make sure the CTA (Call to Action) is clear and the URL appears in it's entirety.
3. Plan for fat fingers: This might be the biggest new consideration for email designers. You need to accommodate for how fingers are going to navigate the clickable areas of your email on a smartphone’s touch screen. There are many schools of thought when it comes to the pixel size of clickable areas. What may be more important than the actual size of the area is how much padding you allow around that area. Somewhere in the range of 10 pixels between clickable items should give you enough leeway for fat fingers. What this means is you may have to get comfortable creating larger button areas than you are used to and giving them all a lot of breathing room.
4. Scalability: Optimize your email and landing page widths to be more mobile-friendly. Most smartphones have screens between 320 and 480 pixels wide. The standard width for emails has hovered around the 600-pixel range for a while. Make sure that you are utilizing the view port metatag which is simple code placed in the HTML header that enables some smartphone browsers to automatically change the dimensions of the email to accommodate the smartphone’s table size and text size. Rather than try to cram a lot of information towards the top of the email, you’ll need to think about directing your reader down through the content. One method to handle this is to think about stacking your information into related and easily scanable blocks. By going with a single column, your content will flow logically and you won’t have to worry as much about distortion.
5. Don’t stop at the inbox: Mobilized emails need mobilized landing pages and a mobile-friendly website. The more mobile-friendly these pages are, the more likely subscribers are to click through again. In many cases, your email will click through to a custom landing page, which of course, will need to look good on a smart phone screen as well. A lot of the same considerations above apply, though you will probably be working from a larger starting point for a web page layout. Don’t forget about Flash animations; they aren’t going to work on an iPhone. Remember, keep it simple.

Whether it is a time sensitive email promotion or just the convenience of making a purchase while sitting on the couch, mobile devices are becoming a vital part of online shopping. Make sure that when a subscriber pulls out their smartphone this holiday season, your email is clearly viewable and easy to access in their inbox.

Will your emails be optimized for mobile viewing in time for the holidays?

Emily Keye
Marketing Strategist at Bronto
@emilykeye