7 Rules for Designing Your Email for Mobile Devices
More than ever people are using devices other than their home computer to check their email. Since you've been reading this post your customers have probably done something on their mobile device, either sent a text message, surfed the Internet, or checked their email. With such a large and captive audience, a big question arises; is your business addressing the needs of your mobile customers? There are many simple things you can do to make your emails more mobile-friendly, that is, make them look better on your recipient's mobile devices. If you have recipients who might be reading emails on their mobile devices, here are a few rules to consider when creating your emails.
1. Don't Make them Download the Rest of Message - Your message might get truncated if it is too big. A large file size may cause your recipient to be prompted to "download the rest of the message". Consumers are wary of downloading messages and frankly its just a hassle, so avoid large emails or you are running the risk of them not seeing your entire message or worse, deleting it.
2. Don't Make them Scroll - You will want to avoid having your recipient do a lot of scrolling. Attention spans are limited, especially when dealing with mobile devices. Make sure your key takeaways don't get buried at the bottom of your message.
3. Let them Know Who You Are - Make sure you include your logo at the top of email so you're recognized immediately. If you are a trusted brand your logo will give your message a better chance of being read. At the very least, even if the customers only glaces at your message, with your logo and name at the top, you'll have been exposed.
4. Click To View in a Browser - You'll want to have a link for them to click to view your message in a browser, however you might think about putting it somewhere other than at the very top of your email. Many mobile devices display the beginning of the email in the inbox so your recipients can decide if they want to click to the entire email or not. Including the link to view in a browser might take up some valuable, attention grabbing, space.
5. Make Your Email Lose Weight! - Smaller devices, smaller screens, the next step to making email suitable for phones? Smaller emails. Make your emails 500-600 pixels wide. The Admail.net Advantage Template labeled "White-Paper" is preset to 500 pixels already.
6. Let Them Call You - Include a click-to-call link if possible. The easier you make it for your recipient to contact you, the better.
7. Text Version is a Must - Make sure you have a text version of your emails in the event that your mobile recipients can only get text. Make sure you keep it short. Since emails usually have line breaks at about 60 characters and mobile devices 20 characters, you'll want to cut back on some of your copy and direct them for more information to your website.
Reaching all of your customers is your goal and email on mobile devices is only becoming more predominate. Follow some basic mobile guidelines and your email marketing campaign will be accessible to all of your clients, no matter how they check their inbox.