4 Simple Ways to Supercharge Your Emails for Mobile

By SproutLoud | Brand-to-Local Marketing Solutions

I still check email on my desktop, which makes me an endangered species.  When looking at multiple sources, it’s easy to see that about half of all emails are now opened on mobile devices.  Our partner ExactTarget put the average at 48% last September.[1]  This is an important nuance because it affects email marketing, which is a great local marketing tool that’s inexpensive, effective, and leaves a good analytic trail.

A recent study published on MarketingProfs showed that the average email Open Rate was 17.1% while the average Click-Through Rate (CTR) was 2.3%.  The interesting thing the study divulged is how much more effective businesses in the top performing quartile are with their email marketing when compared to the average; those in the top quartile enjoyed a CTR almost four times that of the average, 8.8% compared to 2.3%.[2]

What is causing that big gap between top performers and the rest of the pack?  Lots of things, but one principle factor is that many brands have been slow to optimize their email marketing for mobile.  Sounds crazy that large brands wouldn’t do this – yes – but it’s the reality.  Let’s jump into the 4 simple ways your brand can optimize email for mobile and thus push up towards that 8.8% CTR number.

1. Have a Clickable CTA – A clear and clickable CTA is attractive to mobile users that are accustomed to clicking through mobile sites where content, offers, etc. are chopped up into bit size pieces.  If the CTA is image based use a 44 X 44 pixel image, if the CTA is text based use bold or slightly larger font.
2. Write Content for Scanners – I am not talking about the all-in-one on your desk, but instead people who scan content as opposed to reading it.  The elements are a good opening hook sentence, clear bold headers & sub-heads, and bullet points.
3. Ensure a Mobile Ready Landing Page – The landing page where users are forwarded when they click through the mobile email has to be mobile ready too!  It should be a natural follow on from the email (think colors, branding images, logos, etc.) and have all the relevant CTA pathways (think purchase, store visit, click-to-call, share information, website visit, and continued research.)
4. Trigger Your Emails – This last one is not exclusive to mobile email, but it is so important I just had to throw it in here.  Triggering emails based on dates important to users or user behavior, has been shown to double open rate and CTR.

Implement these simple practices and watch emails opened by mobile users crawl up a few percentage points.

[1] ExactTarget, Email Open Rate on Mobile Devices Tops 48%

[2] MarketingProfs, Email Open and Click-Through Rates: Benchmarks by Vertical