Why is Optimising Emails for Different Devices and Formats so Crucial?

At the start of 2017, we posted the top 5 points to consider with responsive email design. Fast forward 18 months’ and consumers have become more and more mobile when it comes to how they consume content online – including your essential business emails.

To ensure that the business emails you are sending out to your customers are as effective as possible, it is important that they are optimised for all devices. The proportion of people using mobile devices will continue to grow and the negative impact of receiving an email that doesn’t look good or is hard to read cannot be underestimated. The good news is you can avoid – or at least minimize – these issues using a good email service provider and good content design.

Here are our top five points to consider when optimising the email delivery experience for different devices:

1. Responsive design and content
   Are your emails responsive? (That is, can the email adapt the shape/content/visuals according to the email client it is being viewed in, be it Outlook, AppleMail or Gmail?). Keep your message clear and direct. ‘Less is better’ is a good strategy.
2. Formatting visuals and content
   Are the images inserted going to work well on all receiving environments? Have you addressed the ‘fingers and thumbs’ issue which means that people can actually click the images/links/icons easily? Tip; clickable links/icons and C2A’s should be at least 48 px square with 28px gaps to make it easy for people to click links on small screens. Keep your content and messaging short and sharp. It invites easier engagement.
3. Testing
   Have you tested the email with recipient email clients? Have you tested to see what the email will display like on multiple environments – or indeed what happens when an email is forwarded etc? Tip; the simple check is to test on common devices and email platforms around you. There are some great online testing tools available such as Litmus and Email On Acid.
4. Tracking/reporting
   Have you looked/reviewed your own sending platforms tracking/reporting function? Tip: A/B testing is the simplest way to measure for best performance. For a bit more information on A/B testing check out our blog post from March 2018.
5. Typical user scenarios
   Have you considered the impact of changes in user scenarios? For example, mobile devices now offer a low light feature which reduces ‘blue’ light typically used at night time. Tip: consider images that are not to affected by the reduction of /blue light’ spectrum. It will improve the C2A responsiveness.

In summary:

Optimise your emails, design for mobile first and think ‘responsive’.

For further information on how to ensure your business emails are optimised, or to just ensure your email communications are managed with best practice get in touch with the team at Cumulo9.