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The name of the game in marketing is engagement.
It does not matter if we are talking about marketing through social media, blogs, videos, or anything else. You need to truly connect with your audience or your efforts will never amount to much.
One area where this can be a challenge is with mobile email marketing. The unique nature of these devices has caused notable decreases in overall engagement.
3 Ways Mobile Design Affects Email Engagement Rates
If mobile email marketing is a priority, then you need to understand how design impacts your engagement rates. Otherwise, it is inevitable they will greatly suffer. You may even waste time and money on solutions that do not get at the actual root of the problem.
1. Mobile Engagement by Age
Although people use mobile devices for all kinds of things, email is dropping in popularity for certain age groups. This problem is especially prevalent among users between the ages of 13 and 24. The culprit seems to be messaging apps. Younger people prefer them over email, which may be drawing them away from the concept altogether. It is not a remotely close fight, either. This age group uses messaging apps eight times more than they do emails.
With that said, the largest age group (over 25) with the biggest purchasing power is still using email as one of the biggest communication channels. This is the demographic that most businesses target to purchase anything from travel to clothing.
With most retail brands’ target market using mobile email to purchase at such a high rate, they are pumping out mobile email designs optimized specifically on converting on mobile devices. Instead of businesses allocating large design teams to creating these emails from scratch, they are turning to email marketing softwares, like Campaign Monitor, to help create beautiful emails ready for any device. These tools come ready with pre-designed mobile templates as well as help optimize anything from the subject line to pre-header text that shows up perfectly in any mobile device.
2. Big Images Cause Big Problems
If you are successful at enticing a mobile user to click on your email, the next problem is that the message may load so slowly that they move on before ever seeing it.
For each second your recipient has to wait for an email to load, they are 7% more likely to lose interest. Though this problem exists across all devices, it’s significantly worse when the recipient is using a mobile device.
3. CTA Buttons Need to Be Fingerprint Size
Even if your email loads quickly enough to keep a recipient on the hook, you will not have much luck getting them to click your CTA if it was not designed for the person’s finger. Again, most people are just too busy to try multiple times.
According to a study done by MIT, the average index finger on an adult is 1.6 to 2 centimeters. That’s 45 to 57 pixels, so you’ll want to make sure you design your important buttons within these parameters.
Will Mobile Inboxes Completely Kill Engagement Rates?
While the above information may not seem to paint a very rosy picture, it is not hopeless. First, keep in mind that you do not have much of a choice. Mobile Internet use surpassed that of computers back in 2013. Furthermore, on average, mobile users spend more time on their devices than they do on computers. In other words, even if the picture looks dire, you have to commit to making the most of mobile email marketing because that is where your customers are.
That said, the good news is that responsive email design will give your messages a much-needed boost to the attention they receive. It is no small amount either: responsive designs increase email clicks by 15%. Companies have caught onto this, which is why email design use went up by 50% in 2016. Although it is not too late to do the same, you would be wise to join these businesses before your entire competitors do.
Therefore, the easiest way around the challenge of mobile inboxes is to invest in email software that provides you with responsive design templates. You can keep sending marketing emails as you’ve always done, but the software will ensure your mobile engagement does not suffer needlessly.
